10 tips to create a vertical garden at home
Jan 04, 2017 Exteriors
Text: Saylee Soundalgekar
Photograph: courtesy Hrishikesh Phadke
Photograph: courtesy Hrishikesh Phadke
Vertical gardens or living walls is one of the green practices that help in reducing the heat island effect and smoke. Regarded as one of the effective methods to enhance aesthetics of a home, vertical gardens have a lion's share in enhancing the interior air quality, reducing noise pollutants and providing a food resource. Architect Hrishikesh Phadke gives simple tips on the element of living walls, its installation, and maintenance for a great home design.
- To begin with, a wall chosen for vertical growth must be observed for direct, indirect or harsh sunlight. In the case of low sunlight, non-flowering plants should be preferred.
- The primary structure of a vertical garden is a three-layered sandwich framework. The structural wall must be clad with ceramic tiles for easy maintenance. A plastic frame should be fixed with the help of studs, maintaining a cavity behind for cleaning (wood and metal should be avoided for excess load, pests and corrosion). An irrigation pipeline with lateral running water in the form of drip irrigation should be designed to supply water from the rear side. Over the basic framework, a base frame designed for a vertical wall comprising an array of plastic pots and plastic frame has to be fixed.
- Planters are grown in a growth medium viz. soil, coco peat and felt from which it takes essential nutrients. This growth medium must be kept moist at all times.
- Use a mix of admixtures (available in local nurseries) along with the assigned growth medium. The admixtures (rich in nutrients and non-sticky) supply nutrients to the plant for a designated duration. Once it is expired, replace the plant bucket with a fresh supplement.
- Each plant requires not more than one litre of water per day. However, the sun and water requirement of any plant can be determined only by the site location, season, direction and the typology of the plant.
- A vertical wall in an exterior area must be observed for harsh sunlight, pollution and dust. An interior space with an air conditioner is difficult to maintain as the air conditioning unit absorbs the water from the atmosphere, hence leaving small amounts for the vegetation to grow.
- Vertical gardens are favourable for growing edibles, annuals, seasonal and even perennials. Seasonal flowering plants keep the wall alive by altering the colours, patterns and visual appearance of the space over a period of time. It ensures that there are no dead patches for a longer stretch. Your green wall can be your food source as well. For example, kitchen products such as leafy vegetables, aloe vera, ajwain and coriander can be grown.
- The average life of the ecology of a living wall can be counted from one year up to four years. However, it is important to maintain the plants as one wound maintain them in a garden.
- The best part of this design element is that it requires minimum cleaning. The walls should be observed for cobwebs and insects in between the wall and frame cavity. However, the plants require regular observation and maintenance.
- Creative vertical gardens (in the exteriors) can be built by affixing hex wire netting to a cedar frame, old dresser, hanging planter, stacked cedar wood boxes or crates, ladder, trays, rain gutters, etc.
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Hrishikesh Phadke
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