All photos courtesy of Blondie's Treehouse
We’d been working on a living wall project for this new Whole Foods grocery store on Long Island for the past few months with Blondie’s Treehouse of Mamaroneck, NY. The building had been approved with a living wall element as an integral part of the facade, so the store couldn’t open without it.
More after the break…
image courtesy of Erica George Dines/Atlanta Botanical Garden, via Garden Design magazine
Erica George Dines/Atlanta Botanical Garden, via Garden Design magazine
I just returned from a relatively lackluster AIA conference in Miami. It was as hot and humid as you would expect June to be in South Florida, and it gave a lot of architects an excuse for not going to the conference. When I was leafing through the mail that had arrived while I was down there, I picked up Garden Design magazine, which in turn picked up my spirits.
There, in the first section of the magazine (they call it “fresh”), there was a complete article about the new Edible Garden section of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, featuring a full-size image of the living wall.
The article featured Bravo Top Chef star Kevin Gillespie (left), a local Atlanta chef preparing food at the outdoor kitchen, and related why the ABG went for an edible wall in the first place. I wasn’t aware until I read the article that the entire edible garden was built in the place of a former parking lot.
The walls appear to be growing in nicely, and are even being harvested for the cooking demonstrations held there. While not the only star of the show (check out the pictures to see all the different edible garden features), it makes for a spectacular backdrop to the edible garden section.
photo: Earnie Grafton, San Diego Union-Tribune
This great article in the San Diego Union-Tribune highlights the use of the VGM system for an edible wall application at the Urban Corps non-profit in San Diego. The Urban Corps “trains at-risk youths for the workplace with an emphasis on green jobs such as recycling”, and has installed a full edible garden on the roof of their building. Of course the work was done by our friends at Greenscaped Buildings in San Diego – just one of the many living walls they’ve put in recently. Check out the article to find out more…
photo: Earnie Grafton, San Diego Union-Tribune
photo courtesy of Greenscaped Buildings
When Jim at Greenscaped Buildings originally planted veggies and edibles in his VGM living wall last year, it was the first time, to our knowledge, that anyone had done this with VGM in the U.S. The trial has proven to be a success! They’ve just harvested the VGM modules (see the picture above). Check out his blog to see more images, including pictures of their carrots, beets and strawberries. It’s fun, healthy, and proves what you can do with a VGM module!
All images courtesy of Plant Solutions, Scottsdale, AZ
A while back, we published a post about a TerraScreen® living wall installed by Joe Zazzera of Plant Solutions, an interiorscaper, landscaper, and all-around green plant guru in Scottsdale, AZ. That post was picked up by Gavin at Livingwallart.com, and has gone viral!
In the meantime, Joe has been busy installing a demonstration VGM® living wall at his facility in Scottsdale. He was nice enough to document the whole thing – pictures after the break…
ABG Living Wall, 4 weeks after installation
A few weeks ago we published a post, “First Look at the Atlanta Botanical Garden Living Wall”. Those images were taken just as the wall was being installed. The entire area, the Edible Garden, is opening this coming Saturday, May 1st. Here are several more images of the Tournesol VGM system taken 4 weeks after installation (after the break).
The Atlanta Botanical Garden is at the forefront of the living wall movement. They used our TerraScreen® interior living wall for their spring orchid exhibition, entitled “Orchid Daze” The video above shows a short stroll though the main exhibition hall. More images and another video after the break.
We’re just not used to this kind of attention! It’s not even us, really, but our product features prominently.
You can read the story that accompanies this video here. The Batali restaurant group really believes in the concept – they are expanding the wall at the Pizzeria Mozza, and adding an interior wall to a restaurant in Vegas.
In addition to this story, Jim was interviewed today for a nationally-shown program on Fox Business. Stories are appearing in the mainstream media with regularity – looks like greenwall is where living roofs were 3 years ago!
In addition to being media darlings, Greenscaped Buildings is working on the first exterior installation of a TerraScreen system in a unique setting on top of a building in downtown San Diego. They are installing in the next few days, and we’ll try to get images shortly thereafter.
Update: Jim was on Fox Business News, you can see the link here. Elizabeth Meltz, the Director of Food Safety and Sustainability for the Batali/Bastianich Hospitality Group, wrote an article for the Huffington Post emphasizing their commitment to “being green” that you can see here.
Newly installed VGM system on radius wall
Thanks to our partner Saul Nurseries, who sent us these images of the VGM living wall being installed last week at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens by Valleycrest. The wall is 52′ long x 8′ high, made up of 120 modules. More images after the break…
As we’re starting to sell more VGM living wall systems, we’re getting more questions about assembling the modules. You’ll understand the different parts and the procedure once you watch this 3-1/2 minute video.
