lunch with plants - canteen in Switzerland - project finished January 2021

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[DirtMechanic]

That is cool. How are they lit?

 

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lit? you mean what kind of light we used? LED Spots 40 Watt, 30 and 45 degrees focus angle, dali controlled (home automation protocol). The vertical garden system is ours. No soil and interval irrigation.

 

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This is just a small plant wall. We are researching and developing constantly how to make wall gardening as easy and effective as possible. Passion, curse and joy in one.

 

[DirtMechanic]

lit? you mean what kind of light we used? LED Spots 40 Watt, 30 and 45 degrees focus angle, dali controlled (home automation protocol). The vertical garden system is ours. No soil and interval irrigation.

Is the irrigation separated for sanitary purposes or just one pump?

 

[crazygreenthumb]

We use fresh water, inject it on the way to the plant wall with nutritions. The wall gets soacked. The surplus water (just a little) drips into a stainless steel drainage (custom made to fit the room design and filled with local granit stones). No pump needed for that irrigation concepts. For other projects we also use circulating irrigation with a water tank or/and combined with rainwater. We have developed a box where all necessary valves, electronic timers, nutrition tank, etc. is included. The plumber just has to connect it to the standard connectors.
For us it is very important to define exactly where other specialists (plumber or electrician) has to come in. Otherwise we could not make projects any where in the world. A plant wall has to work flawlessly otherwise your plants will suffer or die. It has to be simple so anyone can maintain it. A plantwall should be of high quality so your investment is safe for decades. It has to be thought through so your building walls (indoor or outdoor) are not suffering.

 

[DirtMechanic]

We use fresh water, inject it on the way to the plant wall with nutritions. The wall gets soacked. The surplus water (just a little) drips into a stainless steel drainage (custom made to fit the room design and filled with local granit stones). No pump needed for that irrigation concepts. For other projects we also use circulating irrigation with a water tank or/and combined with rainwater. We have developed a box where all necessary valves, electronic timers, nutrition tank, etc. is included. The plumber just has to connect it to the standard connectors.
For us it is very important to define exactly where other specialists (plumber or electrician) has to come in. Otherwise we could not make projects any where in the world. A plant wall has to work flawlessly otherwise your plants will suffer or die. It has to be simple so anyone can maintain it. A plantwall should be of high quality so your investment is safe for decades. It has to be thought through so your building walls (indoor or outdoor) are not suffering.

That is very smart. I could imagine the public contaminating a recirculating system. I like the idea very much. I think it would freshen a space and dramatically improve the air quality of a space.

 

[crazygreenthumb]

yeah. Regarding contamination: it depends on what kind of nutrition you add to the fresh water and what amount. Most use too much and some use the wrong one. In Switzerland we have super strict regulation regarding what you can let down a waist water pipe. The regulations regarding what you can let into the ground (outdoor gardens) is even much more strict. Water laws are understandably the holy cow of laws in Switzerland. Using these regulations as a basic standard is helpful anywhere.

Regarding water usage: we've developed a special compound of recycled PET felt with a certain density, thickness and fluffyness so plants feel happy. It also provides enough space for water to be stored so we do not have to water often. My own private walls at home are watered for 3 minutes every 15 hours (circular irrigation) per 80 plants. For 80 plants it needs aprox 40 litres of water every 2 weeks. Nutritions I add about a 10/th of what it says on the nutrition bottle (nutritions stay in the circular system - so you need much less of it).

Regarding the positive effects of plantwalls:

• natural evaporation air humifier - by controlling the irrigation intervalls you can improve the relavie air humity by 10-30%
• sound absorption degree of 90%+ - lese noisy noise
• absorbs all kinds of green house and other gases
• less dust with plants
• refreshens air
• adiabatic cooling effect aka natural AC (similar to the feeling you get when standing close to a tall hedge in a hot summer day)
• plants tend to calm people down
• helps to insulate buildings (outdoor on facade)
• and more

In my opinion facades need to be considered to be greened. When constructing a building you'll destroy a lot of biospace. So using the walls to compensate is a very good way to help the world become a better place. Sounds cheesy but hey - there is one planet and we all have to do our part. I am a patriotic for humanity (jeez - even more cheezy).

No advertisment but have a look at https://vivit.green (English Version comming soon) - and our DIY kit: https://vivit.green/vertikal-garten-system-set/
As I said - were working on plant walls and its perfection for more than ten years. And we are very proud to be more and more successful. But it was and is very hard work.

We just started a subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/RealPlantwalls/ if you want to follow our work.

its 1:30 in the morning. Need to sleep now. Cheers mate!

 

[Jewell]

It’s beautiful. More photos if possible.

 

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above pictures from a normal elderly home (not for rich people) in Zurich, Switzerland. I took the pictures when servicing the wall.

 

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One of my walls in my house.

 

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Experimenting in our office/manufacture - researching different vertical garden concepts.

 

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by the way: we do not use soil. soils belongs to the ground. soil is heavy. you can carry a detached planted, wet plantmat of 2 square meters are easily around. so if you need to rearrange your house you can do it with ease.

 

[Jewell]

These are incredible. The size and variety of plants are quite amazing. I enjoyed looking (more like “goggling”) at the variety of size and shapes of planter.