Sheraton Vertical Garden Built for Mile High Gardening Conference in Denver

In June, the Mile High City hosted some of the world's best gardeners for a two-day growing conference. Among the experts was Jordi Serramia Ruiz of Spanish firm <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/Urbanarbolism" target="_blank">Urbanarbolism</a>, which is known for its amazing vertical garden installations. While in Denver for the <a href="http://www.milehighgardeningconference.com/" target="_blank">Mile High Gardening Conference</a>, Jordi worked with another spanish firm, <a href="http://www.unusualgreen.com/en/">UnusualGreen</a>, to build a 16 foot high x 20 foot wide vertical hydroponic garden at the entrance of the downtown Sheraton hotel. The low-maintenance <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/vertical-garden" target="_blank">vertical garden</a> features the Sheraton logo front and center, and it's hardy enough to flourish through the wide range of temperatures that Denver experiences.

Denver's <a href="http://www.milehighgardeningconference.com/" target="_blank">Mile High Gardening Conference</a> brought together gardeners and growing experts from around the world for a two-day conference at the downtown Sheraton Hotel.

To celebrate the conference, <a href="http://www.urbanarbolismo.es/blog/?p=2162" target="_blank">Urbanarbolism</a> and <a href="http://www.unusualgreen.com/en" target="_blank">UnusualGreen</a> designed and installed a 16x20 ft vertical garden at the hotel's entrance.

The living wall acts as both a sign for the Sheraton and an example of how plants can be installed on a vertical surface.

The challenge for this project was to use hardy plants that could handle the hot summers in Denver (when temperatures hit over 100 deg F) as well as the cold winters (when temps dip down near 0 degrees).

The hydroponic installation is remotely monitored in Spain by Urbanarbolism and requires almost no maintenance.

Just once a year, the plants will be pruned and a water filter changed on the system.

You can see a full list of plants included in the installation on <a href="http://www.urbanarbolismo.es/blog/?p=2162" target="_blank">Urbanarbolism's site</a>.

Installation of the vertical garden before the conference.

The goal of the project was for it to be low maintenance and low water.

<a href="http://www.urbanarbolismo.es/" target="_blank"><big>+ Urbanarbolism</big></a>