Vertical gardening
The basis of vertical landscaping is made by climbing plants. This type of floral and floral design is important even if only because it makes it possible to get the maximum green mass in a small area, hide some of the walls from the eye and create the illusion of a green environment. With the help of vertical landscaping, you can decorate the facades of buildings, emphasizing their beauty and creating a unique memorable appearance, or you can, on the contrary, mask unsightly structures and hide undesirable parts and details of the garden composition. Vertical landscaping by various plants besides decoration is also useful, as it creates a more favorable microclimate near the house. The leaves of lianas reduce the heating of walls, especially on the south and south-west sides. So, the air temperature on the landscaped terraces and verandas is lower by 2-3 ° С than on the green areas. Climbing plants reduce the penetration of dust or polluted air into the room, and their lush foliage reflects the heat of the sun, not allowing the walls to overheat. Foliage creates a cool and increases the humidity of the air, which is especially valuable in the heat period.
Climbing plants, decorating windows, doors, balconies, verandas, reduce the noise level in the room. Thus, the leaves absorb up to 20 % energy of the sound waves incident on them, and reflect and scatter 74 %. The ability of plants to reduce noise depends on the density of the leaves, the way they form climbing plants, and their different sound-absorbing properties.
Indispensable vertical landscaping and when designing such small architectural forms as arbors, trellises, pergolas, retaining walls. With the help of climbing plants, you can create graceful shelters from the summer heat, as well as decorate them with various architectural structures. The supports, which are lined with lianas, acquire a peculiar appearance and give the impression of a large mass of greenery. Beautiful entrance gates and gates, if on both sides to plant climbing plants that have a variety of forms, a rich palette of coloring of leaves, flowers and fruits. Vertical landscaping does not require large expenditures, and its decorative effect is great.
. Interesting from beautifully flowering vines with split leaves are different racks, pyramids, crossbars, tripods. They are made of wooden slats 1-3 m long, driven into the ground. Near the supports are planted lianas. Sometimes lianas make garlands - this old forgotten reception of floral decoration.
The main difference between vertical gardening and other types of ornamental horticulture is that the climbing plants form a predominantly homogeneous green or flowering mass against the background of some structure or backwater.
In addition to the vertical gardening of the house, climbing plants can be used as an interesting reception for decorating the garden area. Of these, arbors, arches, pergolas( covered alleys), trellises, canopies, pyramids are created;they can decorate slopes, stony placers and other decorative devices.
Like any form of decorative design, vertical landscaping has a number of principles, observance of which is very important for creating a harmonious picture. With vertical planting of an object it is inappropriate to use several species of climbing plants at the same time in a small space. This will inevitably lead to an excessive diversity of thickets, in which one plant, as a rule, will drown the other, and the mixing of color effects will create a chaotic picture, devoid of harmony. In addition, when doing vertical gardening, it should be remembered that climbing plants in most cases must have a high growth rate in order to create a significant area of vegetative cover in a short time, and with beautiful decorative qualities, so that the resulting picture is quite colorful. It is not only the decorative effect of foliage at the time of its development, but also the bright flowering or contrasting color change in young and aging leaves, when the living wall of greenery becomes golden yellow or purple-red.
Flowering climbing plants are able to create compositions of extraordinary beauty and poetry
Depending on the architecture of the house, verandas, other objects, the layout of the vines can be symmetrical and asymmetric. They are planted either in the form of solitary plants, or in the form of groups of the same species. With a single planting, vertical landscaping can be intermittent. When planting the group, the greens can cover the entire wall of the building, and the lower shoots, along the ground, can be combined with grass and flowers, which creates an interesting transition from vertically growing green to the horizontal line of the flower bed or lawn.
Vertical landscaping has a number of features that, of course, need to be considered when placing climbing plants. First of all, we must not forget that plants, growing on the walls, contribute to the accumulation of dampness. This affects especially when placing plantations from the side of the walls of the north and north-west exposure. Dampness spoils the material from which the wall is made, causes decay of the tree, accumulates and penetrates the room, causing dampness and mustiness. Therefore, climbing plants, at least significant overgrowth, not the should be placed near poorly heated by the sun walls of houses. In addition, placing the climbing plants at the support, one should take into account its strength, strength and reliability. It is necessary that the support be able to withstand the severity of the overgrown plants, which can be significant.
