WildWall Tiles is a PATENTED hand-made vertical garden system manufactured in Joburg, South Africa.
It was designed by Joburg-based artist Hannelie Coetzee in an attempt to create a long-lasting vertical garden system that could be used for creating her pixelated art. (www.hanneliecoetzee.com)
The pocket will not go squishy like felt or contribute to plastic pollution as it is made out of a specially prepared and PATENTED cement mix.
The concrete holder likes water and the ingredients has an anti-bacterial quality that prevents it going mouldy. It is an ideal little eco-system for a hardy succulent.
It can be tiled or screwed onto most surfaces, either on its own, or in an endless configuration of diagonal lines. It is diagonal so that it follows the way water flows. The water from one pocket drips into another.
An endless variation of different coloured and textured plants can be used in different designs. And if you are tired of your design, you can upcycle the old design and plant a new formation.
The tiles are available in singles, 12 packs or per square meter.
The tile is ideal for water-wise succulent plants and is based on how plants would grow on a rock face in nature. The small pocket holds the plant, constrained like a bonsai so that the plant never outgrows its pocket.
The tiles can either be watered by hand or fitted with an irrigation system if necessary. The drainage hole ensures that the roots are not overwatered.
Like in all gardens, the presence of plants and wet soil have a cooling effect. Planting the right plants on hot walls and watering it enough will create a cooling effect on, for instance, patios.
Small walls can be maintained like any other succulent garden. Large walls can be maintained by the Wild Wall Tiles team at a monthly rate.
Make sure to follow the instructions for installation and use the best soil mixes that works well with water wise plants. It is important to not block the drainage hole, so a couple of small stones in the bottom of the pot should ensure this. If it gets blocked, it can be easily opened with a toothpick/ matchstick.
After installing a 100m² WildWall wall in Sandton, Johannesburg, we notice bees swarming around the flowering succulents.
That is good news all around!
Certain succulents self-propagate when under stress, in other words, they either from new little plants, or when a leaf falls off, the leaf will grow little roots, settle and form a new plant.
This means even less maintenance on a WildWall wall.
