Vertical gardens and water conservation. Does it really matter if vertical gardens use more water??

Well it seems I missed the opportunity to have another entry on The Dry Garden: A skeptic’s view of vertical gardens in the LA times.

Stupidly I made the following point on the author’s blog. But she removed it – partly because I insulted her for which I apologise – but my points remain valid and need to be considered within the vertical garden debate.  This was my comment.

Assuming one of the best ways to reduce our environmental impact is to consolidate urban sprawl should we not welcome green walls ?

A vertical garden allows for efficient use of space. It also allows gritty industrial sites to be ‘greened’ without the need to treat contaminated soil (which is very, very expensive).

A living wall may use more water than a veg garden on the ground but it allows people to live in a more space efficient way.

To those who argue that we should be planting in the ground to conserve water: Can you be sure that in the long term your traditional ground plane veg patch or raised garden bed is the best way forward?

Green’s assessment on Woolly Pocket was poorly researched. Her findings were very selective.  She used one of the first models of Woolly Pocket (that is not even sold) to assess its suitability for her readers.

Following deletion of my comments from her blog Green commented that I am retailer of Woolly Pocket. Unfortunately she did no further research on my background and did not discover that I am a Landscape Architect (who has: won an industry design award for work on a large scale infrastructure project in an arid climate; a Masters In Landscape Architecture; a Post Grad Planning and Design; and finally a BAppSc (Urban Planning).

Now am just a semi-humble retailer of Woolly Pocket, an active Woolly Pocket gardener, landscape designer and assist a hydrogeologist to assess contaminated soil in residential areas.