Easy Florida Living Wall

Yesterday we posted a note about a struggling living wall.  Yet living walls, if planned properly, can be easy too.

Ficus punila, living wall Tallahassee

Florida Living Wall, Low maintenance 

Living walls such as those pictured here provide many benefits, including; stormwater attenuation, urban heat island effect mitigation, carbon sequestration, air purification, beauty and wildlife habitat.

This particular wall provides a home to a large population of our native Florida Anoles.  Florida Anoles need vertical green above one meter or so to escape the larger, more predatory Cuban Anole and themselves are an important pest control species as their diet includes flies, roaches and other bugs.

Creeping fig, ficus pumila is a drought tolerant vine and although it is not a Floria native it does not exhibit significant invasive characteristics.  More information on the creeping fig vine is available on the UF IFAS website here.

The vine is planted in urban soils amended with organic matter at the base of a concrete wall surrounding the gasoline station.

Soil preparation is crucial when considering a living wall.