Glee Garden Trade Show 2010. Product Type: Vertical Garden Living Wall planter. Woolly Pocket / Burgon Ball

UK manufacturers have finally caught up with the vertical garden, green wall and living walls trend. Today in far flung corners of the Glee Trade fair are two wall planters that make growing plants on most walls a reality.

Burgon and Ball  have just released onto the market a neat little fabric wall planter. Meanwhile the US Woolly Pocket designer and manufacturer Miguel Nelson commences marketing his robust well designed Woolly Pocket in the UK and European market via Glee Trade Fair.

Corner A – Woolly Pocket.

A robust  fabric wall planter made from recycled plastic, enables a plant’s root system to breathe, comes in various colours and three sizes. Can be used inside and outside. The system is modular and can allow a small or large green wall to be established with ease.

Corner B

Burgon and Ball Wall Planter. A neat black wall planter that comes in one size: around an A3 size of paper. Made from plastic. Outdoors only. A plant’s root system can not breath.

So what does Garden Beet think?

The Burgon and Ball planter appears well made and would be great for making a relatively cheap little herb garden on an outside wall. The product however does not meet the quality or functionaility of the Woolly Pocket system.

The Burgon and Ball planter has a very small soil area – thereby restricting plant growth, nor does it allow the plant’s root system to breath – resulting in the plants eventally becoming pot bound, it can not be used indoors and is not designed to provide coverage of large walls.

If all you want to do is grow a few basil plant each year Burgon and Ball have created a reasonable well priced solution.

However if you are serious about creating a thriving living wall you would still invest in the ever so funky Woolly Pockets.

Indoor living wall becomes a part vase for cheap and cheerful flowering Bergonia and Gerberias

Recently I installed this living wall and am waiting on some more indoor plants before its complete. Meantime I stumbled across these begonias and gerberias being sold off cheaply at the local supermarket. Am now using the vertical garden as a temporary planting bed-cum-vase. I would consider leaving the begonias in long term however am fairly sure these plants do not like being crowded. The gerbera is more about some weekend  fun.

Am seriously considering using this garden as part indoor planting bed part vase – possibly indoor garden wall art? Beware if you start thinking this may be an idea to consider – every time a new plant is installed in this garden dirt and plant debris ends up on the floor.

Living walls ain’t bling to me. Woolly Pocket offer a real vertical garden opportunity

Did I ever mention Woolly Pockets? Sorry to bang on with the same old drum. I have been experimenting on an even bigger scale with vertical gardens and wall planters today.  I read all these living wall sceptics in the news and blogs etc – sometimes referring to the whole concept as garden bling.

Well- it aint bling to me.  Usually I grow to hate products – not this one – the more I use the Woolly Pocket the more I appreciate its worth. It can increase your gardening space, allows you to experiment with plants and the plants are pretty happy. I am having noddles of fun.

By the way my architectural backdrop does not reflect my abode. I live in the eyesore darling – but I don’t look at it – my neighbours do….

March London 2010: Anthropolgie vs Westfield. Who has the fairest vertical garden of all?

When comparing the vertical garden at Anthropologie and Westfield Shopping Centre in London there is very little doubt that it is Anthropologie who has the fairest vertical garden of all.

Why?

Context.

Anthroplogie’s living wall works with its context.

Anthropogie is like an explosion of joy – every element is orchastrated. The plants of the green wall are repeated around the store. The most extravagant plastic fantastic chandeliers are positioned to contrast with the natural calm foliage. The dynamic is brilliant.  The vertical garden is used both as a backdrop and as a centre stage act.

Meanwhile the dreary old Westfield green wall is trying to maintain a showstopping act with little support from its surrounds. A lonesome green wall stuck in a bleak landscape that is designed to be read by a motorist at speed, not a shopper who is walking . For photos and discussion on Westfield’s green wall click here.

Anthropolgie’s green wall creates a tapestry of colour and form. Plants are growing at various rates creating a fabulous three dimensional form to the wall. Leaf colour is also varied. Meanwhile over at Westfield we have a green wall probably 20 times the length of Anthropologie’s yet the planting creates a block of green with little variation. Granted the plants may change with the seasons but upon my snap shot visit – it appeared fairly dull to me.

Perhaps guriella gardeners you could dismantle the green wall at Westfield shopping centre, place it on the M25 to replace the hideous noise walls and in its new context Westfield’s green wall design may work.

Anthropologie’s green wall was designed by BioTecture.

