Vertical garden is definitely my idea of sustainable luxury – a living art, aesthetically designed to compensate the lack of green in urban settings. A few other benefits on the top of my head: it helps regulate building temperature, provides sound insulation, acts as habitat restoration for some wild life species, purifies the air we breathe and is literally good for our eyes!
Two years ago when we moved to a flat with a small balcony – I called up a landscape contractor for a site visit to build one. We stood there at the balcony staring at this blank wall…
Man: “You will have trouble with irrigation.”
Me: “Oh I don’t mind spending time watering the plants.”
Man: “They will die eventually.”
Me: “Yeah, just like any plants in pots perhaps? Feel free to use various species suitable for the purpose, I’m easy with the arrangement.”
Man: “No it doesn’t work. Your wall is facing West…”
Me: Huh? “Well, what about those crawling plants? I heard they grow easily”
“No, they will break the wall.”
Me: <speechless>
Man “Why don’t you just put some potter plants here?”
<dead silence>
It’s a statement, it is an art. JUST GIVE ME A Darn GREEN WALL!!!
For the size of 1.5 metres width and 3 metres height, the green wall was quoted at HK$45,000. I called up another contractor to explain my needs over the phone. He didn’t even give me a quote while making me feel a total idiot again. End of my naïve drama for a green wall.
Photo retrieved from http://homephysicist.com/06/building-physics-green-wall/
Does anyone have a green wall at home? Is it really that difficult? Let me know your experience!!!
Speaking of vertical garden, how nice to see the newly sprouting one at the new Government office recently, which is the only open-air green wall I see in Hong Kong so far.
Reblogged this on Potted Plant Society.
A great idea. I wonder how hard it would be to maintain it in the Australian heat