Lately, creating a plant wall has become very fashionable. Whether it's part of your garden or indoors, this sustainable innovation is healthy and pleasing to look at. Also known as living walls, these vertical gardens are full of flora that benefits everyone from lungs to ears. In this article, we explain how to create your living wall and how to take care of it.
Site Requirements
Before creating a plant wall, the first thing you need to determine is where it will be placed so that it is properly lit. Natural light is the best option. Plants produce their own food through the process of photosynthesis, the production of chlorophyll, so a good light source is important. If the location of your plant wall is in a shaded area, you may want to consider placing additional lighting fixtures. The more light you have, the more plants you can choose from. If you don't have a lot of direct light, you will be limited to plants that grow in low light conditions, such as philodendrons and pothos. If you want to add a vertical garden to an outdoor space, you need to determine the right plants for your climate zone and whether they are best suited to a sunny or shady location.
What can I plant?
If the location you have chosen offers a good source of light, there are many possibilities for creating a plant wall, which can be designed in terms of a colour palette or a single-species showcase. With a good light source, favour aglaonemas, pothos or Paloma. However, if the wall is placed in a shady area, choose plants such as snake (Sansevieria trifasciata), peace lily (Spathiphyllum) and Brazilian philodendron instead. Song of India (Dracaena reflexa), English ivy (Hedera helix) and ferns such as rabbit's foot (Davallia fejeensis) and maidenhair (adiantum spp.) are possible solutions for vertical gardens receiving medium light. Remember that you are not limited to using only ornamental plants for your plant wall. You could also easily have a vertical herb garden or a vegetable garden with tomatoes, peppers and other edible plants.
Basic maintenance
If you have an automatic sprinkler system, your living wall will not require much maintenance. And if you have a tray system where the plants stay in their nursery pots, it wouldn't hurt to remove the plants from time to time and clean your wall. Plants attract insects, so you need to make sure they stay clean. Cleaning the leaves of each plant with soap and water will be enough to prevent any problems. You may also need to regularly cut or trim overflowing foliage. If you plan to water manually and maintain your plant wall, you should make sure you don't over-water and stick to plants that need the same amount of light and microclimate conditions to thrive and grow.