Edible Green Walls

 Here's something new for FarmCity!  Edible, living walls!

One of our local credit unions invited us to make a proposal for a green wall, so of course, it had to be an edible one, if it was going to come from FarmCity!  It's an elegant, attractive solution for people with very small spaces on balconies or tiny townhouse yards - it takes up hardly any space, but provides lots of food.

We planted this one for a semi-shaded spot, with some edible flowers (pansy and marigold), herbs such as oregano, sage and peppermint, and a variety of lettuces and other greens.  The greens can be harvested, like the herbs, by picking individual leaves, while leaving the plants growing - and the flowers can be deadheaded, so they keep blooming, too.  That way, the wall looks attractive for a long time.

For a sunnier location, the plants could include strawberries, bush beans, small herbs, and bee-friendly flowering plants.  And for ourselves, we've long intended to make a mushroom-growing wall in the shade by a side fence: we've got oyster mushrooms growing in a cardboard box at the moment, and will put their spores on a medium of wood chips and chicken straw, in the edible wall.

Watering the wall is very easy: you pour water into reservoirs at the top (hidden behind the top piece of wood), from which the water is slowly wicked down to each succeeding row.  The plants are watered from the inside out, as it were, so that no soil erosion or movement can occur.  When installing such a wall, it is easy to ensure that the surface of the building or home on which it is installed is well protected from an water damage.

This particular green wall technology also makes replanting the wall each spring a very easy process: just grow or buy suitable bedding plants in small 2- or 3-inch pots, and plant them in the cells!

Entirely self-contained, it can be easily and quickly attached to any exterior wall.  Its modular character allows for just about any size and dimension of green wall to be made - though in the case of an edible wall, you probably want it to remain small enough to be easily harvested!

 

 

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Comments

[Moustafa]

I want to know what to plant when. How to keep it growing once its planted. How to deal with slugs (beer in the pie tin does not work for me). How to dig out small patches of grass and keep the grass out. What size containers are needed for deck gardening. How to make good soil NOW and then you can tell me how to make it work long term. What can I grow from seed and what is better purchased as plants.In case you have not guessed, I am a newish gardener ready to get dirty, frustrated by garden books.

[Stefan]

My garden has been chemical free now for five years and the number of beneficial insects has grown tremendously (so much so that I have a lady bug problem INSIDE my house). Question: Should I still be prepared to control non-beneficial insects through non-chmceial means or is it just a free-for-all battle of the insects and I cross my fingers that they work it out amongst themselves?

[Darach Seaton]

Moustaffa: Regarding your questions, a few quick answers:

What to plant when: I recommend that you check out the planting chart in the West Coast Seeds catalogue (fee each season at many garden stores), or on their website at: www.westcoastseeds.com - or read the backs of seeds packages.

How to deal with slugs: everyone has a favoured method, but for the organic, non-chemical gardener, no method works perfectly. Options include: encouraging birds (even raccoons, I hate to say!) that will eat the slugs; laying old boards out between the rows so that the slugs go under them to hide for the day - then you come out in the early morning and remove all the slugs beneath the boards; diatomaceous earth (get the pesticide-free kind) around each of the plants; planting bug-repelling marigolds, herbs and other flowers around and among the vegetables.

How to remove grass: with a spade, cut around the area you want to clear of grass, cutting down 4" or so. Then cut the sod into chunks, maybe 10x10' using the same method. Cut under the chunks of sod with the spade (get it at a low angle and kick the spade along beneath the sod). Remove each chunk as you go. This will remove 99% of the grass; anything coming up after that can be easily weeded out, making sure that you pull the tufts out including the roots.

Size of containers for deck gardening: this partly depends on the kind of plants you plan to grow. Lettuces and most other greens have shallow, wide root systems, so don't need a lot of depth (6", maybe); Potatoes would need a good 18" depth. The soil in planters needs feeding - fish fertilizer, liquid kelp, etc. - more often than larger beds. It also needs consistent deep watering - again, more often than raised beds - especially in very sunny spots. The smaller the container, the more often watering is needed.

Growing from seed or bedding plants: any hot weather vegetable such as peppers, tomatoes, artichokes, tomatillos, etc. should be planted from bedding plants (or if started from seed, sewn indoors several months before they can be planted out). Some plants are also just easier to grow from bedding plants - strawberries, some herbs, raspberries, and so on. Squashes, peas, beans, all kinds of greens, cucumbers, radishes, beets, parsnips, etc. can be direct sewn once the soil is warm enough - variable depending on which plant you're talking about See the West Coast Seed planting schedule mentioned above.

Hope this helps!

[Darach Seaton]

Stefan - Regarding beneficial and non-beneficial insects:

The "war" between beneficial and non-beneficial insects ebbs and flows over the years, so the re-stocking of beneficial insects every few years is helpful to keep the balance tipped in your favour.

Despite your present excess of them in your garden, for future reference you can buy or order ladybugs (great aphid eaters) at many gardening stores - same with beneficial nematodes (which kill the grubs of chafer beetles & weevils, wireworm, etc. in the soil).

Likewise, though people don't like them around their picnics and barbecues, wasps are great predators of caterpillars and other pests. So you might want to reconsider before you remove wasp nests, unless they're really in a place humans can't avoid. In the fall, the wasps die off, the queens go elsewhere to hibernate, and then the nests can be removed without damage to either yourself or the eco-system of your garden! Chickadees and other birds also eat enormous amounts of caterpillars and aphids, especially while raising their young - so put up nesting boxes for them so they'll stay nearby your gardens!

As well, you also have organic pesticides such as neem oil, insecticidal soap, diatomaceous earth (the non-pesticide-laced kind), etc., in your "arsenal."

And finally, some plants can help to repel undesirable insects - that's why you so often see marigolds and alyssum interplanted with vegetables. Look up "companion plants" on the internet or in your favourite gardening book for lots more info on other plants that help in this way.

None of these options results in the all-out eradication of garden pests - but in actual fact, to accomplish such an eradication is worse for your garden, not better, as it entirely upsets the balance of the eco-system of the garden, and can also open the door to invasion by still other pests.

Good luck with your garden!