BELFAST—It took almost a year to get each quadrant of Waterfall Arts’ meticulously assembled Living Wall together. The plants are the palette mounted vertically on a large frame. The resulting “live art” is now part of the aesthetic, hanging outside Waterfall Arts’ building for all to see.

“This was a way to get kids connected with the environment and art, as well as provide us with a beautiful art piece on the side of our building,” said Karin Otto, Waterfall Arts’ program coordinator. 

This is their third year growing and assembling the Living Wall. Through a recent grant from The Maine Community Foundation, Otto worked with horticulture students from Waldo County Technical Center on the community project to teach the juniors and seniors vertical landscaping and environmental art.

The students learned how to use plants in new ways, fostering creative problem solving. 

“Often this kind of environmental art is used in urban spaces, where there isn’t much vegetation or space to grow it and the vertical garden is used to cool down the heat index of an area and is also used as an air filter system,” said Otto. “This is also an excellent way to grow herbs and vegetables in a limited area.”

To get the look of the Living Wall, first the students, led by Patrice Janssen from WCTC, studied the best type of plants that could thrive in a vertical environment. First they studied what constitutes “environmental art” and embarked on some smaller art sculptures using natural materials.

To make the Living Wall, they used cuttings from the previous year’s wall and grew the rest from seeds they ordered and cultivated in WCTC’s greenhouse.

“Through trial and error, we learned over the past two years that herbs and other plants didn’t fare so well, so we looked towards succulents in this year’s piece.” said Otto. Some of those plants included hens and chicks, sedum and Irish moss. “We grew the plants over the winter and when the time came to put it all together each cell had a letter and a number, so it was like putting a giant jigsaw puzzle together.”

To irrigate the sculpture so it wouldn’t dry out, the students rigged up a leaker hose in the back of the frame, which is hidden from view.

“The kids were so excited to finally put the wall up,” said Otto. “They’re really proud of how well it turned out.” The wall will be on display till October. View the video from last year to see how the whole project was constructed. 

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com