Hi all! I thought I would just do a boring garden update this week, but I found something else to write about. (Thank you to Shoshana for the inspiration!) Next week will be, indeed, a garden update, along with the deer fence getting put up.

Anyway. Have you ever heard of green walls or vertical gardens? They both mean plants growing on a wall. Not in the sense of a vine, which grows up the wall, but in the sense of a plant that actually has its roots in the wall, or in something mounted to the wall. I happen to live by Longwood Gardens, home of the longest green wall in North America, so I stopped by to take some pictures. Also, some pictures from other places in the gardens that had plants growing vertically.

The green wall!

Part of the wall. To water the plants, water drips from the top into grates on the bottom. The plants absorb it on the way.

A close-up- you can see how they do it. There is fabric with holes in it, holding back dirt. The plants grow in the holes, thus, in the dirt.

Some plants growing in wall-mounted pots.

A mixture of the first technique and the second. The plants grow in bags of dirt attached to the wall.

Now this is new! Melons suspended from the ceiling with nets. I’m not sure how this works.

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering one thing… how to make your very own vertical garden! When I was doing some research for this post, I came across something amazing… a vertical garden built with hundreds of soda bottles! Some articles:

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/02/urban-vertical-garden-built-from-hundreds-of-recycled-soda-bottles/

http://inhabitat.com/rosenbaum-creates-a-sprawling-vertical-garden-from-hundreds-of-recycled-soda-bottles/

They have instructions… in Portuguese. As much as I can tell, you just take soda bottles, cut a big hole in the side, fill it with dirt, and string them up on the wall. Put the plants in the holes. There are also numerous companies that will create a green wall for you, but hey! Bottles are cheap. You can also use racks of plants, as long as all the plants are getting adequate light. Or, try something new! Grow a plant in an old shoe, nail a pot to the wall… gardening doesn’t have to be two-dimensional and boring.

Next week: Garden update and deer fence!