Vertical Gardening: A Recent Idea of Urban Gardening

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The Scientific Agriculture July, 2022, Volume 01, Issue 01
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Vertical Gardening: A Recent
Idea of Urban Gardening
The Scientific Agriculture (July 2022)
Volume 01, Issue 01, Page No. 23-30
Vertical Gardening: A Recent Idea of Urban Gardening
Vishal Srivastava1*, Dr. Deepak Kumar2, Rohit Gangwar3,
Satvaan Singh4 and Tejendra Kumar5
1*, 3&4 Department of Floriculture, SVPUAT Meerut (U.P)
2Assistant Professor, Department of Soil Science and
Agricultural Chemistry, Eternal University, Baru Sahib (H.P.)
India
5Department of Horticulture, R.S.M. (P.G) College Dhampur, Bijnor (U.P)
Email Id: deepaksoilsci@eternaluniversity.edu.in
Introduction
Vertical garden is also known as
green wall is the term of used to refer
to all form of vegetated wall surfaces
(Green roof organization 2008). The
lack of urban vegetation as a result of
human construction directly affects the
quality of human life from a physical
and aesthetic point of view.
Construction of vertical gardens is
recommended both indoors and
especially outdoors in the building.
Vertical gardening is a relatively new
urban gardening idea, mainly suitable
for small spaces for decorating walls
and roofs of different styles. In this era
of rapid urbanization, the horizontal
space left for outdoor gardens is very
limited. “liveable city" has emerged as
the concept of a modern city
celebrating the 21st century.
Need of vertical gardening in urban
areas
Due to urbanization and
industrialization, many environmental
problems are associated with cities.
Urban air pollution is a serious health
problem in the world. Ignoring air
pollution poses various health risks
such as asthma, heart attack, bronchial
infections, sinus infections, headaches,
cancer, poor concentration, nausea,
eye infections and many other illnesses
increases. The Government of India
has launched a program on behalf of
Swatch Bharat Abyan as part of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's "Green
India-Clean India" mission. The focus
of the mission is to increase the
number of trees in India to stop
deforestation and reduce pollution.
Vertical gardens allow plants to be

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planted on walls and other non-
horizontal planes.
Plate: 1. Clean India Green India
Vertical garden
Means plants are grow in the
form of vertical section. Vertical
gardens have existed since 1938, when
Professor Stanley Hart white of the
University of Illinois came up with the
idea and created its patent. Patrick
Blanc is a botanist and inventor of the
vertical garden.
Plate: 2. Vertical Garden on Wall
History of Vertical gardens
In ancient Babylon, about 2,500 years
ago, Nebuchadnezzar II built the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World and the ancestor of modern
green walls. Patrick Blanc, who coined
the term "mur vegetal" (green wall),
can be considered as the father of
modern green walls (Dunnet and
Kingsbury, 2010). During the 3rd BC
to 17 AD, the Romans cultivated vines
on the trellis in the garden and on the
walls of the villa. In the 1920s, Britain
and North America encouraged trellis
structures and self-vines in homes and
gardens.
Plate: 3. Hanging Gardens of
Babylon (Imaginary image)
Classification of Vertical gardening
system –
According to the method of growing,
vertical gardens can be classified as

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green facades and green walls/living
walls (Dunnett and Kingsbury 2004;
Köhler 2008, Ratih et al., 2016).
1) Green facades
2) Living/ Green walls
1) Green facades: The green façade is
a type of green wall system in which
vines or cascade ground covers are
trained to cover specially designed
support structures. Plants are grown on
the ground or in elevated tanks, where
they are watered and fertilized.
Plate: 4. Green facades
2) Living/ Green wall- A green wall
system consisting of pre-green panels,
vertical modules, or planted ceilings
that are fixed vertically to a bearing
wall or frame. These panels can be
made from plastic, synthetic fibers and
support a variety of plant species (eg
ferns, ground cover plants, perennials
and lush mixtures of edible plants).
Plate: 5. Green wall
Two types of living/green wall:
i) Modular green wall- The Vertical
Garden Module is made of recycled
poly propylene material. It has an
attractive look, is extremely durable in
nature, and is easy to install. It
provides an immediate solution for
garden design in your place of
residence.
Plate: 6. Modular green wall
ii) Vegetated mat wall- Developed
by Patrick Blanc, this system consists
of two layers of synthetic fibers with
pockets filled with plants and growing
medium. The fabric wall is supported
by a frame and fixed to the building

