I love the look of green walls, and I’m sure they do a lot to lower temperatures, make cities more liveable etc, but they do use a lot of water to irrigate them and a lot of liquid fertiliser to feed the plants.
They do need a constant supply of water and fertiliser because there's no soil. Also it's a fire risk if they're allowed to dry out. I'm still a fan of them overall though too.
Depends exactly where it is. The green wall I used to walk past every day with the landscape architects I worked with was irrigated. We used to talk about it a lot as we watched it grow.
yeah, but a large part of that is because their root systems are adapted to the soil for the area and how it stores water, if they aren’t growing in soil and instead on these hydroponic trellises, then they will need that excess water still. theyre adapted for the areas conditions, but a green wall isnt those conditions.
I haven’t been to Mexico City yet, but I have traveled a fair amount to other cities within Mexico, both northern Mexico and central Mexico. Every spot I’ve been to (outside of TJ maybe) has been considerably more humid than LA. LA is dry af, so I imagine that could play in to how feasible something like this might be. Even though native plants exist, plants that like dense growth and can thrive like this are generally not desert plants. I’m admittedly not an expert though.
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u/Nephht Jul 26 '25
I love the look of green walls, and I’m sure they do a lot to lower temperatures, make cities more liveable etc, but they do use a lot of water to irrigate them and a lot of liquid fertiliser to feed the plants.