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Sky Garden were delighted to secure the urban greening project for Colas Rail’s depot in Rugby.The decision to install a living wall and sedum blanket living roof system allowed Sky Garden to put their technical expertise to the test. The living roof was a straight forward task for our installation team. A sedum blanket system with maintenance pathways was completed simply and efficiently, with Sky Garden installing thousands of similar roofs across the UK each year. A living wall is a more intricate system that must be installed methodically in order to get the stunning results we managed to achieve here.
The project began by fitting the aluminium framework to the wall. The top and outer frame was drilled into place first and the remaining vertical strips accurately spaced across the whole wall, keeping the whole framework square at all times. There was no bottom frame on this project in order to allow for free drainage of the wall into the riverstone border below.
The horizontal pieces followed suit, with our team taking their time to fit the frame with millimetre precision. Once the framework was in place it was time to begin fitting the irrigation system. The pump, tank, waste water tank and fertiliser system were connected and the pipework was fitted through the left and right vertical aluminium frame.
Once this was in place, the vegetation panels could be hooked and bolted in place. This was done methodically with each panel being numbered and bolted in to place from the bottom left and running across each row. This was a simple process at the bottom of the wall, but became more difficult towards the top as our installation team had to use scaffolding to reach the top heights of the framework.
The final phases of the project consisted of plugging any gaps in the wall with spare plants, fitting the irrigation system horizontally across the panels and removing any protective layers from the aluminium.
The result
The final result was worth the hard work. The bespoke system was installed perfectly with no hitches. The living wall looks impressive already, but over time will fill out and flourish. Along with the sedum blanket, which will flower in the spring, the whole area will come to life with colour and vibrance.
Colas Rail, Client
