Making a lush wall garden to maximise space | Garden Design and Inspiration | Gardening Australia

The stand-out feature is an incredible green wall – around 20 metres from end to end and two metres high.
The former engineer says each square metre requires about 30 plants – more than 1000 plants for the whole wall. There’s not much sun in this garden, so Eric has chosen shade tolerant plants such as anthuriums, staghorns, gingers and echeverias.
“You’ve got to select what’s really hardy – because that’s the key to your green wall,” he says. He’s placed succulents in a section of the wall which only has four hours of sun per day.

Eric also has some “mini” green walls in the garden. He says the smaller walls work well with just a few plant species. Each pot hooks onto mesh and has two holes to drip water down. Eric says Rhipsalis and Peperomia are “good friends” for a green wall.

Eric’s masterpiece can go two weeks between watering. He combines semi-automatic irrigation with some hand watering. He also sprays with a fertiliser high in nitrogen.

Eric is truly making the best of a small space, by building up – in a spectacular fashion! He has transported his love for the tropics to his little piece of Sydney.

“Never in my dreams did I think I would do something like this – achieve a really nice green space that’s a happy place for me.”

Featured Plants:
HELICONIA  - Heliconia bihai ‘Yellow Dancer’ 
CORDYLINE  - Cordyline fruticosa ‘Rubra’ 
URN PLANT  - Aechmea fasciata 
MOTH ORCHID  - Phalaenopsis cv. 
BLUE GINGER  - Dichorisandra thyrsiflora 
SEDUM  - Sedum ‘Gold Mound’ 
ELKHORN  - Platycerium sp. 
PHILODENDRON  - Thaumatophyllum xanadu 
ZYGOCACTUS  - Schlumbergera sp. 
PINK ARROWHEAD  - Syngonium podophyllum ‘Neon Robusta’ 
MISTLETOE CACTUS  - Rhipsalis cv.  
CAPE VIOLET  - Streptocarpus cv. 
TRAILING PEPEROMIA  - Peperomia cv. 
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[Arepas]

WOW!!!! What a superb tropical garden Eric has created - It's a piece of Paradise

[saya]

OMG!🤩 Gorgeous Gorgeous Gorgeous!🥰💚💚💚🌵🌵🌵🪴🪴🪴🙋🏻‍♀️🇺🇸

[candlelight]

As a lover of tropical plants, this garden is absolutely amazing, Eric did an awesome job creating.

[yolyrom]

Omg! I love this man’s yard! It’s so attractive and beautiful!!

[screaminggecko]

Eric has such wonderful energy. I love his garden

[Mamado]

Absolutely love this. We're building our forever home on a very tiny city plot and barely have a backyard so I hope to cover all the fences with plants!

[mysydney]

Thank you, I love green walls. Love it!

[adamludolph]

Its almost like something out of a dream or a fairy tale. Its beautiful and I would enjoy being in a place like that or just seeing it. Well done.

[claudiaceleste]

I think the opening footage of Eric gazing in wonder at what he’s created says it all. Beautiful, peaceful, perfection 💚

[pinkelephant]

Very inspiring! I'm heading to the library to borrow some books about green walls!

[yaksmowing]

I'm going to show this video to my color bond fence and give it some inspiration...

[TropicalGardeningCyprus]

Simply amazing. I have a wall that needs rebuilding, it's about 30 meters long, and this video gave me the most vivid of ideas. Gonna make my own half pots out of clay and build them right in the wall, it's either gonna be a disaster or a masterpiece 😅

[altheab.]

Beautiful backyard oasis. He truly loves what he does.

[Redeleiser]

What a man and what a beautiful amazing garden!!!

[chrismcgowan]

so inspiring - i'd love to know where you can buy pots like the ones eric uses?

[sheryllparagas]

I love this garden..so inspiring.very beautiful.

[sharonwebb]

Stunning garden. Wonderful guy! It’s essential we follow our passions if we want to fulfil our destiny! Imagine if he’d stayed in engineering, however his engineering skill might have helped his landscaping 😃

[huggy-Bear]

What a great story! I've just moved into my first house.. was thinking of doing something like this on the back of the house. Thanks for the inspiration!

[kirstenmordacz]

So Beautiful, 😍 I wish they had touched on how the first big green wall plants were attached, was it the same as the shed perhaps....❓❓❓

[asarerebird]

Our gardner is a nut case, I had lots of plants, , when I went away for a short period, he removed many plants, and he says " sir, snakes coming sir, "!!