Greening the city with a living wall

Civic Square is now home to a multitude of new plants with the installation of a 24sqm living green wall.

The living wall has been developed to show how these walls can be used in Wellington and inspire building owners and developers to install more.

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown says the wall highlights the need to integrate the natural and built environments.

“The wall strengthens the urban-nature links in our central city. Civic Square was chosen as the first location due to its high profile and challenging conditions to show that green walls can succeed in Wellington like they do in London and Singapore.”

The vertical garden features a combination of mostly native plants that have been selected to thrive in Wellington’s unique climate and include:
Acaena Novae Zelandiae (piripiri)
Arthropodium Te Puna (rengarenga lily)
Fuschia procumbens (creeping fuschia)
Chionochloa conspicua (hunangamoho - snow grass)
Disphyma crassifolium (New Zealand ice plant)

Councillor Nicola Young, who is portfolio leader for Central City Projects, says there is a growing international trend for green wall gardens because of their environmental and aesthetic merits.

“This vertical garden was designed for Wellington's testing conditions. Our urban design team plans to install more green walls in Wellington's laneways and narrowest streets as a way to green the city where street trees aren’t possible.”

The living green wall has been designed by award-winning landscape designers Natural Habitats. It has an inbuilt system making it self-watering and self-fertilising. The green wall is able to be relocated.

The seedlings were grown off-site for four to five months on special 'pillows' that were gradually tilted as the plants grew so when they were moved into place they were ready to start their new life as a vertical garden.

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