Vertical gardening

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Vertical gardening is used for the decorative effect on the site and to protect buildings, recreation areas, playgrounds from noise, wind, dust and overheating. Vertical gardening is convenient in that it is capable of creating a dense, picturesque green coating of vertical walls (arbors, retaining walls and other structures) in a relatively short time. For vertical gardening, perennial plants with various shapes of flowers and fruits, texture and color of leaves are used. Many of them breed easily. Creepers are suitable for creating pergolas, arbors, shady alleys, they perfectly complement and decorate retaining walls, fences. Vertical gardening allows you to increase the area of green spaces, hide some parts of the garden and buildings.

Using vertical gardening, you can realize the most daring and unexpected fantasies, using pre-designed small architectural forms in the form of various geometric shapes, stylized images of animals and various forms, you can make a significant variety and a positive shade of mood on the site.

Placing plants in vertical landscaping

To place plants in vertical landscaping requires the installation of special supports. For floating vines, these are all kinds of gratings, frames, trellises, cords, trims. For climbing creepers, the supports should not fit snugly against the walls, since they need space for the free movement of the top of the shoot. The thickness of the supports should be no more than 5 ... 8 cm, that is, not exceed the diameter of the rotation of the stem so that the liana does not slide off the support.

Vertical landscaping gives additional picturesqueness to buildings and facades. The use of vertical landscaping is advisable on the southern and western facades and walls of buildings, as it protects the building from overheating and protects from noise. But some climbing plants are not recommended to be planted on the south and south-west sides of protected structures (fox grapes, Vicha grapes, Japanese grapes, colchic ivy, sweet peas).

Methods of vertical gardening

Facades of buildings, arbors, pergolas and arches, decorated with climbing plants, coupled with fancifully trimmed crowns of trees create a vertical compositional line of the garden. This is what is called vertical gardening.

The vertical curtain of plants, as already noted, protects against noise and dust, perfectly decorates the site and is the easiest way to improve the territory.

For vertical gardening, supporting structures are required. Their type depends on the original landscape.

Hedge

Creating a vertical line of landscape design most often begins with the creation of hedges. The basis for it is such decorative forms as trellises and screens. They are planted with various climbing plants. As a rule, several types of flowering plants are used (for example, climbing rose, clematis and adlumia). A hedge can be sheared or uncut, low, medium, high or curb.

Pergola

The main structural element is a wooden lattice, which is freely wrapped around climbing plants. Pergola not only decorates the garden, but also protects from wind and sun.

Both pergolas and hedges are most often decorated with vines. Their indisputable advantage is that they do not require large areas for growth, and are flexible. However, other climbing plants are also used. They allow you to hide many of the shortcomings of the landscape and at the same time can serve as independent decorative elements.

Facades, arches

Often a support for climbing plants are the facades of houses. If the building does not fit into the overall design concept, it can simply be twined with plants.

Plants in containers

Plants in decorative flowerpots, flowerpots and drawers are increasingly used to decorate garden plots. Containers can be located directly on the ground, on the floor or be suspended, for example, on the veranda.

For growing in containers, wind-resistant and drought-resistant plants are used.

Plants for vertical gardening

With vertical gardening with vines, it is they who offer a huge palette of the most beautiful and diverse color combinations due to the coloring of foliage and even flowers. The following plants give excellent results for vertical gardening with vines:

climbing roses
clematis clematis
actinidia
ivy
Honeysuckle Honeysuckle
sweet pea
morning glory
lobia
grape
melotria
heder curly

Girl's Grapes - widespread everywhere - it is a large deciduous vine. It can grow anywhere - both in the sun and in the shade, it is undemanding to the soil, it does not need shelter - it winters well. It is compatible with any plants, grows very quickly, can grow up to 4 m per year, so most likely you will have to limit its distribution. Its leaves are very beautiful in their shape, and in the fall it becomes bright red - this is a very spectacular sight. Its bluish berries are very beautiful, but they are inedible.

The girl’s grapes can also reproduce themselves - the fallen vine can take root. But if it is necessary to plant it in various places, then reproduction is done by cuttings, they are planted at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other. No rooting stimulants need to be used - the grapes take root very well. At first, loosen the plantings, water, weed and direct the plants towards the supports. Subsequently, in addition to watering, special care will not be required. This plant is suitable for any support.

