Green Roof and Living Wall Soil Media - Vertical Green Begins Below Ground

Vines provide great vertical screening and greening capabilities, especially here in Florida where strong desiccating winds can quickly overwhelm and dessicate a planted exterior living wall,

Coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens offers interesting color and texture as a living wall

 (unless one uses a non-native invasive species like Boston Fern, Nephrolepis cordifolia, which is never recommended).

One of the most important aspects of creating a beautiful, thick and lush living wall is sometimes never even considered, that being the quality and characteristics of the soil in which the vines are planted.

Unfortunately, many designers only consider the flowers or foliage, forgetting the roots though not seen, are so critical to leaf and flower development.

Native Carolina jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens should be nice and thick but is planted in bad soil

In urban development projects the soil can be concrete rubble with a high pH.  In situations like these a beautiful stainless and expensive trellis and nice, hot house grown plants can end up looking terrible in a matter or weeks.

Coral honeysuckle planted in poor soils looks terrible

I've written about the Jacksonville Whole Foods living wall trellis system before - an expensive living wall system that looks pitiful, all due to high pH and other soil problems.  Soil pH is a measure of acidity or alkalinity in the dirt.

Living wall vines can become woody without proper soil, loosing their leaves

The health food grocer has a high-quality stainless trellis system installed near the front entrance and on the south side of the store building.  Yet the plants have not successfully established themselves and grown well.  The store has been open now for several years, allowing plenty of time for the plants to send down roots and add  upper biomass.

The present store facility was originally constructed where another building had been demolished.  It appears some of the original slab was reused, and significant amounts of concrete, crushed block and other previous building material was integrated into the soil during site preparation.

Most plants prefer a soil pH of between 5.6 up to 7.0.  Many native and adapted Florida Friendly plants vines require an even lower pH to thrive.

Soils with a high pH, such as the urban soils in the Whole Foods living wall planters, restrict nutrient availability (specifically iron, zinc and manganese), stunting planted vine growth and causing yellowing of leaves.

Although some soil amendments appear to have been added during final landscaping, the type and quantity were not adequate to encourage strong plant growth.

There are several simple remedies available to the Whole Foods site.  The living wall was installed in 2010-2011 and could have easily be supporting massive amounts of flowering, fruiting and beautiful vines by mid summer 2012.  Today it is 2014 and the vines still struggle to maintain a tiny about of leaf cover.

But a remedy is possible.  First there needs to be a minor excavation of existing planter soil, both around the front columns and then within the southern wall planter box.  This soil does not need to be discarded.

Second, an appropriate amount of ammonium based fertilizer should be mixed into the soil.  Ammonium based fertilizers typically contain ammonium sulfate or sulfur coated urea.  Ammonium and oxygen react to form nitrite/nitrate, water and hydrogen ions.  The hydrogen ions then work to acidify the soil.

One advantage urban soils usually have is the variety of soil particle sizes and if not over-compacted, can provide for adequate oxygenation of the soil.  Oxygen and ammonium provide nutrients for the plants and help counteract the higher pH of the urban soils.

A quick field test of the Whole Foods planter soils reveals significantly higher than normal  pH.

Amending with organic matter is another possible approach.  Composted pine bark, pine needles, oak leaves, properly composted food scraps can also release both needed nutrients and hydrogen ions into the soil.  Another benefit of the organic mulch route is that earth worms and other soil life will quickly create extensive micro-communities, contributing additional nutrients and providing for nature based soil aeration.

Once the Whole Foods planter soils are amended with the proper amount of ammonium based fertilizers, the soil can be replaced and plants installed.

Of course, care should be taken not to over-fertilize.  Excess amounts of ammonium based fertilizers can burn the roots of installed plants, creating a whole new set of problems.

Native and landscape vines alike can add vertical interest, privacy, screening, color and texture to a landscape project under almost any atmospheric conditions if they are growing in adequate soils.

Remembering that vertical green begins far below the ground is the first step to living wall design and construction success.