Another way to plant climbing plants is to use large wooden boxes and tubs that are located near the walls of the house by the balcony or veranda. They resort to this method when it is not possible to plant the vine directly near the house. In large
To support climbing plants on the wall, you can create a support in the form of horizontal rows of wire or cord, stretched with an interval of 25-3 cm. The wire, cord or rope is stretched between nails or metal eyes, under which a hole is drilled in the wall and the plug is inserted
Wooden grating can also serve as a support. for climbing plants. The grid is screwed to the wall with screws. It should be remembered that there should be enough space between the grill and the wall for proper ventilation. To remove the grill from the wall, you can use wooden spools from threads that are installed together with a screw between the wall and the
grate. Boxes and tubs can be planted various winter-hard and heat-loving species. In the latter case, they require either good shelter, or they must be removed to the cellars. Planting climbing plants for vertical gardening has some features. Pits for planting are planned under the walls of houses outside the blind area or are made so that the water does not flow under the foundation. In addition, when preparing landing pits, it should be remembered that they should be placed relative to the walls of the house in such a way that water draining from the roof or eaves does not flood the plants. Dimensions of pits for planting climbing plants may vary depending on the species and vary within 30 x 20 x 40 - 80 x 40 x 60 cm( the smallest indicator is related to the width of the pit oriented parallel to the wall of the house).
Propagate climbing plants in different ways. Most of them can be easily grown from seeds, although in this case they grow more slowly in the early years. It is much easier to get ready for planting on permanent plant sites by cutting or rooting off root offspring. Such planting material grows very quickly and well preserves the decorative features of the maternal form. Among the climbing plants are many winter-hardy species, which are quite suitable for development in the northern regions of the country. But even if some of them are heavily frozen during the winter, intensive growth in the next growing season completely eliminates signs of damage. If necessary, some types of climbing plants can be insulated for the winter. For this purpose, preliminary pruning of the shoots is made, leaving only the central
skeletal whips, which are bent to the ground and sprinkled from above. In this condition, plants better winter, and in the spring they are again tied to the supports, where they quickly grow. It is possible to bundle the central shoots directly in an upright position, but this method is less effective. Care for climbing plants is the periodic pruning of the crown, if such a need arises. Remove usually dry and damaged whips, and also that part of the green mass that closes the windows or balconies, rises to the roofs. It is very important to minimize the thick perennial shoots, since it is difficult to guess what part of the green mass they form above the cutoff point. Pruning of climbing plants is usually carried out in the spring, even before the juices start to move. Crocheted plants belong to different families and have a wide variety of decorative properties. Some are good ornamental foliage, others have decorative flowers or bright fruits. Most of the vines are frost-resistant, but there are among them thermophilic, suitable for southern warm places. By the method of attachment to the support, all plants used for vertical gardening are divided into by the curly and climbing species. The difference between them is quite significant. Climbing plants are braided or wrapped around thin supports that they need to build. Supports can be made of wire, rope, poles, metal rods. So dregs are plaited, Chinese magnolia vine, hops. The climbing plants develop differently. They have a different antenna by origin, which "bind" themselves to any support, be it a neighboring plant, a tree, a branch, a pole, a support or a wall that has irregularities and surface roughness.
In addition, they may have peculiar suckers-haustoria, with which plants in the full sense of the word tightly dig into the support. They are easier to tear than tear off from it. With the help of a mustache, the girl's five-leafed vine climbs on the supports of the grapes. Suckers rise up ivy and girlish grapes triostrochny. Clematis clings to the support, wrapping it with petioles of leaves, ivy attached to the subordinate roots. Among the climbing and climbing plants you can find evergreen and deciduous, woody and grassy, perennial and annual species. The assortment of climbing and climbing plants is undoubtedly wider in the more southern regions, since among the heat-loving subtropical species there are more lianas. However, in moderate latitudes, you can find many
interesting climbing and climbing plants that can be used for vertical landscaping.
