Page 52 - feb 22_Neat

Art in the garden - Vertical Gardens

The vertical garden at the Hotel
Athenaeum in London, which is 8
stories tall, has 260 plant species and
more than 12,000 plants, was designed
by the world renowned Patrick Blanc,
and completed in 2009.

Patrick Blanc, a French botanist is the
modern innovator of the green wall,
specifically, he invented the modern vertical
hydroponics garden, ‘mur végétal’. For his
design of the Athenaeum 80% of the plants
he used were evergreen; 20 % were
seasonal, and it was designed so that
plants needing more sun, for example,
would go at the top. Ferns below, where
there’s more shade (See left - Pic by Pixabay).

Blanc’s gardens use polyamide felt that
is soaked in a nutrient solution supplied
from a network of pipes and valves ‘ver-
tical hydroponics’ and the excess water is
collected at the bottom of the wall and is
re-injected into the network of pipes.

To do this at home, around your garden
shed for instance, firstly make sure the
structure can bear the weight. Build a
sturdy metal frame, and then add in your
own construct of pipes and outlets. Put
in a small tank at the base of the structure
and a suitable pump that can circulate the
water up to the appropriate height. Fill in
the structure with felt if you can get it or
experiment with various geo textiles or
sandbags (filled with a porous medium).
Place your plant plugs into your structure
and with a bit of luck and strategy you
might have created a living wall. S.C
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