Living Wall Update, Whole Foods, Jacksonville

One year ago, during February 2012 we examined in a post dying 'living walls' across the Whole Foods store in Jacksonville, proposing the theory of inadequate soil makeup as the primary reason for the living wall plant's poor performance.

Whole Foods 'living wall', Jacksonville

Briefly examining the site history led us to realize that another concrete block building, including a foundation and concrete floor existed prior to the present building. The site soils were what we would characterize as Urban Soils with abnormally high pH levels.

Whole Foods 'living wall', Jacksonville

Our post recommended removing some of the existing soil and amending the planters with rich organic laden soil.

Urban Soil fill existing planters

The Whole Foods living wall structures are quite expensive, a high-end stainless steel wall system appearing to be a CarlStahl Decorcable design.

Expensive, high-end living wall system

It is a shame these beautiful living wall frames are not covered with brilliant blooming Passiflora, Trumpet Vine, Coral Honeysuckle, Carolina jessamine and other beautiful landscape or native vines.
Instead, today wisteria (a relatively invasive species) is struggling to maintain even a small bit of coverage on the facade of the building. Fertilizers do appear to have been added, providing for a short lived spurt of growth in some areas.

I suspect that a stunning array of flowering vines doing very well on the trellis system would actually increase sales at the store. Paradoxically, the 'puny' vines send a message of 'unhealthyness' across the entire facade of the health foods store.

Our suggestion still stands. Remove as much of the high pH Urban Soils as possible and replace with a higher organic matter content soil. Add soil pH stabilizers. Remove the wisteria and other plants not suited for the site and add those species destined to thrive in the existing planters.

Next year the Whole Foods store could be well on it's way to a vibrant series of living walls, or....... the topic of yet again another post like this one.

Posted with Blogsy

An Expensive Florida Living Wall's Death. Why?

Florida boasts several wonderful Whole Food stores and I enjoy shopping within, relishing the samples of exotically delicious cheeses, thin sliced blood oranges and store-made salsa.

After yesterday's visit I chose a chair on the marketplace's front patio, affording me an opportunity to sit and think about why their beautiful and very expensive Florida Living Wall trellis system and plantings had miserably failed.

Whole Foods' dead Florida Living Wall

The living wall failure was nothing new.  Ever since the store's construction and opening in 2008-2009 I had watched in fascination at the shiny stainless cabling and support brackets, hoping to see a lush, tropical wall of living, breathing vegetation established, one providing habitat for Florida's native anoles and tree frogs (themselves wonderful pest-management strategies), cleaning stormwater, fixing CO2, pumping fresh oxygen into the air, providing a much needed Sense of Place in an otherwise increasingly Urban Concrete Jungle and more.

However, despite the expensive trellising, cabling and other stainless attachement hardware, the wall supported little else but brown, dried and dead plants and vines.

Florida Living Walls must be designed with appropriate criteria to ensure survival

Such a shame because the trellising highlights the main entrance.  Customers must walk past the dead vines and plants to enter the store.  Though I am not a high-powered marketing expert I can easily recognize a sense of failure, brown and disappointment that most people would subconsciously acknowledge when walking past the dead vines and plants.

What went wrong?  Who did the install and design?  

Surely the trellis system was expensive enough and fabricated from a high quality material.

Why, after numerous attempts at plantings by staff and contractors are the living walls still dead?

Invasive Nandina is hiding the failed Florida Living Wall, Whole Foods, Jacksonville, Florida

These are all questions a good living wall designer must ask themselves long before final project specifications and ultimate installation.

Certainly the issue is not one of plants and constructed buildings being fundamentally unable to coexist.  As we read in yesterday's post 'Green Roof Sleuthing' shows us just how compatible plants and structures actually are and in fact, buildings would soon be overgrown with plants if left unattended.

Some landscape designers I've talked to scratch their heads, wondering why the plants they typically specify and use in horizontal landscapes just dont work in Living Wall or Green Roof applications.