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wall with a waterproof membrane.
Nutrients and water are supplied by the
irrigation system at the top of the wall.
Vegetated mat wall
Suitable plants for living wall
system:
• The plants chosen for the walls of
the vertical garden should be
dense, compact, well-formed,
slow-growing and evergreen with
a healthy root system, attractive,
graceful and pleasing to the eye.
• When choosing a plant, you need
to consider the pattern of exposure
to sunlight.
• To create a vertical green wall in a
sunny place, you need to choose a
drought-tolerant plant. If you grow
in the shade or indoors, or under a
pergola or verandah, you should
choose a shade-loving plant.
Plants for outdoor/Exterior green
wall:
Herbaceous
perennials
Shrubs
Grass like
foliage forms
Alternanthera
green
Ficus
species
Dianella
tasmanica
Alternanthera
sessilis
Plumbago
auriculata
Ophiophogon
Mentha spp
Plumbago
indica
Pandanus
tectorius
Duranta
variegate
Trachelospe
rmum
Pennisetum
setaceum
Asparagus
densiflorus
Phalaris
arundinacea

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Plants for Indoor Green Walls/ Shaded
areas –
Herbaceous
Perennials
Shrubs
Succulents
Anthuriums
Cordyline
terminalis
Zebrina
pendula
Aralia
Ficus spp
Begonia
Rhoeo
discolor
Philodendron
selloum
Schefflera
Setcreasea
purpurea
Growing media
Requirements:
• Weightless media
• High water holding capacity
• High nutrient holding capacity
• Good Porosity
• Neutral pH
• Cocopeat, Perlite, Sphagnum
moss, Vermiculite, Vermicompost,
Shredded bark and leaf moulds are
the common media combinations
used.
General Considerations for Green
Walls:
• Watering: Suitable time
• Careful selection of windy areas
(succulents and tough plants)
• Timely applications of fertilizers
• Pruning if necessary
• Keep the structure clean
• Disposing the water from drainage
system
• Remove dried leaves
Advantage of Vertical Gardening
1. It acts as a natural insulation for
hot and cold air, saving energy in the
building:
Indirectly, living walls reduce
the need for air conditioning and
energy consumption of city buildings
by cooling the city. Green walls can

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reduce the wall temperature by up to
15°F, resulting in significant air
conditioning saving (Baumann 1986,
Doornach 1979).
2. Improved air quality and
Increases O2 and Reduces CO2
levels:
The advantage of vertical
gardens is that they improve the air
quality in the urban areas inside and
outside the house. This is because
plants are a natural filter, Plants take
carbon dioxide out of the air and
replace it with the oxygen it needs very
much.
Considered in very general
sense, planting one wall of any house
which situated 50 houses on the street
is equal to plant 50 trees on this street
(Erdogan and Aliasghari Khabbazi
2013).
The NASA Clean Air Study
owner Irsi Bardulla has been led by the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) in association
with the Associated Landscape
Contractors of America (ALCA). Its
results suggest that certain common
indoor plants may provide a natural
way of removing toxic agents such as
benzene, formaldehyde and
trichloroethylene from the air, helping
neutralize the effects of sick building
syndrome (NASA).
3. Saves water and requires less
effort to water: - One of the greatest
advantages of vertical gardens is the
use of water. Irrigation is very efficient
as it is done using a drip irrigation
system or a hydroponic cultivation
system as a starting point. The
drainage is collected in a dedicated
bathtub at the bottom of the garden and
drained there. Alternatively, you can
recycle it and return it to the garden.
This means that virtually all water is
used by plants and produces very little
waste.
4. Decrease voice level: - The soil and
plants used for plant placement in
vertical gardens have a sound
absorbing function. Therefore, it helps
to reduce the voice function that occurs
in both the buildings and the
surrounding area. The green walls
provide noise protection that
significantly reduces external noise
and vibration (upto 40 DB) in our
homes and workplaces. A small indoor
hedge placed around a workspace will
reduce noise by 5 decibels (Dunnett
and Kingsbury 2004, Jacobs 2008,
Wong et al 2010).

