Their are not many aroids on this wall but I thought I would share a pic of it. It took me 4 days to build in the afternoons after work. It was a fun project but I am glad it is done.
Living wall
Closer pic
That looks great with the variety in plants you've got there. I was going to recommend Syngonium for covering a wall. It's doing a great job of covering some of my trees. And the growth isn't only at the top, it stays bushy and leafy at the bottom too.
Incredible job Brian. I've wanted to see this since you first told me about it several years ago. How often does the mist system operate?
Steve
Steve I have a rock wall in the greenhouse that has mist but this is a bit different than that one. This one has two pieces of felt attached to large panels. Their is a pump that pumps water to the top and drips back down the wall and into the waterfalls. Here is the wall a week ago.
Brian, that is just beautiful! Congratulations.
Did you make it for yourself or a client?
I can't believe you did all that in a week, good for you!!
The wall was built for my mother at her house. She has a large garden with ponds and the whole nine yards. I told her if she bought the material I would build it for free. She agreed but I don't think she had an idea of what I was building until it was almost done.
Picture of the waterfalls and wall before planted.
Very neatl! Can you post photos of the one in the greenhouse? I've been wondering about that one for quite a while.
Be sure and say hi to you mom! She needs to come back to the shoe in Miami.
Way cool.
Steve
Steve give me a bit of time on the other wall. The misting system had broke and a lot of the plants look bad on that wall. I need to get it up and running again so that it can really grow out.
I am thinking of putting in another wall just like the above one in the greenhouse. It should be interesting to grow aroids on something like this.
I have to say that to fill in all the plants we chopped up hostas and other larger pots of plants and cut of a lot of root mass to put it into the felt. I thought for sure their would be a lot of shock and damage to the plants but today I went back to see it and it and the plants looked great some had already started moving. I am surprised their were not leaves laying in the pond after all the shock I thought they had been through.
I want to know as much as possible when we see each other in Miami. We are talking about building a larger atrium and I'd love to add one of these to cover an entire wall with a very large waterfall that will lead into the pond.
Great work.
Steve
Looks great!
Good thing I have no place for something like that, or I'd be in trouble. LOL
Update photos?
Some updated photos. My friend from the news paper co came out to take some photos. It did not make front cover but the photos were very nice.
Another pic of the wall from the deck above.
And another photo op of me putting plants in the wall.
What's gonna happen to this when cold weather comes? I'm assuming you are in a freeze zone??
That is a good question. The truth is I am not exactly sure what all will happen come winter or through the seasons. My idea is to turn the pump off once the wall has frozen. Then I will let it stay frozen until warmer weather returns. Most of the plants used are extremely hardy for my area and most if not all should survive the winter. This type of wall can be grown anywhere in the world outdoors the key would be to pick the right plants that can grow in this situation.
I have been hiking a lot and it is not uncommon to find large rock cliffs or rocky creek banks with ferns mosses Sedums Heuchera and other plants growing in the cracks of rocks or hanging just on the edges. So this is not an uncommon thing for plants it is however very uncommon in the garden. It can also produce some very unusual micro-climates that most people never get to use in the garden.
Here is a photo of a natural rock waterfall the plants growing on and around the rocks would work fine for a system like this. A lot of them though if placed in a garden in the ground would die in just a few days. My wall is on the north side of the house and gets very little sun. I used all shade loving plants and though a lot of what I used are hybrid nursery stock. I did add some natural mosses and plants that grow in this situation. So it is not uncommon for plants to be growing this way it is just uncommon for use see them in gardens this way.
What zone are you?
I am a zone 6 Louisville KY
Thanks, Brian --that's an outstanding piece of work.
Looks fantastic!
I was thinking....it might look cool if you added some large rocks and plants into the pond. As long as they were plants that didn't get too tall and cover up the wall it would kinda make the pond itself more natual looking so it would tie in with the wall etc. Maybe you could set some type of cascading plants on the blocks (edges of the pond) that could hang down to cover the blocks...
*Don't mind me lol, I am the type that can't stop planting LOL!