For attachment and growth of climbing plants and the formation of branches of vines, it is possible to use anchors hammered into a wall, on which wire, kapron cords, fishing line are pulled. Another way is to create a light grid on the walls of wooden racks. For climbing plants, you should leave an air cushion between the wall and the branches of plants at least 10 cm in order to avoid the dampening of wooden or plastered walls.
Actually winding plants constitute the most numerous group of species intended for vertical gardening. Among the climbing plants, it should be noted numerous species of honeysuckle. Not all honeysuckles are related to the winding species, which are highly decorative woody plants with very beautiful pair flowers and bright berries. The flowers of honeysuckle can be cream, orange, red, white or yellow, depending on the species or variety. The berries are orange, pink or red, inedible. Of the most popular curly honeysuckles, honeysuckle honeysuckle and honeysuckle Baltic, and their numerous varieties and forms. Both honeysuckle are relatively winter-hardy and successfully cultivated. They grow better on fertile fresh soils, where they annually bloom abundantly. Propagate twisted honeysuckle seeds or cuttings. Both types of honeysuckle usually create low thickets, rising to a height of 1 - 1.5 m. Therefore, they are used in low compositions or in the greening of fences. Such honeysuckle grows well on trellises and around pavilions. Very beautiful in the vertical gardening is the tall liana , the campsis rooting, or tekoma, which rises to a height of up to 20 m. The leaves of the campsis are odd-pinnate-complex, and the flowers are unusually bright, orange. They blossom in July-August, and then the overgrown overgrown with this plant of prop is very elegant. Kampsis grows very quickly. He is unpretentious and well tolerates drought. This is one of the most popular in the south of the vertical vertical gardening. Kampsis tolerates short frosts down to -20 ° С, however, in the climatic conditions of the northern strip it freezes. There, the central shoots of the campsis should be covered for winter or severely cut off. Breed kampsis from seeds or vegetatively - by cuttings, by offsets by root offspring.
Many vines of the Far East are very promising for vertical gardening. Among them, Schizandra Chinese, dregs, curly species of hydrangeas and grapes, actinidia. Schisandra Chinese, or Chinese Schizandra, is a hardy fast-growing plant. Stems 10-15 m long. The bark is light pinkish-brown. Leaves on pinkish petioles are fleshy, dark green, shiny;from below - light green, obovate;to the top - sharpened, sharp-edged along the edges. Flowers are small, waxy, fragrant, white and pink, collected on 1-4 on long pink pedicels, located in the axils of leaves. Blooms in June. Fruits - dark red berries, collected in a brush, ripen in August-September. Propagated by seeds( sowing in autumn), herbaceous cuttings, layers. Quite wintery, but for winter it is necessary to shelter, semi-tenuous, hygrophilous. The soil prefers nutritious, but not over-fertilized. A very promising plant for vertical gardening in the garden. The Dasur Moon Bearer also comes from the Far East. It is a beautiful vine with curly stems, reaching 3-4 m in length, in winter the stems die and annually grow from the rhizome. Leaves are dark green on long petioles, leathery, 3-5-lobed. The base of the leaf is slightly heart-shaped. The flowers are small, greenish-yellow, inconspicuous, collected in loose brushes. Fruit - a black juicy drupe, collected in a brush. It is propagated by rhizomes, layers, cuttings, seeds. Frost-proof and shade-tolerant, smoke and gas resistant. Soils prefer fertile, friable, moist. The application of the moon seed for vertical gardening is very diverse.
Of the family of woodcutters, two types are most common in the culture: round-leaved and are pleat-like. These lianas are very insidious. Long, flexible shoots cover the trunks of trees growing near the trees and so squeeze them, that the trees after a few years suffocate, and on their crowns the lush thickets of the tree-clover grow luxuriantly.
