Greening freestanding walls requires a special design approach, as shown here. More about this topic under supporting/retaining walls, dry masonry, and gabions.
The limited height of a free-standing wall initially makes it difficult to choose plants. Fast-growing plants are ruled out, or their growth must be guided horizontally using climbing aids, pruning, etc. And it should be clear as early as the planning phase whether the wall crown will be greened or not. It is not possible to combine all factors such as rapid coverage, evergreen vegetation, low maintenance, low water requirements, and no or inexpensive climbing aids, so priorities must be set. The planting is then based on these priorities. The following plants are particularly common:
This is the classic way of wall greening! In order to make use of light and heat, every available sunny wall was planted with vines in a variety of training systems. The aim was to produce alcohol, which was used as a raw material in industry and medicine. For more information, see ‘Middle Ages’.
Espaliers are trees that are given a strict shape to optimise space. In cooler areas of Central Europe, many plants love the stored warmth of a protective wall. They were traditionally planted at the foot of a stone wall, as the heat stored by the stones allows the fruit to ripen better. In the Baroque period, wall gardens with "talut walls" (free-standing roofed walls) were specially created to produce trellis fruits. Wooden trellises and horizontally spanned wire arrangements were also used; the latter inspired our cable system 8010.
'Self climbers' ~ like wild vine and ivy (Boston and English ivy) ~ for which climbing aids are unnecessary, are often used on such walls. When using these plants, however, it is particularly important that the wall is intact. The cope of the wall must be able to repel and drain all precipitation so that no water can penetrate from above, and all joints should be watertight so that the shoots of the plants cannot climb their way in (and cause potential damage to the structure). Climbing hydrangea and climbing spindle (winter creeper) are also suitable and less aggressive.
Many climbing plants can also grow overhanging and then become ‘hanging plants’. This characteristic can be used when greening a wall crown and the greenery then falls down the side of the wall facing away from the planting site and continues to grow downwards like a curtain. For walls that support a higher ground level (‘retaining walls’), the greenery can also be planted right at the top and then grow overhanging on the visible side of the wall. Cotoneaster and winter jasmine are particularly well suited for such greenery, but ivy and many of the ‘Vines with red autumn leaves’ are also suitable.
Which climbing plants are particularly suitable for “technical” walls, i.e. which ones cope particularly well with heat, drought and neglect? To find out, the Bavarian State Institute for Viticulture and Horticulture (Ms Eppel-Hotz) conducted a long-term experiment from 1994 to 2011 on a 700-metre-long noise barrier along the B 27 road through Veitshöchheim. At the beginning, the plants were watered and fertilised a little, but then the vegetation was left to its own devices. Of 41 climbing plant species, only 4 proved to be ‘unreservedly recommendable’ after 15 years: two grapevine species (Vitis vinifera and Vitis amurensis), Greek bindweed (Periploca graeca) and knotweed (Polygonum aubertii). You can find the full report here as a PDF.
A wall can be greened in a variety of ways with different plants such as dutchman's pipe and mini-creeper!
For reinforcement, older, long walls often have pillars or at least ‘pillar supports’, i.e. one-sided thickening, approximately every 3 metres. Horizontal wires or wire ropes can often be easily attached to these. It is even easier to attach climbing supports to concrete walls, because here you can drill almost anywhere without hesitation. Further details on building materials can be found under ‘Wall types’. The following aspects are also worth noting:
Walls are almost always ‘founded’ and therefore have underground foundations. These divide up the available root space. A climbing plant that grows close to a wall therefore has only limited root space, in the worst case only half of what would be available without foundations, at least until its roots eventually grow under the foundations. This also halves the amount of water available in the soil, just as it does with any normal façade greening. But there is more: the wall also draws water from the soil and evaporates it, further reducing the amount of water available.
At the same time, the plants have a greatly increased water requirement, at least if they grow on the warm (south) side of a wall. From the simple assumption of ‘only half as much water available, but twice as much demand’, it is easy to deduce that the water requirement for wall greening is increased by a factor of 4, and this is where the topic of ‘irrigation’ comes into play. On the other hand, for some plants, less water also slows down excessive growth, so that the desired balance between actual growth potential and the space actually available is achieved in terms of leaf mass. When in doubt, it's always worth giving it a try!
Some walls, e.g. those made of concrete, do not have a wall coping and do not need one. Otherwise, zinc sheet covers are often used. However, roof tiles, natural stone slabs or mortared clinker bricks are also common. Climbing plants should be prevented from growing under sheet metal or in cracks and crevices of any kind, as they can cause structural damage as they grow thicker. It is even safer to keep sensitive wall copings completely free of vegetation!
Climbing support is required for almost all plants except for ivy and 'wild vines' like Boston ivy or Virginia creeper. Cable systems from FassadenGrün can also be used on non load-bearing walls; especially fitting are the elongated forms 8010and 8020. When necessary, several cable systems (such as 4010, 4020, or those from the 6000 category) can be grouped next to each other. Wire frames screwed onto the wall are also an option. However, please note the following: Horizontal cables in urban areas are prone to vandalism because of the ladder effect-- people climbing up.
When mounting into natural stone masonry or brick, keep a 20 cm distance from all edges to prevent cracking. For more information, refer to our manual on 'drilling work for climbing aids'. Even in the range of 25 – 40 cm spacing on such walls, mounting should be done expansion-pressure free ~ so, no rawl plugs/dowels. Use composite mortar instead. Concrete walls, on the other hand, are not critical.
Fassadengrün is a commercial supplier of stainless steel wire rope systems in Germany, Europe and overseas. Information about: Which plants are suitable, are climbing aids necessary, should they be made of wood or metal? Here at FassadenGrün you will find all the information you need from a single source.
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