A living wall through the seasons
This living wall is part of a small town garden in Kingston upon Thames. It has been designed and created in Autumn.
A real success – a focal point of the garden which brightens up a dull boundary fence and a dark corner next to the house
The herbs amongst the mostly evergreen perennial and fern planting provide a wonderful scent when brushing past and there is different interest in form of scent, texture and colour throughout all seasons.
7 months after planting the plants have filled all gaps and there are hardly any of the black panels visible.
The planting consists of pink flowering Bergenia, Helleborus, Primula vulgaris, red leaved Heuchera ‘Palace Purple’, Tiarella, Polystichum (Fern), Liriope (Blue lilyturf), evergreen creeping Soleirolia (Mind-your-own-business), variegated Lamium ‘Silver Beacon’, Rosemary, Marjaram, Thyme, highly scented Calaminta, even Strawberries are included.
Maintenance so far has been easy and maintaining a vertical garden is quite a nice change to the usual bending down.
At the end of year 1 sadly the vine weevil destroyed a few plants and from then the wall required treatment with nematodes. I have treated 3 times this year starting in April, then following in July and October. Some of the plants have recovered and developed new roots.
I have now filled the gaps with 40 9cm pot plants: more Bergenias, Heuchera ‘Chocolate Ruffles and Calamintha.
Sereiola has taken over in places and is very difficult to remove due to a strong root system – but it looks sooo lovely ! ‘Bubikopf’ in german, which means boys head.
October is the time to deadhead as more and more leaves die back. Weekly deadheading in Autumn helps to keep the wall still looking good and tidy.