Vertical Gardening: A recent new interest of mine.....!

[Hattie the Hen]

We have been having a few programmes on UK TV about this subject & now there are several articles being written about it. I thought I would pass them on to you as I haven't seen it talked about on any post at TEG. Try this for a start as it shows what I'm going on about! I love the quirkiness of it & it would certainly perk up some very dreary areas of many towns & cities!

The systems that you buy to set them up are pretty pricey but I know how clever a lot of you are about devising stuff using bits & pieces that are laying around -- SO MAYBE YOU COULD GET THOSE BRAINS WORKING ON THIS PROJECT.......???

Here's the link:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/may/28/vertical-gardens-patrick-blanc-athenaeum-hotel

I will post more info later.


****EDITED TO ADD another link:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/plant_recipes/vertical_garden.shtml

HAPPY VERTICAL GARDENING !! :rainbow-sun


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[Hattie the Hen]

This is the French guy -- Patrick Blanc -- who the BBC interviewed on the first programme I saw on the subject:-

http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/mainen.php

It shows a lot of pictures of his work. Hope you like it?


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[Rosalind]

I can see how it would work, but wouldn't it be difficult to find a sort of spongy material other than the nylon felt he uses? I'm thinking that tensile strength, when the plants are wet, would be an issue.

Could you stuff those super-strong anti-run nylon pantyhose/stockings with hydroponics media, and attach the stockings to a framework of plumbing scraps? Put a half-pipe or section of raingutter at the bottom and a soaker hose section on the top, let the whole thing slowly soak when you water it?

I mean, you can always do hanging bags of strawberries: Make a sort of long "sock" of ripstop synthetic fabric, fill with dirt, cut holes, and stuff strawberry plants in the holes. Sew loops in the top of the sock that fit over a pipe with a drip line for watering. Repeat in many segments until you get enough to cover a wall. Conceal the top pipe and water line with a raingutter piece filled with droopy flowers of some sort, nasturtiums or something shallow-rooted.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi Rosalind

Great input already!

I've found some more photos:-

http://www.eltlivingwalls.com/photo_gallery.php

But I know I've seen some with lettuce etc.. growing vertically -- I just can't find it -- maybe it was on TV.

Of course cherry tomato vines would work especially the teeny-tiny fruited ones.

I would love a portable wall in a conservatory --great in winter with salad leaves growing in it. That would help counteract my SAD ! :happy_flower


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[TillinWithMyPeeps]

It is an interesting concept, and I have read about it before. What I saw was mainly pushing it for big sky scrapers in large cities.

How would the plants be harvested?

It would be kind of neat to have an entire side of your house covered in flowers though.

I am a big fan of roof top gardens, and I think that where that is practical, it should be utilized more often.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi Andy

Yes I'm all for roof-top gardens -- a lot of people have them over here in the UK. They also have 'Living Roof Gardens'. Which did you mean?

In my research I found this:-

http://gardeningwithwilson.com/2009/03/29/vertical-gardening-feature-on-straits-times-life/

A much simpler approach & something I will have a go at. I'm interested in replacing a rather old (& falling apart) fence between my garden & my neighbour with a more productive & attractive option.

Happy Gardening this weekend. :tools


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[wifezilla]

There was another thread a few months back that featured a gardener who grew strawberries vertically in PVC tubes with holes drilled in the sides and a guy who used rows of rain gutters to grow lettuce against a fence.

 

[digitS']

In the rose greenhouse where I worked for a half-dozen years, we had a few odd plants. (. . . odd as in: not-roses )

Some of those were hanging plants. They were potted and kept in a "rack" rain gutters attached to a north wall in one of the greenhouses. We did have a few retail customers and would sell some potted plants in the flower shop.

Fertilizing was with slow-release fertilizer in the potting soil. Watering amounted to putting a hose in the top gutter and turning it off when the lower gutter overflowed. Water dropped in pipes from one gutter to the next. Pipes were attached to the ends of the gutters, an inch or 2 above the bottom of the pots.

Fertilizer was injected into the irrigation water for the roses. They were in the ground but greenhouses built after I left used concrete trenches with peat - I'm not exactly sure how they were set up. For vertical growing I imagine that bricks of coco fiber might have strength sufficient to make things a little easier if you were using fertilizer injection irrigation.

For exterior building walls, I gotta wonder what Winter would bring. Not many plants can take much exposure of roots to severe cold.

Hattie, the British had glass greenhouses built against brick walls a hundred years ago or so. These were very narrow greenhouses and the walls held flues for moving air heated by a furnace. One can imagine that they were very efficient at capturing solar energy, as well.

I don't know how to go about finding a photo online. I remember seeing this in a book on the history of greenhouses.

Steve

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi Steve

Thanks for all the advice & ideas - right to the point as usual. Mmmm.......lots to ponder on. I think I might bodge something up to see how it works out -- something smallish to begin with!!!

I know a bit about "the flues in the walls" system -- I've read up a lot on old gardening techniques over the years. Many of our huge country houses that are now open to the public had huge walled gardens where fruit trees were grown against heated walls. Often the gardeners living quarters (called a "bothy") was also heated by the fame furnace as the greenhouses & the heated walls. Several of the books I've seen have lovely engravings & plans of these set ups.

Some years ago there was a series on BBC TV called "The Victorian Garden" where they restored a walled garden & then ran it for a year using all the old techniques. It was fascinating! Perhaps it was shown on PBS over in the US?

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[Hattie the Hen]

I have bought this thread back to life because I have just found a link to the interview that set me off on the subject:

http://www.gardenfreshliving.com/2009/12/patrick-blanc-the-vertical-garden.html


:rose Hattie :rose