I’m always keen to take up an opportunity to collaborate and when the possibility of working on a project that would increase my skills, knowledge and profile, while at the same time, providing some useful data for the whole industry came up, I jumped at the chance!

It seems the increasing popularity of greenwalls has been leading to more client inquiries and while suppliers of the many systems are very helpful, when it comes to advice on the best plant varieties and maintenance schedules, I find the information is limited.

The exciting project I’ve been working on over the past 18 months has been in collaboration with The Container Connection to investigate the use of the Mobilane Live Panel from the Netherlands in the Australian environment.

The Mobilane Live Panel was donated by The Container Connection to use in the project and was installed in Melbourne on a north-facing, fully exposed wall that was subjected to temperature ranges of 2-36 degrees Celsius.  Data was collected for a 12 month period to help determine the most suitable plant varieties and most appropriate maintenance schedule.

I’m proud to be able to share all of the data collected which is now available on IPA’s website under Live Panel Test and located in the Useful Resources tab.   My philosophy is that if a client has a good greenwall experience, it reflects well on the entire industry, alternatively if the experience is less than ideal, word of mouth may limit the uptake of these innovative growing systems.