Urban Gardens

Complex and intricate living art arrangements composed of thousands of plants climb the interior walls of of Isetan Shinjuku, one of Japan’s oldest department stores.

For a recent unveiling of the store’s “Fashion Museum” botanical artist Makota Azuma’s The Art … Read More…

Plants pop through small holes of the die-cast aluminum panels that punctuate the living facade of Green Cast, a mixed-use building in Odawara, Japan.

Designed by architects Kengo Kuma & Associates, the building’s slightly slanted panels are formed over … Read More…

Spanish researchers have developed a living concrete that may define a new method for creating vertical gardens and living walls on building facades.  Capturing rainwater, the multilayered cement encourages and sustains the growth and viability of specific mosses and lichens … Read More…

We’ve discussed before the benefits of plants and vertical gardens–how they can not only beautify indoor and outdoor spaces, but can help decrease energy usage by providing insulation, improve indoor air quality, even provide a place to grow … Read More…

Grass Mosaic

Garden Unique, a new premium outdoor section of spoga+gafa opening in September in Cologne, Germany, is sponsoring Garden Goes Balcony, a design contest inviting new or established designers to submit fresh ideas for creative balcony spaces. … Read More…

Looking for a living wall or vertical garden system to screen your balcony while you grow veggies, fresh aromatic herbs, or flowers either indoors or out? The modular system is great for creating a small green wall or larger vertical … Read More…

Back room of the garden retreat. Photo by Robin Plaskoff Horton.

Urban Gardens was honored to be invited by friend and blog follower, Victoria Lyon of Victoria Lyon Interiors, to design Conversing With Nature: A Creative Garden Retreat… Read More…

Inca Wall Garden surrounds terrace

Vertical gardens and living walls are of increasing interest to urban gardeners looking to maximize their garden space for harvesting their own food or for simply beautifying their surroundings. A “growing” trend, there are several … Read More…

PNC (NYSE: PNC) has successfully installed a 2,380 square-foot living wall with 602 modular panels on the exterior of their Pittsburgh headquarters building, One PNC Plaza..  Each 2′x2′ panel has roughly 24 plants, so there’s approximately 14,448 plants covering the … Read More…

The world’s biggest collection of non-nettly-looking nettles – or Urticaccae, for those in the know–as well native plants and flowers, are sprouting vertically up the exterior walls of The Athenaeum Hotel in London. The city’s humid microclimate is the perfect … Read More…