A Seaside living wall

At Rosewood we’re used to installing vertical gardens in all kinds of situations.  It’s not often though, that we get to design a seaside living wall.  Recently we worked on a property near Weybourne on the Norfolk coast.  It’s a long way from our base in St Albans, but the distance wasn’t our main consideration.

Sea air brings challenges

Planting near the sea brings particular challenges that aren’t present elsewhere.  The wind is ever-present, sometimes a gentle sea breeze, but sometimes a roaring gale.  This means we can’t include delicate species that won’t tolerate being blown about a bit.  We also have to choose plants that don’t mind salt in the air, otherwise they have no hope of surviving.  Of course, at Rosewood, we bear all these considerations in mind.  Our knowledgeable designers come up with a planting scheme to suit the conditions.  In this case we used plenty of grasses which will stay happy.  They also look great when the breeze ruffles through them!

Working on a construction site

This particular job involved working while the house was still being constructed.  It didn’t make too much difference to our working method.  It was slightly more difficult to move about with lots more people around trying to get on with their own jobs.  However, this was balanced by the fact that we didn’t have to worry about our muddy boots walking across patios, etc.  Everything was still being built so there was plenty of mess already and we could disregard something we’re normally very careful about.

Great views in all directions

As we said, the house is in a fabulous location on the Norfolk coast.  Obviously the views are beautiful as you look out over the coast.  However, the three living wall panels we’ve installed across the exterior wall of the home makes the view looking back at the house beautiful too.  A public footpath goes straight past the property, and with the living walls looking this fabulous, we think that tourists might be in danger of missing the sea views while looking at the house instead!