Amur grapes - Similar in many respects to the girl’s, it’s just less common in summer cottages. It also winters well. Its berries are edible, you can make wine from them, make jam.

Common hops you can, as they say, plant and forget. He, meanwhile, is very beautiful and also a valuable medicinal plant. It is sometimes more difficult to remove from the site than to get it, so it is worth controlling its growth. He prefers partial shade and shadow, but can grow in the sun. It responds well to watering. It can be propagated both by seeds and by dividing the bush. In winter they don’t shelter him.

Clematis - everyone's favorite climbing plant. It is very decorative, blooms luxuriously. It has many species and varieties, and each of them has its own shape, size and color of the flowers. It can be white, red, blue, dark violet, even almost black, it can be pinkish-lilac ‚in general, flowers nevertheless gravitate towards the blue palette. There are clematis with truly huge flowers! Such a plant on the site immediately becomes an accent, even one. At the same time, clematis is unpretentious. The only thing he needs is top dressing and watering, because he must bloom magnificently!

Decorative plants - until November, and it easily tolerates minor frosts. For winter it needs to be covered, but the shelter is the simplest - just a certain amount of spruce branches and a dense spunbond from above are enough. Clematis is of two types: some bloom on the shoots of this year, then they are completely cut off (leave stems 20-30 cm), others on the shoots of last year. But they are only slightly shortened, rolled up and laid. In winter, clematis can withstand frosts down to -30 degrees. The only thing this plant frankly does not like is acidic soils and stagnation of water, as well as frankly sunny places. At a minimum, he needs to cover his “legs”, that is, to shade the lower part. This can be done by planting densely at its foot some perennial flowers or a low shrub.

He needs a rather large area of nutrition, so if clematis is planted in a row, then keep a distance of at least 1.3 m between them. The best feeding for clematis is infusion of mullein, sometimes with milk of lime. You can also feed with full mineral fertilizer, but it is better to alternate these types of fertilizing. For winter, before shelter, sprinkle compost at the roots at the roots. The best support for clematis is a special mesh. Only then will it look like a magnificent "fur coat". Therefore, if it is necessary to place clematis on a wall or on a gazebo with large crossbars, then you need to stretch a mesh on these surfaces.

Honeysuckle Honeysuckle has very beautiful openwork flowers of a pinkish-peach color, which are also very fragrant. She very densely braids the proposed supports. The first time you need to direct the shoots, make sure that they do not twist. They don’t take it off for the winter, it suffers frosts down to -30 degrees. But at a lower temperature, the ends of the shoots may freeze, then in the spring they are pruned, and in general pruning this vine is not needed. The distance during planting is about 1.5 m, lignified cuttings are planted, you can buy seedlings in pots. The only thing this plant does not tolerate is damp, so you need to select dry places for planting or make good drainage.

Actinidia colomictus It has beautiful leaves and flowers, and also healing berries. They also don’t cut it off, they don’t take it off or cover it for the winter. At first they follow the shoots, direct them and put a net of cats around a young plant - they really like to nibble it. The grid is held for about 2 years. It requires a large area of nutrition, good fertilizer and watering - therefore, the distance during planting should be at least 2 m. Mullein and compost work most effectively. Although this plant prefers partial shade, it also grows well in the sun. Then the main thing is abundant watering, especially in the heat, and also if the weather is dry for a long time.

Schisandra chinensis not yet very common, but in vain. This is a real Spartan, requires a minimum of care, he has almost no diseases and pests. In size, this liana is the largest, as a rule, more than 10 m, therefore it requires large-area supports. So for arbors, walls and fences lemongrass - "the very thing." But planting can be planted quite often - a distance of 0.7 m will be quite enough. In lemongrass, the whole plant is healing, all its parts are used in medicine, but its rather decorative reddish berries are especially popular - they have a strong tonic effect.

Traditionally, in the Far East, hunters took with them only 2-3 lemongrass berries and did not know fatigue all day. Schisandra loves partial shade and the scattered sun, but extremes (either a bright sun or a solid shadow) are poorly tolerated. He does not like waterlogging of the soil, as, indeed, most vines. Responsive to fertilizers, better organic. If you need to propagate it, use the root offspring.

