Must see! Before & After artificial green wall

I am obsessed with ‘Alice in Wonderland’ type gardens – manicured lawns, perfectly trimmed topiaries, green walls and pruned hedges. Whilst in love with this look I have realised that these types of gardens often require quite a bit of maintenance and care to keep it in tip top shape. If you have the time, know-how or resources to assist you with your garden it becomes a magical place and inspiration to all its visitors, but if that does not happen it becomes… well MESSY.

This is where a product called Insta-Green, a product by Distinctive Spaces could come in handy. The name explains it all – instantly adding green to your home or business whether indoor or outdoors. Insta-Green is an artificial plant solution to NOT replace but rather compliment your current plants and greenery in and around the home or office.

What is Insta-Green?

Distinctive Insta-Green is the most popular division of Distinctive Spaces. The Insta-Green products allows the creation of modern and highly effective green walls or vertical gardens. The Insta-Green products can also be used to create instant hedges and topiaries.

Where would it make sense to use the Insta-Green products?

1. In places in or around the home where you cannot create a bedding to grow actual plants. e.g. behind a bed as a green wall decoration or next to a drive or walk way.
2. Where the conditions are not favorable for the specific plants that you want to plant to grow.
3. In a rental unit for instance where you would like to have greenery but are up on a high flooring level where watering plants and caring for them could prove difficult and not always possible.
4. Privacy screening for neighbors around patio balustrades.
5. Instantly providing coverage of unsightly walls, fences or pipes.
6. As non-permanent photo wall pieces. Just imagine how pretty a green wall will look for functions and special events?

What are the some of the benefits and characteristics of these instant green products?

• The UV stabilisation of the products make them it suitable for both indoor and outdoor application and use.
• The green walls, topiaries and hedges are quick and easy to install. (both my wall and hedge took around 5 hours to install)
• The Insta-Green products are an affordable solution.
• This is an instant decorative range that can enhance a dull space in way less time than waiting for example a real green wall to grow.
• The maintenance aspect of the products are very low, no need to water as the are drought proof and no associated damp -proofing required. They always stay green and in shape.

Revealing my green wall!

Why an artificial green wall was the best solution for the space?
After coming up with a lot of potential solutions this green wall just made sense. After my kitchen revamp I wanted something that covered the exterior wall that the window of the kitchen looked out on. The dilemmas:

1. Plastering and painting the wall was an option, but the problem is that the wall is not painted or plastered on the neighbors’ side which could in turn create damp issues on our side.
2. There were also conduit pipes that ran across the wall for electricity of the exterior lights that irritated me to no end. So they either had to be painted or plastered in to hide them.
3. I tried growing some creepers on the wall but the problem is that the space is actually a narrow walkway to the flat at the back of our property next to the carport so there is no space to dig an actual bedding.I purchased a long planter and started my mission… Our pup removed the one creeper just as it started blooming and the second one would take at least 3-4 years to cover up the wall.

So having an artificial green wall here just made perfect sense to me. I look at it every day and loooove seeing greenery instead of brown brick wall with conduit piping and best of all, NEVER have to water it! (Note that Distinctive Designs also installs live green walls but they do take up more space and needs some additional setup as well as require ongoing maintenance)

The installation of the green wall
Whilst the artificial green wall is available as DIY solution it took a little more than I expected to install. The team arrived bright and early with 4 members and started preparing for the installation. (Note that the Distinctive Spaces team had done measurements before the installation) The green wall comes in panels that has to be clipped on to each other to form bigger sheets.

First the wall was lined with a green shade net that not only allows for evaporation but also covers up the smaller holes in the green wall sheets to make it look more life like once installed.

The sheets then get nailed into the walls with nails (loads and loads of nails) to ensure that it is fixed and will not warp or fall off. I liked the fact that no glues were used as that could cause possible damp and maintenance issues later.

The wall is then expertly cut to perfect size and really to make your friends green with envy! Can’t wait to have a styled shoot in front of my new wall!!!

Revealing my instant hedge

Why an artificial hedge was the best solution for the space?
I have a space to the side of my front door next to the porch that I really wanted to add hedges to. Our dogs destroyed the plants that I had there originally and does show jumping over the section. I though hedges would be a great way to separate the garden space from the porch and somehow keep them from using it as a pathway. 2 years ago I then planted three plants that should have grown into hedges by now… See the growth below.

I soon realised that this space literally never gets sun and the ground also never dries making it a not so great environment for these hedges to be.

The installations by the Professionals

There is a whole lot of work that goes into creating an artificial hedge, it is actually a custom built metal cage that is lined with wire and shade net and then the artificial greenery sheets. So I totally recommend that you get the professionals from Distinctive Spaces to do this for you.

The result… LOVE IT!!!!

The BIG question on everyone’s’ minds – Is the Insta-Green product Eco-friendly?

The Insta-Green is made from plastic, which is bad for the environment if you discard of them in the incorrect manner, but the plastic Insta-Green is manufactured from is 100% recyclable and non-toxic. Distinctive Spaces is a proud supporter of the organization 4ocean, which is a plastic clean-up initiative.

Find out more about Distinctive Spaces and their products

Read more about Distinctive Spaces and the other pretty awesome products that they have available here. There are also some expert tips in the link on how to decorate with artificial plants and how to find the best quality greenery for your home.

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Images by Melanie Wessels Photography.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post according to my disclaimers and disclosures. I received some products in exchange for the posts. Thank you for supporting my blog – this is as always my honest opinion.

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