Sustainable Sites Pilot Projects Announced
Green Industry News May-June 2010 Vol. 19 Issue 4 What’s inside: • BCLNA welcomes new executive director
Champions in Landscaping
Celebrating Earth Week
Innovative living wall
• Insurance discounts with GPS • Landscape Nova Scotia works with government on pesticide ban • Landscape Ontario’s ViaRail Garden Tours
A living, breathing example of innovation is growing at Nova Scotia Community College’s (NSCC) Centre for the Built Environment at the Waterfront Campus in Dartmouth, NS. A living wall filters air, creates habitats and adds beauty and vitality to a building’s design. "This living wall demonstrates the capacity of the Centre for the Built Environment to help Nova Scotians study the renewable energy and green technologies that are essential to our sustainable future," said Dr. McArthur-Blair, who assisted students in completing the first, permanent, exterior living wall. Sue Sirrs, owner of Outside! Planning and Design Studio was responsible for investigating the feasibility of creating the wall, while students and faculty at NSCC planned, designed and built the living wall. "I visited other living walls around the world and not a single existing structure would do the job here," said Ms. Sirrs. "Over two years, we tested five planting systems using 85 different plant species. We ended with a completely made-in-Nova Scotia solution that we will continue to learn from as it grows."
"This remarkable project brought together and tested all of the knowledge and experience I’ve gathered over many years about design, soils, climate, irrigation systems and the plants themselves," said Tim Amos, faculty with NSCC’s Horticulture program. The 7,000 plants that make up NSCC’s living wall offer a variety of colours, textures, flowers and berries, providing a living piece of art that will change with the seasons. "I helped propagate the very first plants for this project when it was still just an idea and now, here we are, seeing it come to life," said Roelof van der Merwe, a secondyear horticulture student. "It’s amazing." For more information about NSCC’s living wall, contact Stacey Baillie, Manager - Media & External Relations, NSCC at (902) 491-6781 or Stacey.Baillie@nscc.ca.