A LIVING WALL

I've managed to find a way to post images... although it's not as easy as it should be...
but the posts must go on!

This post is rather long overdue and actually comes to you as we are starting a few new projects here at CFC headquarters.

We started planting this hedge back in March of 2008. We loved the openness of our property connecting with the adjoining property... but we wanted a bit of privacy. It started out as primarily red hibiscus and panax and later expanded into areca palms, sumatran lilies, curly panax, ti, clumping bamboo, rainbow dracaena, song of india, asparagus fern and more. I don't very much like the idea of the hedge being all one type of plant, but rather more natural and organic. That being said, it's a lot easier to maintain a panax hedge as you really only need to trim it once a year. The other plants constantly drop leaves and at times makes for a bit of a mess in the early stages of the hedge. Once the plants fill and mature the dropped leaves are not as noticeable.

I'm proud to say that not a single plant along this hedge was purchased. We either started all of them or in the case of the bamboo... I did a work for trade with a client. I got one large clump of bamboo and divided it into about 12 smaller clusters. As you can see, they took off quite well. We plan to divide these into a few new clusters and use elsewhere in the near future.

Once the plants were in the ground it seemed as though they would never fill in. Two years later it's nearly full and it happened before we even knew it. There is a saying here in this part of the island that if you stick a broom stick in the ground it will grow. We almost believe it, but it didn't work with that broken shovel handle we used as a stake. We had 2 sections in the hedge we had not been able to get to in the last year and just finished planting with new areca palms and ti within the last 2 weeks. More on that and where the plants were transferred from in the next post... which will lead us into our new project details. Stay tuned...

Looking across the lawn towards hedge August 23rd, 2008 and today. The palm trees have gone from 1-1/2 feet high to now about 12 feet tall each. Notice the small black pots at the base... those are 40 new coco palms that we need to get in the ground later this fall.

Midway along the hedge September 14th, 2008 and today. To the right you can see the small panax and hibiscus starts in the before shot. Today they stand at over 7 feet. They were about 10 feet but i just trimmed them so they would fill in more on the bottom.

The mid section with bamboo starts on September 14th, 2008 and today.

Looking from where our white fence ends back to the N/W corner August 23rd 2008 and today.
The panax and hibiscus are now 6 feet taller than when planted.

Far N/W corner September 9th 2008 and today. Right in the middle of the before shot you can see seven 18" high single areca palms. Today they are over 8 feet tall and boast numerous trunks as they are a clumping palm. Notice the 15 foot palm tree sticking up to the left of the pine tree. That is on the adjoining property and was only 3 feet tall 2 years ago. Now that's what I call progress.