Clinging to long shoots, tree-pounders climb the trunks of trees and abundantly grow on their crowns. The stout flesh of the wood-cutters so strongly squeezes the trunks that the trees dry completely, and then only the lace of the liana remains on the dead support.
In the planting of vertical landscaping, tree-geese are very exotic. These plants are especially decorative in the autumn, when after the fall of the branch, branches decorate many small orange boxes-fruits. In this state, the wood-worms remain throughout the winter and most of the spring until the appearance of the young foliage. Propagate them with seeds or vegetative methods - root offsprings, layers and even cuttings. They are quite winter hardy. On moist loamy soils grow rapidly, often giving up to 3-4 m growth per year. Drevogubtsy quite shade-tolerant, but bloom and bear fruit better in open areas.
Actinidia also comes from the Far East, where they are sometimes called taiga gooseberries. They form dense thickets in the crowns of trees. By autumn, these crowns are full of juicy and nutritious berries. In appearance, the actinidia lianas are very similar to wood-worms or lemongrass - the same long whip shoots with simple next leaves and rather unattractive flowers. In blossoming actinidia, the colorimetry of is all decorative in the leaves, which become milky white, and later pink and even crimson-pink, turning the whole plant into a white-pink cascade. About the same phenomenon is characteristic for actinidia acute. In culture this wonderful natural property of actinides is preserved. Grow actinidia on fertile and moist soils, withstand considerable shading. These are quite winter-hardy species for relatively northern regions of the European part of the country. All actinidia are easily propagated by cuttings or root siblings that form around the mother plant. You can sow seeds, but they must be stratified first. Of the exotic heat-loving lianas, the Wisteria Chinese stands out. It is one of the most decorative vines for vertical landscaping, characterized by unusually beautiful flowering. This is a powerful liana from the legume family, forming a barrel up to 30-40 cm thick. It, like a boa, climbs on tree trunks, walls, pillars, supports. Over the years, the axial shoots of the wisteria form thick, twisted trunks along which the crown rises high on the supporting walls of buildings or adjacent trees.
An old Chinese legend about the evil dragon and long-haired beauty Gui, who this dragon swallowed, is connected with the wisteria. So his body was stiffened by the crooked trunk of a creeper. Only the wonderful braids of a girl come to life on him every spring.
In the flowering period between the cirrus leaves of the vines, magnificent long bluish-violet flowers hang down, which cover the thickets of the wisteria with long hanging garlands. Wisteria Chinese can have forms with white and double flowers. The plant is not sufficiently winter-hardy, but it can be successfully bred to the latitude of Kiev, and sometimes even to the north. From strong frosts, the wisterium should be protected, at least insulate the lower part of the trunk, as far as possible. It is rather unpretentious, quickly develops and grows well on fresh fertile soils. It needs direct sunlight, without which it does not bloom. Wisteria is widely used for vertical landscaping of walls.
The climbing plants of are preferable for vertical landscaping, as they do not require special guides - cords, poles, grids. These plants well cling to various adaptations - antennae, suckers, petioles of leaves and even thorns - behind the protrusions of the support and independently rise to a considerable height.
The most decorative climbing plants include clematis, or clematis, and pleated formosa, which will be described in detail in the review of floral and ornamental cultures.
Of the climbing plants that cling to the pedestal with antennae, grape wine and its various fruit varieties are most common. This plant can climb quite high - to the height of a 5-storey building-and form on the walls real hanging gardens full of juicy berries. Of course, such a picture is more typical for the relatively warm southern regions, but in more northern regions, with certain diligence and careful care, this plant can be grown, not for berries that do not ripen, for the sake of magnificent decorative foliage qualities. Grapes are grown mainly by cuttings, which very easily and quickly take root. Sometimes, in order to increase the winter hardiness of grapes of wine and its varieties, cuttings are planted on the stock with more stable grapes of Amur. Soils for the cultivation of grapes must be fertile. It is a drought-resistant plant. For the winter, vines are best cut, and the central whip to bend to the ground, sprinkled and warmed. In this state, the grapes are well wintered. In the spring, even before the beginning of the sap flow, additional pruning of the shoots is made, leaving only the skeletal branches of the first and second orders. After that, the grapes grow better and bear fruit more abundantly.
