Geen categorie, Project

Vertical Garden

Posted by goodbetterben on

Design

After a trip to Singapore, where I fell in love with the city state’s combining of concrete AND green I stumbled upon a video with Patrick Blanc, I was attracted instantly to the idea of combining plants with an urban environment. Why? Well, I worked in a school designed by Wiel Arets. If you click that link you will see that the building is basically a concrete box. Moreover, ventilation wasn’t always great.

I reckoned I could tackle a lot of things, whilst broadening my building horizons. What followed was a steep learning process. Particularly one that I couldn’t have gone on with without the help of one of my students.

Tools and Materials

During the building of these walls I used the following tools:

  • Japanese pull saw
  • Pocket hole jig
  • Battery powered drill
  • Stanley box knife
  • Bosch drill bit set
  • Tape meassure
  • Buckets

Materials I used were as follows:

  • Pond liner. Yes the stuff to put at the bottom of ponds. Anything less sturdy or waterproof is asking for some serious trouble.
  • Rot resistant Isolation felt. The one I used isn’t for sale anymore. Also, I would, in hindsight, go a version that seems a lot easier to manage such as something like this.
  • Wood to build the frame.
  • Garden hose
  • Pump that is strong enough to pump up water to the desired hight. This pump worked really well, but do wait for a good deal.
  • Tape
  • Screws and washers
  • Wire
  • Plants
  • Wood for decorating the frame
This is the frame of the green wall. It would feature a bin to catch the water again and plenty of space to place plants.
Never try this.
Honestly, the idea that this would hold water for an extended period is rediculous. The pondliner is the only viable option to go with.
So this is my first, horrible attempt to make this work. The pump was too weak and couldn’t recirculate the water up to the top. the water bin was leaking. Basically these plants died a horrific death. I regret it, stil.
This was the second attempt. Now with the pump as listed in the material section of this article.
What you can’t see in these photos is that I also installed a pump, on a timer, with a hose that lead up all the way to the top. The hose had holes punctured in it to let water out.
I installed some decorative plating to add more flair. More flair is always better.
And just let it grow for a while.
Whilst also setting up a second plant wall. To be honest, it got out of hand.
But the plants did quite well until the pandemic hit and my tiny classroom was too small to teach in.
But look at those beautiful plant. I sometimes miss this madness. After all, it was a simple system, with relatively few bells and whistles. Especially with the premade sacks it could be a blast to build.

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