The Art of Living Green
The Landscape Show 2009 inspired attendees with the display of six unique green walls. FNGLA members continue to request information and hands-on experience with green walls. This interest most recently culminated with the Green Walls for Green Buildings Workshop presented at TPIE 2010. The workshop was a perfect balance of current research, technical installation and maintenance, and application in green certified buildings.
Ken Kropp, a participant of the Green Walls for Green Buildings Workshop recreated a version of the workshop for faculty, staff and students of West Palm Beach Atlantic University. The Action Chapter green wall partner, EcoWalls®, not only participated in the Green Walls for Green Buildings Workshop at TPIE, but now has a prominent position this year with Walt Disney World's Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival at the FNGLA display showcasing the Art of Living Green.
Timing is everything, and given the reception of green walls, this is the time to develop your own professional art of living green. If FNGLA has yet to inspire you toward the art of living green, I invite and encourage you to visit this year’s Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. Below, we have in the beautiful photographs and eloquent words of the green wall designer, the true inspiration is in the experience. See the green wall in context, touch the Carex, and enjoy a seat in the garden with your eyes resting on the rich tapestry of colors and textures. I will be there the last day of the festival, but don’t wait. Experience the inspiration of living green sooner rather than later.
“Art of Living Green Garden” by Michael Coraggio, Founding Principal, EcoWalls
When developing a successful landscape, design inspiration often comes in many forms. For some, inspiration may come from a special place we visited or a magical experience we had during our travels. For others, inspiration is driven by purpose and practicality, as we focus on the environment, natural balance, and sustainability for insight to help develop our landscape strategies. FNGLA’s “Art of Living Green Garden,” on display at Walt Disney World's Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival, integrates a practical approach to landscape design, with environmentally sensitive and sustainable practice, and includes a “hint of magic” as visitors are introduced to the Tuscan garden for a total landscape immersion.
Members of the FNGLA family, equipped with a diversity of backgrounds, combined their talents to make the design inspiration in the “Art of Living Green Garden” come to a reality. The Tuscan garden incorporates many design elements including a children’s play area, water garden, citrus grove, herb plantings, olive grove, various flowering perennials, and outdoor eating area/pergola with a vertical garden as the backdrop. Guests visiting the garden walk out of the park and become immersed in Tuscany.
As a vertical garden design and installation company, and member of FNGLA, it has been our honor to help breathe life to the architecture in this garden. We do mean living architecture quite literally, as park guests entering the FNGLA garden will soon notice the living wall as an element within this Tuscan-themed landscape. Some may find it out of place to incorporate a “new green technology” into the design of old Italian landscape. Upon investigating the history of vertical gardens, the irony is there is nothing new about this concept. Vertical gardens, in the figurative sense, have been around since ancient Babylon (the Babylonian hanging gardens) and are a design solution used for growing agriculture on a vertical space (terraced gardens, espalier, and trellis gardening).
The EcoWall® in the FNGLA garden, a modular living wall system, is an example of how modern agronomists have turned old methods for urban farming into new agricultural solutions by incorporating synonymous techniques into new technologies. This living wall uses a soilless hydroponic system to support the lush plant material growing within. The FNGLA EcoWall® at the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival illustrates how a living, changing, piece of artwork may also serve functional purpose; it grows some tasty fruits and herbs.
Embedded in the rich tapestry of the planting design are several edible herbs and even some fresh strawberries! Heuchera draws in rich purples and amber color, Sedum ‘Dragons Blood’ adds a bright splash of red, Carex ‘Toffee Twist’ provides texture and golden hues, leptinella x ‘Platts Black’ and black mondo grass make a bold statement, and dwarf Japanese Holly ferns draw in an old world appeal. For the edibles; mint, oregano, and thyme add a wonderful fragrance while the strawberries flower and produce bright red fruit for the design (and a tasty snack). Tuscan farmers are tasked with creating a bountiful landscape in a drought-prone environment. They are no strangers to the philosophy of producing “more off of less.” The EcoWall® employs a similar methodology by utilizing micro-tubing to deliver water to the roots of the plants without wasteful evaporation.
The EcoWall® located in the Art of Living Green garden at Epcot, is one example of how inspiration may be driven both by a magical experience coupled with a practical and sustainable design solution. On a personal note, perhaps the most inspiring part of this experience was to see the talents and background of so many participants in the FNGLA family come together to create a truly successful landscape in one of the most magical places on earth. It is through the innovative products incorporated into the Art of Living Green Garden design, the water conservation methods of the landscape, and beauty of the citrus trees, olive grove, cypress trees, and various herbs, flowers, and other perennials that visitors become immersed into the landscape taking from this garden the magical experience of visiting Tuscany with a sensitive and sustainable twist.
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FNGLA Green Consultant
