Versatility of Living Wall Planters

Living wall planters are becoming more and more popular as our living space becomes more restricted.  Living walls are seen as a green method of providing interest in an outdoor area and also as a way of maximizing greenery in tight urban spaces.  An important trend for homeowners and city dwellers is to create better and more efficient outdoor space.  By creating a beautiful outdoor green wall, residents are able to make the best use of limited space as well as bringing the beauty of plants and flowers to a vertical space to enhance a living area.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is actually the first known living wall.  It was one of the original 7 Wonders of the World and was built in 600 BC.  It is still alive today and uses an advanced method of irrigation that is still in use today.  Credit is given to Stanley Hart White, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Illinois, who first patented the green wall in 1938.

There are a variety of things to consider when choosing a location for a living wall.  Appropriate plant selection is also imperative when designing your living wall planter.  Tried and true varieties are critical when putting together your living wall.  By trying out different varieties and species, Pamela Crawford has organized a list of plants and flowers that work especially well in living walls.

Location is also key when deciding where to place your living wall.  The amount of light that the wall will receive, as well as placement for maximum enjoyment are important.  When placing the living wall outdoors, it is especially nice if you can place it in a location that can be viewed from both indoors and outdoors.  Imagine how much easier your kitchen chores will be if you can glimpse a beautiful living wall as you go about your work!  Living wall planters can be attached to a variety of surfaces, such as concrete, masonry, wood, metal, and even railings and fences.

It is paramount to be sure that your living wall planter is appropriately supported; keep in mind that you will be adding a lot of weight when the dirt is added. Don’t hammer one nail in or put one sticky hook up and expect your living wall to stay vertical!

One of the plusses to vertical gardening is weed control. You will not have many invading weeds when using vertical gardening practices; this then limits the need for maintenance. This is a huge advantage for those who have busy schedules but would love to grow some striking green plants or flowers.

 Easy maintenance is important for your living wall.  Using plants that are already developed to mature size makes a big difference in how quickly your living wall will actually be aesthetically pleasing.  Using full size plants also helps to create a wall that will withstand harsher climate and temperature changes, as well as look like a “finished product” much sooner.

Living walls and other plantings have the potential to increase residential and commercial property values by between 7% and 15%.  Living walls also help to create a positive perception for possible buyers of the property.

The use of green walls can be either enormous, as when used in entire city wall buildings, or they can be very small, as when used in the backyard as an aesthetic eye-catcher.  Living wall planters can be purchased at many garden stores and online sites.  One of the most popular and successful is the planter designed by Pamela Crawford, available through Kinsman Garden.  The planters use coco liners that have small holes and slits cut into them.  This makes the planting process much easier and also provides for successful plants, since they are already developed and are proven, thriving plants.

Living Walls Photo Contest from Kinsman

Kinsman Company is once again having a photo contest for Living Wall and Side Planting containers and the first prize winner will receive $1000 to Kinsman! There will also be a $500 gift certificate awarded to the second place winner, and three $200 gift certificates given to third place winners. Any contest winners will also be featured on Kinsman's website, and in both fall and spring catalogs!

This is the first year Pamela Crawford's Living Wall Planters are allowed to be included as contest entries. Anyone who owns or was given a Pamela Crawford Side Planting container or a Living Wall Planter is eligible to enter a photo into the contest. 

Kinsman Company will be in charge of reviewing all photo entries and deciding on the creative use of the side planting concept in each Living Wall Planter that is entered. They will also look at the overall impact of each planter. Last year's 1st place winner titled her basket column for small plants, " Come fly away with me in my teacup garden by the sea." To see her photos and other winners from last year, go here. 

Anyone interested in entering their Living Wall Planter into the photo contest needs to either email or mail up to four photos along with your name, mailing address and a short paragraph describing the plants in the photo. You can send these entries up until August 16, 2013 and winners will be notified by September 30, 2013. 

Information to enter contest:

Email: contest@kinsmangarden.com

Mailing Address: Pamela Crawford Photo Contest

Kinsman Company, PO Box 428, Pipersville, PA 18947

For more information about the Living Walls photo contest, please visit Kinsman Company's website. Looking to purchase one of Pamela Crawford's Living Wall planters, visit the shop on Kinsman's website to find a perfect planter for your home! 

Fascinating Mason Bees Raised in Your Own Backyard!!

Spring is approaching and your thoughts may travel to the warm days of summer and the crops you anticipate emerging and thriving with the warm weather and sunny days.  

Increase the output of the plants and trees you possess by cultivating Mason bees on your property. Kinsman Garden has a product to facilitate the production of Mason bees of your own.  Small tubes are provided to allow the bees to build their nests and these tubes are specifically the size that they prefer.  The bees are friendly, passive and a joy to watch as they work, busily popping in and out of their tubes.  These bees are marvelous pollinators; they carry the pollen on their hairy bodies to blossoms on your trees and bushes.  They help to increase the crops of your apples, cherries, strawberries, plums, blueberries, raspberries and peaches. 

Gardening in Bucks County becomes more fruitful with the addition of the Mason bees to your terrain.  It is said that one Mason bee can do the work of 100 honeybees!  The tube kits available at Kinsman Garden are easy to use and set up – you can even purchase a cedar shelter to house the tubes.  Mason bees love to nest where it is dry and where they are protected from weather.  Normally this would be under the eaves of a shed, home or garage.  With the cedar shelter you can control where the bees set up their nests and provide the perfect site for their nesting.

