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Wednesday 29 September 2010

How To Build A Green Wall

I decided last year that I needed to green up our balcony. Space is a premium, so the only place left to plant is on the walls. My plan was to build a Green Wall on our south facing wall.
Photo from Eco-friendly Promos
I had the idea when I saw all the water that was being generated by our air-conditioner just going to waste. I was using some of it to water our plants around our apartment and on our balcony, but I thought there must be another way I could use it. A green wall seemed like the ideal way of planting in a confined space, and using the waste water from our air-conditioner.

After quite a bit of research, I found the simplest method was pioneered by a French botanist by the name of Patrick Blanc.  He calls it Le Mur Vegetal, and its really quite a simple solution. He has built several Vertical Gardens throughout the world, and a few people have adapted his method to create their own. Before I began, I sat down and planned in detail on Sketchup how to build it. If you're interested in building your own one, this is a short video I made to show the steps involved in making your own green wall.


7 comments:

Ellada said...

I wish that all the building in all the town have a green wall, it would be so beautiful.

stoneware70 said...

You're so right Ellada!

Johan Kühn said...

Did you ever complete this wall? How did it turn out?
I wants to do something similar at home.
Any tips or changes to your design?

stoneware70 said...

Hi Johan, Yes, it turned out very well. It took about 3hrs to build.

I don't think there was anything I would change to the design.
On the planting side, there were some plants that didn't work, and some that worked too well (Don't plant mint whatever you do!)

I did have a setback while we were doing some renovations though - while the power was off, some of the plants that were flourishing with the constant source of water died back, but are recovering now that the water is regular again.

stoneware70 said...

P.s. Let me know how it goes if you do decide to build one...

Anonymous said...

WHAT IS MRM AND WERE CAN I FIND IT?

stoneware70 said...

It depends on where you are based - you could also find a supplier that supplies a construction material called BIDIM, and ask for their thickest fabric ±5mm...

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