Pond, falls and living wall

[shawnintland]

Well, I'm finally getting around to that project we discussed a long time ago. One of my clients had an architect design his house from a few thousand kilometers away...unfortunately the only way the design worked was for the contractor to dig into the hillside and set the back of the house below ground level. They then built a cement retaining wall about 1 1/2 meters behind the house. When it was all finished it seems very odd that there are a long row of windows that only look out onto a cement wall! I was given the task of figuring out some way to make it work and look as if it was 'meant' to be that way! My 'solution' is to try to turn the long row of windows along the back of the living room into a "Giant Screen TV" that is always tuned to the Nature Channel! The result should be that the green of the wall seems to flow right into the house and automatically draws people over to the windows where they can then discover the pond. The surrounding areas of the pond and the living wall will give me a bunch of places to grow some really interesting plants (including a lot of CP's).

The owner had been asking me about a pond somewhere on the property as well as a waterfall. Well, a huge rock that 'used to be' part of the wall the contractor built ''slipped' out of place (see photos) and I decided that the space left by the 'slip' would make a perfect small waterfall which could empty into a small but deep pond that the windows look out onto at just about chest height. The wall itself I plan to use to create a 'living wall' which will be the main visual feature to pull people in to look at the pond. The wall will be a 100% hydroponic system, with all the water being recycled via a gutter along the bottom and a filter/tank/pump recessed into the ground.

Ok, enough talk! Here's a few before pics to give the idea of the area in question;








And here's a few of the process getting started;













Ok guys, more pics when it gets further along!

[bactrus]

Shawn,

Few questions, the wall, it is cast with site mixer contrete or ready mix. See lots of honey comb. Wonder if teh honey comb is done on purpose to have this rough surface?

The roof tiles, it is very nice. Terra cotta? Wonder if you have the time to take a picture of a single piece.

Looking forward to more photos. Finally you can put theory into practise.

[shawnintland]

Hi Ban Aik,

Concrete was all site mixed...but the actual pour is underneath that rough rendering work. The wall will be covered in multiple layers of the black capillary mat that I used in the seedling house benches. The plants will mostly root into the mat but hopefully some roots will grab onto the rough concrete surface as well. All those little bumps on the wall are 1/4 bolts with rubber washers and anchorbolts mounted into the wall...hopefully they will be more than enough support for the mat but like I said, I wouldn't mind if the roots grab onto the cocncrete wall as well.

Tiles - Yep, terra-cotta, locally made (mainland). Every house here has some variation of these... lots of small companies making them. I'll take pictures next time I'm up there.

~S

[bactrus]

Okay, pretty high tech method you're doing there. Thank you for your explaination. Wonder what kinda plants you're gonna put it? Don't suppose Neps in the menu.

The terra cotta roof tiles, ya, thank for the coming pictures. Would like to know the prices. Thinking be a nice pavillion roof for my place.

[David]

Looks like an interesting and challenging project. Will look out for your progress pictures.

[edwardyeeks]

Well, very cool!

Cheers

[Amelie.Poulain]

Okay, when am I gonna hit the jack-pot? So that I can get Shawn keep his promise of my very own hanging garden of Babylon

p/s: like what my other half says, in order to win, I have to start buying 'em! Anyone wanna start buying them for me ?

[atmccmn]

I'm sure you will complete it with interesting result., Shawn. Does the 'living wall' have any uplighter? Would be more interesting especially at night with some lighting effect.

I have some queries. May I know whether is the columns in 2nd & 3rd pic. are solid piece of timber or only timber claddings. I'm admiring the dining table. Very nice 1 solid piece of timber there.

[shawnintland]

Hi Andy,
I've placed a number of PE pipe 'sleeves' throughout the entire area so that I can pull wires for extra lighting after the plants are in place. There will be 4 units x 150 w. ea. halogen fixtures mounted on the outside of the facia where you won't be able to see them from inside the house but where they can illuminate the wall. I also thought that perhaps uplighting could make for some interesting effects depending on the plantings. I've allowed for 1-2 lights in the pond as well but need to figure out how to use them best. I'm installing a "Rain-Bird" irrigation controller that will control the cycles for the waterfall, the living wall irrigation cycles, the mist/drip system for the plantings around the pond area and some of the lighting. I need this system to be very self-maintaining (or as much as possible). The filtering is my big headache - I think that my balancing/filtration tanks are way too small especially if, as planned, I put fish in the pond. Maybe I could re-cycle the nutrient-rich pond water through the living wall system every once in a while!

The columns shown are clad with hardwood. The structural engineers were not familiar enough with the strength of tropical hardwoods and so demanded concrete columns! AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH! Yeah, that table is a nice piece, we had to install three 'butterflys' to keep it from splitting but they really added a lot of character to it! Wish it was a better picture.

Ban Aik - Sure I'm going to find room for a bunch of CP's around there! The light is not very bright but I think on the upper portions of the wall there should be enough to support some nice Neps. God knows - I have enough to experiment! I can't remember the prices of tiles and everything has jumped around so much in recent months with the economy but I think it was something like 8-10 baht each???

[atmccmn]

Why don't you use the wall as your pond filter system. It'll benefit both. Ofcourse details have to follow up but I'm sure you'll get marvellous result. On the other hand, this might restrict your choice of plants.