Benefits of vertical gardening
Vertical gardening is a pretty easy way to enjoy the aesthetics of plants in a confined space.
Vertical gardens grow tall along with facades and interior walls, creating a stunning sight where it would otherwise be impossible.
These gardens, or green walls, are characterised by living plants. The design and purpose of vertical gardens are multi-layered — from the intricate design that overshadows surrounding buildings and is set up solely for aesthetics to smaller gardens designed to provide locally grown food to the surrounding community.
Urban gardening is no longer a mere trend, it is a real movement that is spreading like wildfire around the world’s metropolises, enriching, wherever possible, a gloomy environment shrouded in concrete, glass, and steel.
If you have opted for a vertical garden, the space (both indoor and outdoor) should have an irrigation, drainage system, good space for regular maintenance, and an adequate support structure.
The plants can be grown between layers of fabric and anchored in place, all according to Patrick Blanc, a French botanist and author responsible for popularising the idea of green walls and vertical gardens. While staying in Thailand, Patrick discovered that many plant species live in near-impossible places to live. He was very surprised to see plants that grew out of rocks and other inaccessible places. They needed neither land, water, nor ideal sunshine, and yet they thrived. They would climb along the rocks and look for their way to hidden niches, growing from almost nothing. This inspired him to try to do something similar at home.
On his return to Paris, he decides to try to build his vertical garden, and in 1982 he succeeds. Blanc patented his system and registers the invention. Its technical solution is that the acrylic base is attached to the substrate, a grid is placed over it, and the holes that are attached to the acrylic base are selected indigenous species of plants. After this, the next step is the installation of irrigation pipes. The valves contained in the pipes discharge a certain amount of water at the planned time mixed with the nutrients necessary for the growth and development of the plants. The excess water remaining through the pipes is carried to the lower part of the vertical garden from where it begins its new cycle of circulating and feeding the plant. Blanc started this revolution, but since his patent, numerous companies have emerged that offer their solutions for vertical gardens or indoor mini gardens.
Vertical gardening tips
When gardens are planted, hydroponics can be used to feed the plants.
Indoor vertical gardens require a little more care, additional lighting is required to simulate sunlight, while proper ventilation is required to ensure stable growth of healthy plants. The interior walls must be watertight, and the dryness of the surrounding walls, floors, and ceilings must be additionally taken into account.
Vertical gardening is ideal for hotels and corporate headquarters, restaurants, retail, school and office buildings, cultural institutions, as well as hospitals and retirement homes.
Maintaining an outdoor vertical garden is less demanding, so the ideal locations for outdoor vertical gardens are many. Any vertical space that receives the right amount of sunlight can be used for this purpose.
Different plants need different amounts of sunlight. After choosing a wall, a lot of attention should be paid to the types of vegetation that will work best together in that particular location.
Watering the vertical gardening plants will probably only moisten them, and most of the water will only swell to the ground, so you should use an irrigation system to get optimal results. Irrigation systems with a fertilizer timing system can help with plant growth and reduce maintenance.
The choice of plants to create live compositions is very diverse. Climbing plants are best suited for these purposes. Plants suitable for vertical landscaping can be divided into three groups:
You don’t need support: ivy, a virgin. Suitable for large spaces.
Plants in need of support (wire, ribbon): various grapes, clematis. Great for decorating fences, arches.
Lianas: hops, lemongrass — these plants need stable support. They can decorate shiny glossy decorative screens.
In addition to designing architectural elements on the site, flowers are often used to create living walls or vertical flower beds.
The benefits of vertical gardening are multiple
New technologies have enabled these gardens to have an extremely beneficial effect on their environment.
Vertical gardens protect the walls from the weather (if they are part of the exterior). Also, a vertical garden can significantly reduce the energy requirements of a building by providing greater shade and insulation. They have a beneficial effect on the effects of noise and overheating in urban areas. Vertical gardening, have a beneficial effect on air quality.
Growing healthy foods
When it comes to many plants, vegetables and small fruits, upright cultivation opportunities can go far beyond horizontal gardens. Vertical plants are less susceptible to snails, earthworms, weeds, and other pests. Because they are high above the ground and better exposed to airflow, they are less prone to pick up diseases, such as molds and fungi, from the soil-related genus. Also, there is no need to squat or crawl to harvest or prune the plant, but your genus is at your fingertips. In addition to enjoying superb fresh nutrition, your living wall or edible flower tower can shelter you from the wind, freshen you up, help isolate your space from noise, and provide greater privacy with the soothing essence of freshly grown herbs.
In recent years, urban gardeners have increasingly turned to planting fruit — strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, currants, even vines, but an even bigger hit is the vegetable gardens that simply flooded the rooftops and terraces of tall concrete buildings, behind whose fences, instead of petunias and muskrat sprouting perches of young onions and sacks of cucumbers, peas, and beans.
At a time when we are not sure how much fruit and vegetables from the market or the store are healthy and in what conditions it is grown, vertical gardens look like the best solution. Not only will we be sure of what we eat, but we will be closer to nature and experience the magic of gardening ourselves.
Possibility of gardening indoors
Most suppliers of vertical gardens offer indoor options. Vertical gardening allows you to grow food in your kitchen, or create live art anywhere in the apartment. It will liven up the atmosphere of your home and fill it with fresh oxygen. Besides, millions of active organisms in the country will help neutralize toxins. He also stresses that it is essential for good health for all of us to reconnect with plants and to include them in our lives at every opportunity.
Vertical gardening contributes to the savings of your living space
Do you love plants and green oases? You live in an apartment, have a small yard and the surface prevents you from pursuing your green dreams? A vertical garden is a perfect solution for small terraces, for backyards that need to breathe life, or for growing vegetables in the most unusual ways.
There is also an aesthetic moment, which is certainly one of the main reasons to anticipate vertical greening in a future facility.
Don't have a garden? Think again! That blank wall on your balcony, a wooden fence along your yard or a handrail around the patio, virtually any outside vertical surface, can become a lush living wall.