Far Eastern species of the Vinogradov family are highly valued in gardening: Amur grape and Kuanye, and also less hardy grape-worms and Japanese. These are decorative lianas, forming dense thickets on the supports. Especially beautiful is Amur grapes, has large five-lobed leaves. This is a fast-growing liana, the length of the stems is 20 m. Stems are thick, young shoots are covered with a rare pubescence. Leaves are one-piece, three- and five-lobed with jagged margins, pubescent on the underside, in the fall they acquire a red-violet color. Flowers are collected in small bunches. Fruit - purple berry, sourish, edible. Propagated by seeds, cuttings and layers. To moisture and soil is not exacting. Frost-resistant - can withstand frosts down to -40 ° С.Prefers slightly shaded places. It does not tolerate drought. In hot, dry summers, watering is required.
Amur grapes are the most frost-resistant species in the family, valued for the decorative openwork of foliage. Therefore, it is successfully cultivated near Moscow and even to the north. The rest of the Vinogradovs are more thermophilic. The Kuangye grapes reach the latitude of St. Petersburg, although it is beaten by severe frosts, so it requires careful warming for the winter. girlish five-leafed grapes and girlish tri-styrene were also widely spread. Almost all cities of temperate latitudes, these plants, although in varying degrees, but are found. They are also called Parthenocissus. Parte-nocissus pyatilistochkovy more zimostoek, and it can be found in the Baltic and in the suburbs. Parthenocissus triostric is more thermophilic and occurs somewhat south, for example to the latitude of Kiev. Both species do not have bright flowers, but the green mass of their numerous shoots is very decorative. In the parthenocissus of five-leaf foliage in the fall becomes a carmino-red, unusually attractive. A small almost black spines serve during this period to the plant an additional decoration. In the parthenocissus triostring from the spring, one can observe the appearance of young pink rounded leaves, while on the old shoots the lobed leaves grow green. In autumn young leaves become golden, and old ones turn red. Then the whole wall, overgrown with this exotic plant, acquires a fantastic appearance - as if flaming.
It is interesting to note that the five-leaf parthenocissus rises along the wall due to the tendrils, while its related species tightly seizes it with its suckers. Both plants are planted most often by cuttings or root offspring. Fresh and fertile soils are needed to grow both species of parthenocissus. The plants are not harvested for the winter. Yes, and how to cover the walls from frost, covered with dozens of square meters thickets Parthenocissus? Therefore, after severe winters, one can observe the freezing of part of the thicket, which is usually quickly restored. Quite apart from other climbing plants, plain and Colchis should be noted. First of all, because these are the only wild relatives of the Araliev family in the European part of the country, that is, direct relatives of ginseng. And besides, ivy are the oldest evergreen plants of our flora. They grow quite different from other similar plants. If climbing and climbing species usually grow quickly and photophilic, the plums grow relatively slowly and are very shade-tolerant. Like living snakes, covered with characteristic leathery scales.they stretch along the trunks of trees and along the stones on wet and stony soils. The supports of ivy rise thanks to tenacious suckers-haustoria, and no force will tear off such shoots from the surface. Ivy is a relatively thermophilic plant. Therefore, in frosty winters, it can freeze above the snow level. Ivy reproduces well by rooting shoots. This plant is very good on the slides, retaining walls, near the sculptures. Usually it is planted near a small height, or used as a soil cover plant. Ivy can also decorate old drying trees, using them as a support on which ivy willingly and quickly grows.
When addressing the issues of vertical gardening, one can not limit oneself to perennials. In many cases, particularly in the gardening of arbors, trellises, fences and other low structures, it is extremely convenient to use annuals. They grow rapidly, they are distinguished by bright flowering and allow to change and update the composition every year. Among the most popular floral annuals, you can recommend various varieties of pea sweet, scented nasturtium or morning glory( purple, red-blue, blue).They very well decorate vertical structures. Annuals are grown from seeds.