Want to incorporate living walls into your landscaping projects? The Scotscape Smartscape team trains other professional landscapers to install living walls, allowing the vertical gardening trend to be accessible to all!

We do not only install large commercial living walls but use the very same system for smaller domestic projects meaning that living walls can be integrated into compact urban gardens, supported by the same great system we use for bigger projects.

A landscaper’s eye view of vertical gardening

As professional landscape contractors, our early experience with living walls occurred in 2007 when we were contracted to install and maintain projects for other living wall companies. This was an interesting time in the living wall market. They had just ‘arrived’ in the UK and there was much to be learned about best practice in terms of both installing and maintaining vertical gardens to get the best results.

We truly cut our teeth in these early years and found ourselves with a wealth of understanding about what worked, what didn’t, and most importantly what could be done to refine and improve vertical greening systems.

We installed some of the most notable living walls in London including the Rubens Hotel and the magnificent 700m2 living wall at Fenchurch Street in London, the Aquatics Center at the London 2012 Olympics many of Marks and Spencer Simply Food Living Walls, and even the pop up living wall of a Van Gogh painting outside the National Gallery.

There is a well-known quote which says ‘repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment’ – the team certainly learned a lot.

Fast forward to 2012 and we had discovered Fytotextile, a patented fabric led system which had been designed by a group of academics and architects in Seville – the Terapia Urbana team. We loved what they had created and started working together to optimise the design of the original system with our living wall installation, plant, and maintenance knowledge… and their technical and manufacturing credentials.

What has evolved is a superior living wall system that has been designed around the plant requirements for sustainable long term health.

What is the Fytotextile ‘difference’?

It is important to define the difference between Fytotextile and what might be described as a ‘felt’ or ‘fabric’ living wall system. Fytotextile is a patented and unique fabric comprising three layers. It is constructed to enable aeration to plant root systems that oxygenates and therefore supports excellent plant health. This aeration also means that this system actively improves air quality by trapping carbon in the soil. We have recently installed a living wall for Plymouth University and they are carrying out research to quantify the effectiveness of this.

 

The Multi-layer construction of the living wall modules includes a waterproof layer, an irrigation layer along-with the breathable aerated layer.

What are the other benefits of Fytotextile Living Wall?

• At 40 – 50kg per square meter fully planted and saturated (weight was taken after 3 years of plant growth), it is the most lightweight of all living wall systems, making this system ideal for retrofitting
• It is STRONG – the specialist fabric is tested to load bear over 530kg!
• It is flexible enabling intelligent planting to be applied to any surface, flat or curved
• It supports optimum plant health
• Irrigation is accessed from the front of the system, this means in practical terms, maintenance is more time-efficient and any irrigation challenges can be identified and dealt with swiftly, without having to dismantle a living wall. This is seriously costly for clients. Limescale build-up can affect the performance of the irrigation emitters. Having the irrigation lines accessible is a huge bonus of this system.
• The system holds a 10-year warranty
• Excellent Fire Retardancy credentials of B-s2-d0
• Fytotextile can be manufactured in bespoke panels to support unique projects, and unlike any other living wall system, pocket-size can be adjusted to enable the largest plant species selection including small trees and large shrubs
• As the system is not restricted by solid structures (such as plastic) this means that the plants are not prohibited from meeting their true potential for growth

We believe in using soil, which is full of micro-organisms and bacteria which not only help in breaking down particulate matter but also benefits plant growth and health.

Since 2013 we have used Fytotextile exclusively for all of our living wall projects, exterior, and interior, commercial and domestic, with great results. It is wise to remember that whilst on the surface all living walls can look similar the underlying system is crucial to support the broader benefits beyond aesthetics that vertical gardens can bring.

The Scotscape Smartscape team now also train professional landscapers to install Fytotextile Living Wall and integrate vertical gardening services into their own suite of landscaping knowledge.

Living wall training – what to expect?

Our traditional live training days, which prior to the Covid pandemic were hosted at our lovely HQ with living walls aplenty, have moved online!  We are offering training for free to support the industry.  If you would like to learn more book into our online live Living Wall Training CPD at an agreed time which is convenient for you and your team.  You will learn about the installation of Fytotextile, planting, and maintenance, you will be guided through site assessments to ensure that the location is right for a living wall and what challenges need to be noted, including access, water availability, light, height, and aspect, we can even include live case studies using your projects and photography to walk you through feasibility.  Your expert presenter and trainer Niall McEvoy will be able to answer all questions about the Fytotextile Living Wall system having worked in both an installation and maintenance capacity in his early years at Scotscape.

Call us on 0208 254 5000 or email [email protected] to book a training presentation.

Living wall research

Our woodland wall is tested on-site – where a larger pocket system is planted with bigger shrubs and trees to create a vertical woodland – living walls with scale! Pollinator living walls, columns, living pillar, even living wall gates are all on display here, hopefully inspiring likeminded landscapers to specify living walls in their own projects and learn to install living walls for future clients, we look forward to welcoming everyone back in 2021. We work with Universities to assess the benefits of living wall structures to the built environment. Our research thus far has seen us work with Cambridge, Greenwich, Sheffield, Reading and Plymouth University – Scotscape Smartscape will continue to support the academic community in detailed assessment of the benefits of urban greening and the best horticultural content to bring health and wellbeing to the urban landscape.

If you would like to learn more about living walls generally, we can start with a live webinar about the subject so you can find out more before booking your session with [email protected]

www.scotscape.co.uk

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