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jaga_gw

Vertical Wall Update

jaga
16 years ago

Hi all,

Summer's here down under bringing glorious weather & long days. We've siezed on all available moments to work on our garden expanding our brom wall & rebuilding our front (driveway) garden. Thought we'll document work on the wall for those interested in vertical gardens.

Below are some pics of the process & end results

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Picture of wall covered with polythene & fixed with hardwood timber packers

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Picture of wall with shadecloth/wire mesh outer layer being fixed to packers from bottom up

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A neo about to be slotted behind outer layer- fill mesh with bark as we go along

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Above neo inserted & secured with plastic coated wire

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Overall view from top of driveway

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Pics from various viewpoint

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Our billbergia amonea rubra in a tree - inspired by Kerry & Sanders

Comments (20)

  • treehaus
    16 years ago

    Wow Wow Wow!

    Very impressive!

    Congratulations on the excellent work!

    Mike

  • catkim
    16 years ago

    Looks very cool! What is the structure under the plastic? How are the hardwood blocks attached?

  • LisaCLV
    16 years ago

    What a lot of work, but it looks great!

    Where are all the weeds? If I did that here it would be choked out by tall grass, vines and tree seedlings in no time!

  • avane_gw
    16 years ago

    Very nice!! It looks impressive! Did you have a plan according to which you planted that whole bank of neo's or did you just plant them in a random pattern? There seem to be a very nice, subtle 'flow of colour' in the whole lay-out!

    What is that huge dark burgundy one in the bottom edge - 2nd last picture?

    Japie

  • devo_2006
    16 years ago

    Spectacular...! That is a great result, and making use of the vertical space is very smart planting. Do you find the green wire mesh is enough to hold the plants in place, until their roots take hold, or do you tie them into position...?

    I have a some retaining walls, & seeing these photos makes me want to rip out a few plants, & cover the walls with broms.

    The plant that Japie asked about, is it Royal Hawaiian...? Looks like it is opening up, does it have a flower forming...?

  • jaga
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks for the encouraging words, Mike. CatKim the structure behind the plastic is a timber retaining wall- this timber is treated, hence the plastic is stapled to the timber wall to prevent seepage of chemicals to the broms.
    Yes there's a bit of slog involved, Lisa, but rather enjoyable to see it come together. Not much weeds- conditions with only bark must be too harsh, & if any pops up they are really easy to extract!
    Japie, there was no exact plan, just rule of thumb based on size & repitition of color to create a flow. Yes the dark burgundy plant is the famed `Royal Hawaiian'(one of the good ones for our climate), and yes Andrew, there are flowers forming- John's already being out, armed with brush & hope! As for the wall plants, we also use pastic coated wire to tie them together - the wire mesh alone does not hold them in place properly. Once you come to inspect you'll see how it's all put together- we're hoping to create a new trend as there are many unsightly retaining walls around the neighbourhood in need of a brom makeover!!

  • sander_s
    16 years ago

    I have no words...

    Wow.

    Sander

  • kerry_t_australia
    16 years ago

    Oh John and Agatha - congratulations on a spectacular result and innovative design. Fantastic!!!!!
    Looks like you're ready for that society group inspection - hope you get requests for other gardens in your area to cover ugly retaining walls - but then your dream home will never get finished!

    Well worth the effort - on ya!
    and love your bill. amoena rubra in tree :)

    Cheers,
    Kerry

    PS. Performed surgery on alcantarea style/stigma at 3am today when stigma 'dewy' - fingers crossed!

  • jaga
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Following up on wall construction discussion, heres's a picture of a plant being secured with plastic coated wire to the wall mesh.
    {{gwi:436610}}
    And here's a way before shot, back in the days when we had a manageable number of broms - with the retaining wall exposed
    {{gwi:436611}}

  • kiwinoz0
    16 years ago

    WOW WOW oh and WOW

    I'll have one of those, those and those, meh I'll just have one of each, he he he.

    Absolutely stunning, something to be really proud of, awesome.

  • philofan
    16 years ago

    What a fantastic garden you have! Nice brom-scaping work.

  • jaga
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks for encouragement folks- we are very interested to know if anyone else do vertical planting & their techniques? Would love to see any examples out there.

  • brom_phil
    16 years ago

    hey nice place Ill buy it how muxh
    how many dithernt types of broms do you gotand how lond did that all take you

  • jaga
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Hi Brom phil,
    It took us 3 years to collect the broms , and a couple of weeks to do the wall (second part, about 5 bays- 2 bays already done over a year ago). There are roughly 250 broms in all.

  • User
    16 years ago

    jaga, that is a work of art! Very, very cool. I just have to ask, are those "brom arms" in the first photos? You know, the kind of arms bromeliad collectors usually have? ;-)

  • jaga
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Hi Gonzer,
    If by brom arms, you mean scratched to the hilt, yes, yes - a combo of neo spines & the wires from the mesh. Thank goodness we were not doing it with spinies!!!

  • User
    16 years ago

    That's what I mean all right! Can't forget "brom legs" too.

  • brom_phil
    16 years ago

    arnt broms nice when you go to some ones place and you decide to nick a few, and you get cuts and scratches all over you in the proces of taking them.

  • LisaCLV
    16 years ago

    You're not going to get many invites to visit now, brom phil!

  • wanna_run_faster
    16 years ago

    Incredible! Some people are just so creative! (I'm not even going to mention the weeks of work that went into completing your vision!) Truly spectacular!

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