The Green Wonderwall (Manchester Evening News)

The Hydroponic Garden--A Guide to Hydroponics
Hydroponics allows us to grow the plants, fruits and vegetables of our choice--even in limited space--without using soil. It's an amazing way to produce perfect specimens and offers TONS of advantages that traditional gardening can't come close to touching!

May 13, 2008

A GARDNER with a head for heights is going to be needed for an amazing vertical garden of tropical plants being planned for the side of a Manchester building.

The 100ft green wall - the first of its kind in Britain and the largest in Europe - is to be laid out up the side of the former BT building and will be visible from the Mancunian Way.

It will be transformed as part of Ask Development's £750m Central Spine project, a 20-acre mixed-use scheme on the southern edge of the city centre.

This new computer-generated image shows the scale of the vertical garden, which will cover 1,000sq ft, be 100ft high and feature up to 150 different species of plants.

Manchester architects BDP have redesigned the BT building and hope to recruit French botanist Patrick Blanc. He planted a similar, but smaller green wall at the controversial Quai Branly Museum in Paris.

Hypodronics

Gavin Elliot, director at BDP Architects, said: "We plan to use a hydroponics system, with two layers of felt with recycled rainwater running in between.

"Various plants can be grown out of the top layer of felt, and fed with nutrition which is added to the water.

"The green wall will be visually stunning and will also change the micro climate in the surrounding square. It will scrub the air in a way, catching pollution and converting carbon dioxide to oxygen."

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