A green wall is livening up the brick work around Firth Court thanks to the BMS Green Impact team!
The team who achieved a Gold Award for their Green Impact workbook this year have channelled their enthusiasm into creating a nicer environment for us all to work in!
Living walls are becoming a popular way to add greenery to an urban landscape, with vertical gardens proving effective in adding vegetation to a built environment with limited space. Within cities, green walls can help to regulate air temperature and regulate the temperature of buildings as well as helping to combat air pollution. The vertical design proves popular for urban gardening and opens up possibilities for urban farming. A green wall will also increase local biodiversity!
The benefits don’t stop there; living walls improve our surrounding environment and can help to alleviate our stressful working days!
The fully planted living wall in Firth Court!
The green wall was built by Steve from the BMS team using recycled and low cost materials. It was completed in his spare time over the course of a few days. The main body of the wall was built using wooden pallets and the black fabric was then attached to hold the soil in place.
The wall is made from pallets and fabric
After speaking to experts in Landscape Architecture at the University, the team decided to fill their wall with peat soil and to use mostly alpine plants as these would cope the best in low light conditions. After an initial test phase to see which plants survived, the wall was filled with beautiful plants and it now looks fabulous!
Lots of alpine plants are thriving in the wall
The simple design of the wall, its low cost and the ease with which it can be moved around mean it could be replicated throughout the University.
If you have been inspired, why not build your very own living wall!
