Green wall module

With the near ubiquitous press Green Wall and Green Roof construction is receiving in the garden and design magazines I subscribe to, I felt as though it was time to build one for myself.

Expensive, proprietary wall and roof systems are nice because the engineering and the functionality have (hopefully) been worked out. The downside is that they are expensive and proprietary.

I like the idea of building something new with materials that are easy to find and that are relatively inexpensive. Gathering some left over wood polymer decking, 1/4" metal bed edging, weed fabric and netafim irrigation parts, I built a 3' x 3' "green wall module", mounted it to our shed and watched to see what would happen.

The good news is that the plants are thriving and it looks pretty cool. I didn't anticipate the amount of water drainage, however, and future green walls will have to be constructed with a mind to recirculate the water and pay closer to attention to water proofing the module.

NEXT: Green wall 2.0

Patio extension for spa

This morning we finished a natural flagstone patio extension that allows for easy entry into a newly installed spa. We left the backside open for panel access and an area for the cover to fold into.

During our initial customer consultation, some thought had been given to using a concrete paver product for the construction of the patio extension. Based on our observation of severe efflorescence in locally manufactured concrete pavers recently, and our affinity for natural materials, we suggested using a locally derived andesite flagstone.

The majority of the patio was dry set on a sand base with the patio edges and the small retaining wall set into mortar.

Stage 2 will consist of building a small privacy screen around the spa and rockwork, with thoughts for softening the whole installation later with plants.