Climbing rose It may look enchanting, but for this you need to try, this is the most difficult component of vertical gardening. By itself, she will not curl, she needs help - periodically tying the shoots to the support. There are roses that bloom very abundantly once a season, and there are varieties that bloom not so magnificent, but for a longer time: new and new buds are constantly formed. Contrary to popular belief, this plant is not so demanding, the main thing is to warm it well for the winter.

This rose may not bloom if its shoots freeze. In spring and summer, of course, new ones will grow, but, unfortunately, flowers are formed on the shoots of only last year. If the climbing rose does not bloom constantly, then it constantly freezes. She needs a warm "house". The best option is a wooden box plus a dense 2-layer spunbond on top. Such shelter is both warm and “breathing”. First, the rose must be removed from the support - this is the most difficult thing - it pricks significantly, so it’s better to buy a flexible special support for it, which can be removed from the main support (arches, arbors) and fit together with the rose.

Then cut the shoots by 1/3, turn them into a ring and lay them in a “house” on a layer of sawdust. In summer, caring for a climbing rose is similar to caring for ordinary roses, and, of course, the place for it should be sunny.

Vertical gardening with vines makes extensive use of the benefits these luxurious plants provide:

a variety of shapes and colors of flowers, inflorescences and leaves: flowers and inflorescences in lianas come in different shapes and colors;
a huge variety of leaf mosaics creates a bizarre play of light and shadow that allows you to create the widest palette of decorative effects and determines the shadow mode of architectural structures;
nature awarded blooming creepers with very spectacular flowers;
creepers have a wonderful variety of leaf ornaments and unexpected variations of the arrangement of leaves on the vine liana;
rapid growth allows you to grow whole living sculptures in one year.

In vertical gardening with vines, annual vines are also widely used: sweet peas, morning glory, lobia, melotria and many others.

Annual lianas are interesting in several features of their physiology:

fast growth;
extraordinary unpretentiousness;
ease of use;
bright beauty of flowers and leaves.

The principle of using vines in vertical gardening is a very successful property of these plants: vines always wrap around any support. Lianas cling to the support with the help of a whole arsenal of devices that other plants do not have: a stem, young shoots, aerial roots, even elongated leaf petioles and antennae.

In cities, vertical gardening with vines is even more significant than outside the city. Creepers acquire special, key importance in the decoration of the vertical surfaces of buildings and structures. Indeed, in the city there is one very important problem: landscaping should be done with a minimum area consumption. Creepers can solve this problem and get the maximum amount of green mass with a minimum of usable area taken from the city.

Vertical gardening with lianas turns balconies, windows of buildings, fences and porches into fabulous visions. Vertical landscaping with vines can create almost weightless living tents from the scorching summer sun, decorate almost any architectural structure.

The key difference between vertical gardening with vines and other decorative gardening methods is that vines form, as a rule, a dense uniform green mass against a background of a separate structure or backwater. That is why two peculiar “golden rules” of vertical gardening with vines should be strictly observed:

in vertical planting with vines, never use several types of vines in a small area at once, otherwise one plant will drown out the neighboring one;
remember that vines almost always have a high growth rate and look different when changing seasons.

Vertical gardening with vines has a number of negative features, which are important to consider when applying it:

plants on the wall accumulate moisture, so never use vertical landscaping with vines on the walls from the north and north-west;
lianas decorating balconies and windows make it very difficult for light to enter the room;
blooming vines can lead to allergies in the inhabitants of the house;
root vines can severely damage the blind area of the house and adjacent asphalt and tile sidewalks;
roof vines can clog the water troughs.

These negative points should not be exaggerated, because vertical gardening with vines has a lot of undeniable advantages:

luxurious decorativeness;
scope for creating a variety of design projects;
creating a favorable microclimate by regulating the thermal conditions in the room, especially if they are comfortably located on the south and south-west sides of the building;
performing dust collection functions;
improvement of sound insulation (the degree depends on the following factors: the density of the leaves, their formation and ability to absorb sound).

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