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5. Urban Heat Island Effect: - The
heat island (UHI) is a metropolitan
area that is considerably warmer than
the surrounding rural areas, especially
late in the afternoon and at night in
winter. To avoid confusion with global
warming, scientists call this
phenomenon the "urban heat island
effect". There are several reasons that
can explain the heat island effect, but
the main reason is urban
overexploitation. Green walls are the
most popular way to cool the city.
Green walls make buildings it
significantly reduces this effect by
cooling, countering the heat island
effect, and absorbing large amounts of
heat through the evaporation process.
6. Social impact: - social impacts like
psychological impacts, Aesthetic
impacts, Health impacts, Job
opportunities, urban agriculture and
Economic impacts.
i) psychological impacts -
Horticulture has a therapy field
regulating human-plant relationship
to reduce stress, fear, anger, blood
pressure and muscle tension (Brown
et al., 2004). A study showed that
green plants in the working places
reduce absence of the employees by
5-15%. The plants in the classrooms
reduced the stress level and
increased productivity of the
students by 12% (Butkovich et al.,
2008).
ii) Aesthetic impacts - The undesired
effects of artificial and aesthetically
poor appearance can be reduced in
vertical gardens. Urban aesthetics
can be enhanced by vertical
horticultural practices, the deformed
structural surfaces can be covered
with vegetation, and the cityscape
can be updated.
iii) Health impacts - From a
physiological perspective, vertical
gardens might have an impact of
reducing heart rate and stress (Peck
et al., 1999). It is reported that
symptoms such as headache might
be reduced by at least 20%
(Bringslimark et al., 2009).
iv) Job opportunities - New
business and job opportunities are
created in the market when the local
governments and private sector
started vertical garden practices for
urban memory and identity in the
institutional green market.
v) Urban Agriculture - Rapid
urbanization and rural decline are
negatively impacting agricultural
land. New food production
technologies are being tested due to
population growth and urbanization.
One of these is vertical farming,
which results from the reduction of
horizontal space.

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vi) Economic impacts -
Profitability is the main factor
behind the use of technology. An
economic analysis is performed on
the investment cost of a technology
and its lifetime profitability.
Factors to consider for a successful
start-up Internal vertical structure:
There are several factors for
successful establishment of vertical
structure like as-
(i) Irrigation
(ii) Selection of soil
(iii) Light (light intensity, light
quality and duration)
(iv) Temperature
(v) Humidity
Limitation:
1. To grow a vertical garden, you
need a sunny place.
2. If the height is too high, it can be
very difficult to maintain. Do not
make it higher than you can reach.
3. The support system needs to be
strong enough to support all
weights.
4. The bearing wall must be able to
withstand a lot of moisture. You
can also use a polyethylene layer to
create a moisture-proof layer
between the vertical garden and the
wall.
Conclusions –
• Vertical gardening basically means
growing ornamental plants on
vertical surfaces such as homes,
offices, hospital walls, and large
facades of buildings.
• In many urban areas of this era,
horizontal space is a gardening
constraint, so installing a vertical
garden is a viable option for
incorporating greenery into homes
and buildings. There is no doubt.
• Vertical green walls can be
installed along highways,
subways, railroad tracks, airports,
etc. to reduce the negative effects
of noise pollution.
Vertical gardening helps cool and
insulate the building, reducing the
need and cost of high voltage air
conditioning.