And there are many very important differences.

I've always said Living Walls are magnitudes times more difficult to design and successfully keep looking good in the long term.

So the designer needs to be on his or her game up front.  All important design criteria must be analyzed and recognized when specifying all the components of a Florida Living Wall System.

As I rested on the front patio of the Whole Foods Marketplace in Jacksonville and examined the Living Wall design, the issues became obvious.  The opportunity for a magnificent Florida Living Wall, one that would greet customers with lush texture, color and scents was there.  Some of the components though were missing or ill-installed.

So what is the answer to the Whole Foods' dead Living Wall in Jacksonville?

Tomorrow's post will discuss what I perceive mut be done to produce the Florida Living Wall, one that would greet customers with lush texture, color and scents and truly welcome and invite money-spending clients inside.

Living Walls, the work of Bob Chabot at the Jacksonville Zoo

Jacksonville, though certainly not a 'green' city, has a core group of individuals who want to see plants fill a concrete and asphalt void.

Bob Chabot who serves as Director of Horticulture and Facilities for the Jacksonville Zoo, as well as President of Greenscape of Jacksonville and Vice-President for the Association of Zoological Horticulture and I took a tour of his zoo gardens yesterday, focusing on several upcoming projects we are both involved in, the Lasalle Street native plant bioswale and living walls for the USGBC's North Florida Resource Center in downtown Jacksonville.

Bob Chabot & very healthy, flourishing lemongrass, Cymbopogon flexuosus

Of course, it helps to have all the mammal compost you ever need to grow great plants, however the design, combination and selection of native plants, Florida Friendly Plants and plants from around the world make the Jacksonville Zoo a virtual ethnobotanical and horticultural library.

Living Walls, Jacksonville Zoo,  Confederate Jasmine, Trachelosperum jasminoides

Living Walls, Jacksonville Zoo, Cross vine, Bignonia capreolata

Living Walls, Jacksonville Zoo, Cross vine, Bignonia capreolata

Bignonia and Trachelosperum offer several great advantages for vertical urban greenscapes.  They are both evergreen, non-invasive, provide habitat for wildlife, offer a stunning array of scents and visuality and importantly are drought tolerant.

We'll post updates on the various projects as they 'grow'.  In the meanwhile, if ever in Jacksonville be sure to take the time and tour the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens.

Urban Living Wall - Cummer Gardens, Jacksonville

Thought I'd post a quick photo of a beautiful Urban Living Wall located on the St. Johns River in Jacksonville at Cummer Gardens.  Enjoy!

Living Wall, Cummer Gardens, Jacksonville, FL

Living Wall Plants Florida - One Good One Not So Good (Yet Pretty)

Recommended Living Wall Plant Pick of the Day:

Staghorn fern,

Platycerium spp.

Staghorn Fern makes a great living wall plant, especially here in North Florida - but should do well across the southeast.  Benefits include:

1. Evergreen
2. Once established does not generally require irrigation
3. Good Screening plant
4. Grows and multiplies steadily
5. Broad, attractive leaves and form
6. Does not require significant, if any, soil
7. Available in most home improvement stores and nurseries.

Living Wall Plant - Staghorn Fern, Platycerium, MetroVerde

Non-Recommended Living Wall Plant Pick of the Day:

Japanese Honeysuckle,

Lonicera japonica

I really like this vine but cannot recommend it's use due to the extreme invasive nature of the plant.  Watch out if you ever use Japanese Honeysuckle because the plant will literally take over.  I've cut it out of the attic, off tall walls and it is almost impossible to get rid of.  Yet it is evergreen and beautiful, and will establish a barrier screen very quickly!  The plant has been placed on the list of Florida's Invasive Plants - click here for more details. 

Invasive Living Wall Plant - Japanese Honeysuckle - Lonicera japonica - MetroVerde

 Choosing the right living wall plant is as important as choosing the right living wall structural system!

Email us with your questions.  Kevin.