The green carpet on the wall is again in vogue - only today it must certainly be from living plants. Fashionable vertical gardening in favorites among interior designers, now and then flashes in television programs on repairs, decorating the walls of respectable offices and fashionable restaurants.
The vertical composition of living plants will not only revitalize the room, but also the
- will save space on the floor, window sills, horizontal surfaces;
- will saturate the room with oxygen and improve the microclimate, as moisture constantly evaporates from its surface;
- does not interfere with the penetration of daylight and can be installed away from the window.
In the companies engaged in landscape design and floristics, the prices for the "green wall" start from 6 thousand rubles per square meter. I can not even believe that this can be done with my own hands at home, using the improvised means and advice of florists.
Plants
When creating a vertical composition, the main thing is to choose the right plants. They should have a well-developed root system to hold firmly in an upright position, and the stalk is preferable either short or curly, like a vine. Leaves will look better not large, bushy located. For the very first "living wall" it is better to choose the most unpretentious plants that do not need abundant watering.
Florists especially recommend the following flowers:
- ampel plants that grow rapidly and wind well, closing the whole structure: scindapsus, hoya, philodendron plussy,
- decorative grapes such as Amur grapes, which, moreover, at home gives beautiful berries, or ivy,
- spathiphyllums that look good with flowers and without, fatsia, chlorophytum, fittonia,
- in a hot room or when it is impossible to water often, you can arrange a spectacular composition of small succulents and neveshigh sansivier.
In the kitchen, the original landscaping will look very original with the help of herbs and edible greens: dill, cress, small varieties of lettuce, mint and basil.
You can use plants of one kind, and you can make a composition to your liking. For the first experiments, it is necessary to select not very expensive plants and unpretentious plants, since if one or several of them die, they can simply be replaced with fresh ones.
Installation site and equipment
As a rule, vertical compositions adorn the walls located far from the window, therefore, even for the most shade-tolerant plants, it is necessary to provide illumination. For this purpose, suitable daylight lamps, better energy-saving, they are more expensive, but they consume less electricity, which can be actual in winter, when the backlight has to be kept for 12 hours included.
Professionally made "living walls" are necessarily equipped with an automatic irrigation system. They are sold in large flower shops or can be made independently of polypropylene pipes. If we are talking about a small composition made by ourselves, then without such a system you can get by, but it needs to be arranged so that there is convenient access for regular watering.
"Living wall" with their own hands
Options to arrange a vertical gardening in the apartment, in fact a lot. Some of the devices are manufactured in an industrial way and are sold in flower shops, and some can be made independently. In general, all systems are divided into those using land, and those where flowers grow on hydroponics. The advantages are both for those, and for others, so it is worthwhile to assess what means are available, how easier it will be to install the system and care.
Hydroponics uses "living walls", in which plants are located in pockets. The basis of this design consists of a polymer felt, on which a number of pockets of the same material are sewn, the material is fixed to the frame. Plants penetrate their felts with their roots and at the expense of this they hold fast. Just like in the case of pots, they can be replaced or transplanted. Such felt is sold in stores, but it costs not cheap( about 3 thousand per meter), and plants on hydroponics need regular feeding, at least once a month. But vertical gardening in this way is done quickly - you only need to plant the selected flowers, but the whole structure weighs a little and does not require reinforced attachments.
You can make the vertical composition yourself at home with your own hands, using elements from the polypropylene drainage system. Only gutters of the required length will be needed, plugs along the edges, and fixings for fixing them on the wall. Plus the use of a drainage system that it is airtight, and water will not fall on the wall. After installing the gutters on the wall( with a small distance between the tiers, so that after the growth of the plants there is a feeling of "carpet"), they pour the expanded clay, then soil and plant the selected plants. Watering such a vertical system should be moderated to prevent overflow of water.
Small succulents can generally be fixed in ordinary small pots, giving them 1-2 months in advance beforehand in a horizontal position. For this, a box or a deep frame with a back wall is waterproofed with a film, fixed to the wall( preferably with long self-tapping screws), and pots with plants are densely adhered to it with a thermo-pistol. Free spaces are filled with decorative material( straw, burlap).
"Living wall" with the right selection of plants and care will be the most effective decoration of any room and will delight residents for many years.
