Thursday, August 19, 2010

Living Walls...

It seems like they are all the rage right now, so of course I'm crazy about them. I was inspired by one planted up by Flora Grubb Gardens below. It was a bit out of my price range, so I worked with what I had.



I had a 9.5"x11.5"shadow box I found at a thrift store quite a few years ago that was a perfect container to get me started. We drilled holes at the bottom, filled it up with succulent soil and topped it off with a wire screen. I purchased succulents in a variety of sizes. 1 gallon pots are a better purchase because you can divide them into many plants. "Holes" were cut in the wire screen to plant each succulent. I let the completed box grow for about 2 months before we hung it up.





I was so excited as the small one grew in, I decided to plant a bigger box! This time I recycled a mud flat container (the plastic tray ground covers are sold in). I planted it, excluding the wire screen, let it grow for about 2 weeks. K built a frame around it using recycled lumber. We were a bit more inpatient with this box, so we ended "wiring" the plants in place before we hung it.



The finished size is 21"x21". This box was so heavy we installed it with HUGE bolts! I'll have to get K's help to take it down for me so we can water it, thankfully succulents don't need too much water!



“I consider it the highest compliment when my employees go out and start their own companies in competition with me. I always send them a plant to wish them well. Of course, it's a cactus.”
~ Norman Brodsky

2 comments:

Karin said...

cool! First I have seen of these.

Joy said...

Those are amazing, the color groupings really are dramatic. Very nice work.