June 23rd, 2009

Inspiring Vertical Gardens for Small Spaces

Posted by Bridgette Meinhold

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Space is a precious commodity, especially now that so much of our backyard or balcony space is occupied by containers for growing organic vegetables. For those of you out there getting tight on space, but who still want beautiful flowers and plants to look at, consider a vertical garden. It’s organic art for your indoor or outdoor wall space and is a beautiful way to help filter air naturally and add humidity to your environment. Check out these beautiful and inspiring small vertical gardens. (Read this previous post for a discussion of the differences between green walls and green roofs.)

A vertical garden is essentially a framework of plants placed onto the side of a building or a wall. They can be placed indoors or outdoors, in full sun or shade, depending on what types of plants you want. You can plant all types of flowers and plants on them, including epiphytes, tropical plants, succulents, ferns and even herbs. Check out ELT Living Wall Systems for a great list of plants to try if you want to do it yourself. In general, plants with shallow roots are better, because they have an easier time staying attached to a vertical wall.

The grandfather of vertical gardens is Patrick Blanc, who is a French Botanist and practically came up with the idea. He is also responsible for a long list of building integrated vertical gardens like these stunning examples. His basic system consists of a steel frame for structural integretity, a waterproof backing material to keep water off of the building, and felt fabric for the plants to adhere and grow into. Depending on what type of climate the garden is in, then depends on the necessary humitidy requirements.

Newer companies like ELT Living Wall Systems are starting to come out with wall planting systems like the one above that allow you to plug plants into individualized compartments. ELT now sells a smaller version of their large scale walls through Smith & Hawken now complete with irrigation system. These beautiful units would be a wonderful addition to your kitchen as an herb garden.

This vertical garden is actually made from recycled rain gutters nailed to the side of a house. Suzanne Forsling, who lives in Alaska, came up with this system to keep her salad crops off the cold ground and away from critters, but it’s a perfect way to reuse abandoned gutters and take advantage of empty outdoor wall space. Flowers, herbs, vegetables, and greens could be planted here and if you pair it with a drip irrigation system, you’ve got a perfect vertical planting system.

Here, epiphytes, are stuck into a recessed wall at an installation at the Bardessono Hotel in Yountville, which is a LEED Platinum Certified hotel. Epiphytes, or airplants, attach themselves to objects without need for soil and do not need irrigation, which makes them perfect for such an installation. There is no watering system in place and the plants draw their nutrients and water straight from the air. This fantastic vertical wall was created by Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco. Flora Grubb Gardens is also responsible for the framed living wall below, which is like a tiled mosaic of succulents. Built inside of a large and deep frame, the succulents each have their own pocket and are tightly packed in against each other.

And finally, this adorable little wall was created by Jill Bert, who built a large frame from wood and partitioned it off into sections. Inside she is growing herbs and lettuces in a delightful and artistic pattern. This design looks spectacularly easy enough to create out of leftover wood laying around. Another option for a DIY vertical garden is a Succulent and Moss Trellis, found at Lowe’s Creative Ideas. Click here for a complete how-to creation. This one doesn’t require an irrigation system, just occasional misting to keep the moss moist so it provide stability to the succulents.

For more inspiration and some larger installations, check out these vertical gardens at Apartment Therapy.  Home examples and concepts courtesy of Suzanne Forsling, and you can read more about her work here.

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