Inside Urban Green

Patrick Blanc » Authentic Horticultural Genius

Every day doing my research, I see the word genius along with other undeserved superlatives tossed around indiscriminately. Hyperbole is the order of the day. In the case of Patrick Blanc, however, the word genius is well deserved.

In all my years as an interior plantscaping professional, I know of no other person who has scaled the heights of Monsieur Blanc. With that said, it was still a surprise to see him in a Wall Street Journal video.

In my view, he is largely responsible for breathing new life into the rather moribund, techno-averse interior plantscaping business. Call them green walls, vertical gardens, or living walls. I see Blanc type walls everywhere, most of them by new creative people in the business. There is hope for a new age of urban greenscaping founded on modern technology and that is definitely a good thing.

How would you like to have a view from your desk like his?

via online.wsj.com

Since Biblical times, gardens have been horizontal, with flowers and plants sprouting out of the ground. Patrick Blanc has turned that whole notion on its side, literally. Mr. Blanc is the inventor of the vertical garden, also known as the living (or green) wall.

Mr. Blanc, 58, is a botanist with France's National Center for Scientific Research, the country's giant science and technology agency. He also has a private practice designing gardens. Among the more than 250 he has installed around the world, his most famous are at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, the Caixa Forum Museum in Madrid and the French embassy in New Delhi. A celebrity among horticulturalists, he's even got a new kind of begonia named after him, Begonia blancii, after discovering it two years ago while trekking through a rainforest in the Philippines. These days, a Blanc-designed garden commands well into the six figures.

When he is not on a plane to the Middle East or exploring a remote rainforest in Hawaii to study native plants, Mr. Blanc works at the home he shares with singer Pascal Héni just outside Paris's city limits. There, he has a desk placed on top of a large aquarium, about 20 by 23 feet. "I see the fish swimming beneath my legs," he said. "It is a dream." His office includes a lush living wall, covered with plants. Read more...

Paris » An Interview with Patrick Blanc

If you have not yet discovered Patrick Blanc and his work, this video is a good introduction. As an interior plantscaping professional, I am in awe of his plantscaping creativity. The man with green hair is truly a botanical genius and pathfinder. He has led the way into a completely new age of green walls, vertical gardens and urban greenscaping. Prior posts.

via www.youtube.com

Green Walls » Plant Connection Inc, LI, New York

The video is in a Plant Connection, Inc. greenhouse on Long Island, NY. Evidently, the plants are for a green wall project at New York University (NYU) in Manhattan. I will cover this project further after an onsite visit.

While the interior plantscaping industry declines, the green wall (aka living wall) business emerges.

This system appears to be very similar to, if not the same as, the Green Living Technologies (GLT) system.

It is going to be interesting to see how the marketplace reacts to the sheet metal box type systems versus the Patrick Blanc fabric pocket systems.

Let the green wall games begin!

See more project photos of green walls including plants grown by Plant Connection. It is an impressive project gallery.   

San Francisco » Living Walls by Plants On Walls

via GreenScene-YouTube

It is most refreshing to see innovation like this. What a great commercial application of Patrick Blanc's incredible green wall art. It was nice to hear homage paid to him. The founding partners of Plants on Walls in San Francisco have created an innovative business. I look forward to visiting them one day.

In my view, the fabric pocket method is the best of the entire array of vertical growing methods I have seen. It is very plant friendly and has an "organic" sensibility. It emulates natural environments that I have seen when trekking though tropical rainforests.  

London » FARM:shop Progress Video

The video was shot this past December. The FARM:shop is now open and apparently thriving.

It appears that there may be lighting issues regarding the nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponics wall system and the indoor plant vertical garden in the stairwell. Time will tell as it always does when growing plants inside buildings. Light is the limiting factor. The best thing to do is to measure the light with a light meter before planting.

Also note that there are no solid media (artificial soil) based sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). In my view that is a significant omission in what I view as a very progressive urban food production project.

There is also a comprehensive Flickr photo set by AlexandraMPayne a New Yorker who worked at the FARM:shop as a volunteer.

via www.youtube.com

Lushe: Aria Vertical Ecoscapes

If it's a new vertical garden (aka green wall or living wall), you can count on Lushe of Australia to be on top of it.

New vertical garden concepts come out almost weekly. Here is a great new product from Evo Organic called the Aria Vertical Ecoscape. It is has a modular design which stacks on top of each other and has a water reservoir at the base which solves a the problem of water recirculation.

via www.lushe.com.au

Vertical Gardens Around The World Video

This is a comprehensive collection of vertical gardens (aka green walls, living walls) from around the world.

See this prior post Vertical Gardens Around the World for even more information.

It would be interesting to see a follow up photo collection with installation dates to be able to monitor how they are holding up over time. It's one thing to install living plants, it's another to maintain them in good condition over a long period of time.

via www.youtube.com

Vertical Gardens: Count The Ways To Make Them

Here is yet another way to make a living wall (aka vertical garden, green wall). This one is a cleverly done aquaponics planter. It has a fish tank below it. Check out the step by step photo instructions.

Harking back to my days in the interior plantscaping business, my big concern is that many people who make gardens like these may not have experience growing plants in low light interiors. I don't see any sign of auxiliary lighting in the photos. This is tricky business. I see many "brown walls" in the future. 

Figure out how you are going to arrange your plants first. Here we’ve chosen Alocasia (elephant ear), Nephrolepis (fern), Scindapsus (pothos), Ficus pumilla (creeping fig), Chlorophytum (spider plant) and Asparagus.

via urbangardenmagazine.com

Vertical Gardens: Root Wrappers Look Like A Good Idea

This looks like an excellent idea from Plants On Walls in San Francisco. Although I haven't product tested them, I like the fact that the roots have an "anchoring medium". All of this is evocative of the green wall maestro Patrick Blanc.

via plantsonwalls.com

Root Wrappers keep the roots protected and moist, and the dirt contained. Use them in the pockets of our Vertical Garden Panels where the water-absorbing fabric wicks water around the root ball. Great for changing and arranging your plants and keeping collections that are portable and easy to handle because the dirt is completely contained. It's a whole new way of thinking about gardening.

Link Vertical Community Gardening In Our Future?

Call it what you like, vertical garden, living wall or green wall Lushe in Australia is most likely going to be on top of it.

This post is about a clever idea meant to be the basis for "community gardening". I'd love to see a system like this along with sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) become a reality in the community gardening movement.



Do they ever need some new thinking? My observation is that many of them are homes for Luddites when they should be encouraging people from all lifestyles including technology.

Catering solely to dirt huggers makes a mockery of the word community.

via www.lushe.com.au