Living Wall by the Consummate Artist, Mother Nature - How I Learn About Green Roofs and Living Walls

The best school to attend to learn about Florida green roofs and Florida living walls is 'Mother Nature's' School of Urban Green.  This holds true of any coastal area, or any other area for that matter.

Florida living wall  - green roof by Mother Nature, Resurrection fern, Pleopeltis polypodioides growing out of a concrete bridge platform

As a novice designer of vertical green compared to Mother Nature, I am always looking to her to learn about growing plants on a rooftop or up a wall.

Florida green roof - living wall by Mother Nature, Resurrection fern, Pleopeltis polypodioides growing out of a concrete bridge platform

Yesterday I was on my bike, doing my daily physical therapy to hopefully maintain my dissected aorta in some sense of health, when a lush, vibrant and very tropical looking group of plants caught my eye.

Florida living wall example by Mother Nature, Resurrection fern, Pleopeltis polypodioides growing out of a concrete bridge platform

Resurrection fern, Pleopeltis polypodioides, had covered the vertical side of a concrete slab bridge platform above a creek.

Florida living wall  - green roof by Mother Nature, Resurrection fern, Pleopeltis polypodioides growing out of a concrete bridge platform

Nature had created a beautiful living wall, vertical green with resurrection fern, Pleopeltis polypodioides, and without any soil, fertilizer or artificial irrigation sources.

How does she do it?  The best way is to examine the surrounding ecology as an integrated unit.

The concrete slab provides a growing platform similar to rock and gathers solar heat during daylight hours, providing a warm area for the plant to attach roots.

The creek below contributes humidity to the air.  A bioswale could mimic this water source below a concrete wall in the urban core.

Adjacent trees provide shade and tell the green roof or living wall designer that resurrection fern may probably grow well in the shade.

And so much more information right in front of my face.  Ten minutes studying the natural living wall creation told me more than hours worth of reading would have.

Mother nature is such an amazing artist and teacher!