In late March, you will comprehend the benefit of the house tubes as you see thousands of bees emerge from their nests.  An exciting time to witness the beginning of a new season and to improve the productivity of your fruit crop for the year!

grounded design by Thomas Rainer: Garden Design Trends 2013

grounded design by Thomas Rainer: Garden Design Trends 2013
 Pamela Crawford's side planting technique creates stunning displays for your outdoor space.  Garden design trends using specially formulated coco basket liners will make your landscape shine this summer!
side planting by Pamela Crawford

Give Your Yard the Ultimate Polished Appearance!

Make this the year your lawn and landscaping shines!!!  Using EverEdge edging for your lawn, driveway, flower and vegetable beds, path edging, and landscaping gives you that ultimate polished look that everyone strives for!

Fabricated of galvanized steel, EverEdge is the answer for creating impeccable borders outside your home.  EverEdge is weather resistant and maintenance free!  Enjoy decades of beauty with the easy to install, locking edging.  

Each 39” section links easily to the next, forming a permanent edging that bends easily for corners or curves.  You will be amazed at the look created and maintained so effortlessly that will last for years.

EverEdge also makes a product to facilitate making raised beds for vegetable gardens.  Comprised of 8” high by 39” sections, the walls make a raised bed that is joined together by 16” pins that are driven into the ground for absolute stability.  The beds last for years and make the process of vegetable growing  trouble-free.   You can use topsoil and potting soil to ensure the vegetables are getting the proper nutrition and the appropriate soil for the ideal growing environment.  

Additionally, EverEdge tree rings are the perfect edge to make your trees stand out and to give the borders of your tree mulch a picture perfect edge.  Just cut a hole around your tree and tap the tree ring into place.  It is comprised of a 3” border and 3” spikes. This eliminates nylon cord damage to your tree and keeps the tree trunk safe from mower harm.

Kinsman Garden has the ideal products to help make your lawn the envy of the neighborhood!  With the use of EverEdge products, all the areas of your lawn will have the precise edging needed to give your landscaping and trees the polished look all homeowners strive to achieve!

Spectacular Border Columns Bring Grandeur to Your Yard!

Get ready for the marvelous colors of spring with our elite border columns to heighten the beauty of your home!  Pamela Crawford’s side planting technique makes it possible to achieve beautiful displays with little  effort.   Plants can be ready to show off their magnificent colors and display in no time at all.  This technique makes gorgeous columns to border your front walk or rear patio; the basket  poses on its own column post made of wood or metal.  

Pamela Crawford has revolutionized the hanging basket industry with her side planting method.  It is very simple to achieve the incredible results that you desire – using the coco mat planters that have specially-cut holes in them, you can create luxuriant exhibitions that will be the envy of the neighborhood!  Using the particular tried-and-true flowers and foliage plants recommended by Pamela, constructing the ideal presentation becomes effortless and worry-free.  Pothos, spider plant, ferns, ivy, syngonium, and dracaena are just a few of the foliage plants that thrive in the basket containers.  Among the annuals that flourish are the dragon wing begonias, coleus, purple queen or purple heart, wax begonias, sweet potato vines, lantana, and gomphrena.

The basic basket planters are constructed from heavy gauge steel wire coated in black plastic and are supplied with removable clip-on chains.  They can be mounted on columns available from Kinsman Garden.  One of the most incredible realities of the border columns is that they are stunning from every angle.  They look terrific from below as well as from all sides. 

Getting a jump start on your spring plantings and displays is an exciting time.  There is nothing like the beautiful floral displays generated by the border and planter columns to wash away the winter blues and begin the season of new growth in a spectacular transformation of your yard.  Experiment with the border and planter columns today!

How to Have the Most Envious Neighbors and the Most Amazing Garden

Make your garden the envy of the neighborhood!

With Pamela Crawford’s side planting technique your displays appear and flourish throughout the summer season. You can even create winter plantings that thrive for the duration of the winter with little or no care!  This revolutionary method outperforms any other and produces magnificent exhibitions with a limited amount of effort.  

How can you make this happen?  By using the specially formulated planter supplies available through Kinsman Garden.  You can create free standing basket displays by using the basket planters, or using window box planters, or wall planters.

Living wall planting is another concept by Pamela Crawford that uses square planters with replaceable coco liners.  Used alone or in a group, the dramatic effect works beautifully on empty outside walls or fences.  Used side by side, the effect is even more spectacular.  The use of vertical gardens to supplement traditional gardening throughout your outdoor space has become a popular and striking method to improve the appearance of your home.  You will find that your outdoor areas add to the usable space of your home and become supplementary quarters for quality socializing and spending quiet time.

Pamela Crawford, schooled at Vanderbilt University and Florida International University, has designed more than 1500 gardens for private residences and country clubs.  In addition, she has authored five gardening books.  She has become an authority on side planting and living wall planting.  Her methods will give you stunning displays that help to enhance and beautify the appearance of your home’s outdoor space.

Try these incredibly easy-to-use planters to create the amazing and dramatic effects you have always wanted in your garden.  You will not be disappointed!