Woolly Pocket versus Traditional Wall Planter. Top 10 Reasons to Buy a Woolly Wally Pocket

Wall planters have traditionally be made from ceramics or wire baskets with liners. Prices vary but it is possible to adorn your wall with a potted plant for approximately £8-£15. With that type of money you could either buy a traditional ceramic design or even a contemporary orb wall planter.

So why would someone choose a Woolly Pocket wall planter when prices start at £35? There are 10 excellent reasons

1. SIZE.

It is approximately double the size of  the standard wall planter. One Woolly Pocket measures 61cm x38cm – it has a width of two standard ruler lengths. Most ceramic and wire basket wall planters would be lucky to reach 30cm in width.

2. PROMOTES HEALTHY PLANTS

The root system of the standard wall planter will evenutally become pot bound if you do not repot the plant. The root system of the Woolly Pocket plant will not become pot bound. The Woolly Pocket allows a plant’s root system to breath thereby allowing the root system to be airpruned. The plants will be much happier and will only grow as big as the space provided in the Woolly Pocket.

3. INDOOR OUTDOOR

Woolly Pocket can be located indoors and outdoors whereas the cermaic wall planters tend to be for outdoor use only

4. CONSERVES WATER

When using the lined Woolly Pocket water is conserved . This is important as wall planters tend to dry out more readily than planting beds located on the ground.

5.  MODULAR FLEXIBLE GREEN WALL SYSTEM

Woolly Pockets allow you to add more units over time. The pockets are part of a green wall system (also referred to as a living wall or vertical garden)  that allow you to cover  a wall as fast or as slow as you wish. The pockets are designed to enable you to choose plants that either showcase the pockets or provide full plant coverage. Your standard ceramic or wire wall planter is not designed to create a wall like this.

6. ECONOMIES OF SCALE

Woolly Pockets come in three sizes. Woolly Wally One (small) , Woolly Wally Three (medium) and Woolly Wally Five (large). The medium and the large units are cheaper per square meter. Basically the bigger area of wall you wish to cover with plants the cheaper the wall planter becomes.

7. ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY.

It is made from recycled drinking bottles

8. ETHICAL PRODUCTION

Manufacturers are committed to ensuring it is ethically produced

9. CHIC

the Pockets look great.

10. ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES

Green Wall, Living Wall What Do You See? I see Garden Accessories Looking at Me?

‘Lost in Paris’   by architects  R+Sei (n)  2008.

OK so the solid single species plant is a tad boring for the plant enthusiast but the green wall’s jewels are far from boring. To date most of the green walls I have seen are comprised of plants. But on this domestic green wall somewhere in Paris, the living wall (or vertical gardens) concept is slightly different.

Here the watering mechanism is turned into art and the green wall is as much about the plants as the technology of growing plants vertically. From what I can establish rainwater is collected by the glass berries and fed back into the hydroponic system that lies behind the green wall. These glass sculptures are not intended to be seen as mere garden accessories but a core mechanism to the survival of the green wall (at least that is my assessment – I may be wrong?).

Building green walls at Anthroplogy Regent Street London. I want one

Building green walls is a catching trend.  The latest public display of an indoor green wall in London is at Anthropologie, on London’s Regent Street.

Below are a few shots of the outside green wall built in London’s west end  Westfield shopping complex designed by EDAW ( who have changed there name to AECOM).

The green wall concept has really been pioneered by  Patrick Blanc and a load of his fantastical  designs can be seen by doing a simple image  google search. Which I have done for you – just click google search.

If you want to build your own green wall Woolly Wally pockets provide you with a DIY solution. Garden Beet stocks the pockets in three sizes and three colours. Allowing you to create any sized green wall in range of visual settings, both inside and outside. As these are modular units the only limit is imagination.

If you want to build your own successful green wall Woolly Wally Pockets are competitively priced. These pockets are designed to last and can withstand the weight of soil and a plant’s root systems, as well as the harsh conditions of an outdoor environment. Plus the Woolly Wally Pockets allow a green wall to be built indoors as well.

Woolly Pockets  provide optimal growing conditions for a green wall. Each plant is given a large growing medium when compared to other vertical garden systems. Plus the root systems are air pruned preventing plants from becoming pot bound and thereby under performing, or even worse, dying.

These pockets allow anyone with a wall, sunlight, soil and plants to build their own green wall without any specialist green wall building knowledge.

Of course there are a range of solutions available but most are aimed at large corporate green wall designs. Woolly Wally Pockets are designed for the large coporate walls as well as the more domestic applications.

If you want to explore some great examples of  green walls that have been built in various parts of the world using a range of green wall products visit Gardenoplis.

If you want further help on building green walls refer to the continuing education website for construction professionals or the  daily anarchist or another article written by me.

This is only the beginning  I am sure.