On February 23rd 2022, CARTIF carried out a demonstrative workshop with the students of Parque Alameda Primary School in Valladolid to install a vertical garden. The activity was attended by a total of 60 primary school children, 4 teachers and 5 experts from the LIFE-myBUILDINGisGREEN project; Salustiano Torres (RJB-CSIC), José Fermoso, María González, Esther San José and Raquel Marijuan (CARTIF). CARTIF’s maintenance staff also provided support for work done prior to and during the installation of the garden.
A 4 m2 vertical garden was installed, with a 400 L tank, pump, boiler and programmer. The irrigation and fertilisation system is automatic using hydroponics. A total of 168 plants of different species were installed: Nephrolepis exaltata, Filicopsida, Philodendron pnicasus, Philodendron, Tradescantia and Chlorophytum.
The aim of this type of workshop is to complement the training of students in the knowledge of nature, to raise awareness of the benefits they provide, and to normalise their presence both indoors and outdoors, also understanding the requirements they have. The workshops in schools allow students to get involved and participate in the design and construction of NBS such as the vertical garden in order to learn and get to know the NBS.
The students are involved in the construction of the vertical garden in all its phases. To do this, the students were organised into 6 working groups (installation; plants and substrates; irrigation; communication; design; coordination) and a joint group (planting), with the participation of all the groups. Each group had a person from CARTIF or RJB-CSIC and teachers from the school. In addition, all the groups had to write down the tasks they carried out and pass them on to the design group, who were in charge of making explanatory panels to hang next to the vertical garden.
The installation group was responsible for the assembly and installation of the vertical garden. The students helped to hang the panels and transfer the design of the plants to the panels with rubber bands.
Installation group © CARTIF
The plants and substrates group was first responsible for preparing planters with a conventional growing system, preparing the appropriate substrate for the planters, preparing the growing medium and the plants. They also had to moisten the sphagnum and prepare the plants for the vertical garden. All the students had the opportunity to collaborate at some point in this group.
Plants and substrates group © CARTIF
The irrigation team was in charge of drawing up the layout of the installation and preparing the connections, installing the irrigation system and assembling the pipes and drippers. They also tested the operation of the system and the irrigation schedule. The water tank was filled and the irrigation system was connected to the hose. It was necessary to check the programmer and the operation of the pump.
The communication or audiovisual group was in charge of making an audiovisual archive of the experience, preparing some questions to interview the other groups (including themselves) using mobiles and tablets for the recording, and then being able to put all together in a final video. In addition, they had to prepare a presentation in case they wanted to tell the activity to someone outside the group.
The design group was in charge of the design of the vertical garden, defining the distribution of the available plants, forming a composition. To do this, they took sheets of paper with the layout of the panels so that they could test, propose and choose the design. In addition, the group was in charge of capturing on cardboard what the other groups (including their own group) were doing, and this work was captured in a composition of a mural next to the vertical garden, describing it.
Design group © CARTIF
Explanatory posters of the Vertical Garden © CARTIF
The coordination group was in charge of attending to the needs of the rest of the groups: lending a hand where necessary, fetching plants and missing materials, helping with watering or installation, etc., to lend a hand to the rest of the groups. This group was optional and one of the adults in charge of the activity was in charge of it.
Planting is a joint activity, conceived as the final act and the end of the team work. To do this, the plants with the sphagnum prepared by the group of plants and substrates were placed in the holes in the panels in an organised manner.
Vertical Garden Planting © CARTIF
Although the activity was planned to last a full school day, it was finally extended to the following day (February 24th 2022) in order to complete the planting.
In the following months, several visits have been made to Parque Alameda primary school by CARTIF to monitor the evolution of the vertical garden and to carry out maintenance and replanting work if necessary. So far, two revisions of the vertical garden have been carried out (August 26th 2022 and September 2nd 2022), a maintenance work for the summer (June 23rd 2022) and two replanting (April 23rd 2022 and September 23rd 2022), replacing those plants that have not developed properly with the following species: Pilea peperomioides (3 units), Filicopsida (4 units), Tradescantia (27 units), Epipremnum aureum (13 units).
For all news and events related to the LIFE-myBUILDINGisGREEN project, we recommend following the project’s Twitter and LinkedIn channels.
