Adding life to walls

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was built in 600 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife Amytis and is one of the first, and most famous, examples of a creative approach to decorative, wallbased gardening. The history of vertical gardens from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in 600 BCE to modern day vertical gardens.

It is an innovative and highly productive growing system that uses bottom-up and top-down supports for a wide variety of plants in both small and large garden spaces. Plants are grown in an upward-directed, vertical way, thus making optimal use of the existing space. A vertical garden, or a green wall can be attached to the exterior or interior of a building. It differs from a green façade in that the plants root in a structural support that is fastened to the wall itself. They receive water and nutrients from within the vertical support instead from the ground.

As vertical gardening enthusiasts, it’s fascinating to follow the meandering path people took to growing plants up surfaces instead of in their traditional horizontal placement in the ground found in nature and ancient civilizations, vertical gardens have been thriving for centuries on walls all over the world.

These gardens provide several aesthetic, economic, physiological and environmental benefits. A vertical garden enables you to maximise and fully utilize limited space, especially in congested urban areas.

Here are some other benefi ts of a green wall:

Food security
Vertical gardening is an excellent method of growing food in areas where floor space matters. The different vertical garden technologies provide effective, simple and sustainable methods of growing fruits, vegetables and herbs, thus enhancing food security for urban communities and populations that face lack of agricultural spaces.

Improvement of air quality
Vertical gardens improve both indoor and outdoor air quality by removing harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and absorbing pollutants. Growing plants vertically, even in compact spaces such as windowsills, balconies, front entrances, and so forth, makes an appreciable difference to the air that you breathe in.

Thermal insulation
Green walls provide insulation to buildings, so there is less demand for power to heat or cool them. A vertical garden keeps a building cool in summer and warm in winter, thus enabling you to save electricity.

Aesthetic benefits
Vertical gardens enable you to maximise limited space and reclaim disregarded space. A green wall can transform empty space into aesthetically pleasing and creatively stimulating eye candy.