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| Longwood Garden's indoor Green Wall |
Just over a year ago,
Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA unveiled their new bathrooms. They are rather unusual bathrooms since they are surrounded by the largest "Green Wall" (also called a Vertical garden) in North America. Green walls are currently very popular in European countries, some of the most impressive examples being created in
Paris, France by
Patrick Blanc. When used on the exterior of buildings, they are helpful in greening urban areas.
Walking through this interior corridor gives you the feeling of being in an expansive greenhouse, as the ceiling lets in plenty of light.
The south-facing wall is quite filled in and full. The north-facing wall is still a bit thin in areas. I spoke to one of LG's gardeners and she said her job on the north-facing wall was to keep it from being taken over completely by the philodendron, a plant that thrives in low light.
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| North-facing wall: its bareness lets you see the panels of flat planting peat. |
They have used panels of flat peat which are inserted into a wire frame fastened to the wall. Plant plugs are pressed into the holes in rows in the peat. A sprinkler system at the top of the wall keeps it evenly moist and extra water is caught by the drain grate at the bottom.
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| South-facing wall: you can see the metal drain grate at the bottom. |
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| Several different types of ferns and various philodendrons make up the bulk of the planting |
A fun and unexpected experience for a bathroom break.
A thank you is in order for my guest photographer,
Little Garden Girl, on shots 3 & 5. What a wonderful little girl I have! Such an eye for composition too, yes? Thanks, Grace!
See more from Longwood Gardens in my posts this past week:
Longwood Outdoors in Winter
Christmas in Longwood's Conservatory
I have seen a number of vertical walls - mostly at flower shows. Interesting to see them in a real situation. I think they will always be labour intensive but they do look attractive.
ReplyDeleteGood to see that even in this highly restricted environment one plant will always try to take over!
Wow. What an amazing application! It's beautiful, but it seems like it would be very high maintenance. Impressive, though!
ReplyDeleteThat is an incredible sight those green growing walls...I must see them..and your little photographer is very talented!
ReplyDeleteOh my, I got the shivers just thinking how wonderful that would be! I hope the trend catches on around this country! I love it! Your daughter takes after her talented mother!
ReplyDeleteStunning greenery! How I would love to tour Longwood Gardens one day. Your photography is beautiful..as well as your budding young artist!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lovely share.
That is amazing and would make me want to visit the bathroom more often. Thank you for sharing
ReplyDeleteWouldn't those be wonderful in a hospital corridor. Even a small wall area like this would be good. When I was ill, the one thing I craved was "green." I am sure I would have recovered much faster if there had been more greenery around.
ReplyDeleteWe've started a green wall at our school where I teach and the kids love it. It's such an exciting project and I would recommend as an activity for parents to take forward to other schools! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! What a great idea! Although I like the look of hardscapes within the landscape, it is nice to be surrounded by all that lovely green. Thanks for sharing your visit.
ReplyDeleteI was in a public restroom just yesterday. The experience was hardly pleasant! These green walls are really beautiful I saw a number of them when I visited Taiwan. On a large scale they do seem to be costly and require a lot of maintenance, but the beauty is exceptional! It would be fun to try a small version in the garden.
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