Growing vertical screens in urban homes

Published on: Sunday, July 25, 2021

By: Eskay Ong

Text Size:

EVERYONE needs screens in one form or another, such as shape, material, configuration or colour, or some other dimension, throughout their lives. It can be a concrete or wooden wall, a see-through partition, cardboard or cloth panels, or plain simple metal or polycarbonate flat sheets. Not that such screens may contribute anything to fill stomachs, but one of the most important reasons is the provision of privacy which humans crave and attach great importance to in so-called private living.

In this respect, it is well-known that, for instance, bedroom or toilet activities are normally well-secured against prying eyes and snoopy noses. And different homes in different locations have varying needs and degrees of privacy. Some people may choose to live in nature where they usually discharge their private business in the belukar or squatting by the side of rivers, hopefully without the presence of lurking crocodiles.

Privacy is important in human lives, as everyone knows the difficulty of trying to eject stinking lumps or discharging liquid wastes when other humans are hanging around nearby and within earshot of the fartings, groanings and splatterings.

Therein lies the usefulness of the typical four walls of buildings which allow for privacy to be secured through the use of brick, timber or concrete walls. In a way, these are permanent screens that allow for spaces to be separated according to the purpose for which they are built.

However, in many instances, there are screens that are not only living but also mobile and easy to set up. These come in the form of cascades which usually grow from top to bottom and which are also immobile, and vertical screens which grow in an upward direction. Depending on the way vertical screens are set up and cultivated, they can be highly mobile and be readily shifted without difficulty, or they can be permanently fixed to the ground or some concrete or brick planter boxes.

Nowadays, many tall and new buildings have provisions for the setting up of green cascades in order to create a green façade over a certain section of the building.

These are not only ingenious ideas to soften up the image of hard concrete or metal panels, but they also serve to reduce energy consumption by a certain degree by shielding the building surface from the heat of direct sunlight. On the same note, the earth’s layer of natural vegetation is also a natural shield that protects its surface from being overly roasted by the heat of the sun.

Usefulness of vertical screens

While vertical screens in various forms have been in existence since time immemorial, the green living types have not been widely publicised nor used in homes, offices, public places or commercial buildings.

This is due mainly to the fact that more care and effort need to be put into keeping and maintaining living screens in ways that allow them to remain attractive, useful and beneficial for many years.

On the other hand, non-living screens are hassle-free as they are not active but instead remain in a static state without giving problems for as long as they still remain standing in one piece and are not broken or scarred. Such is the advantage that for a long time, whatever screens that are known are confined to the non-living and static types.

Many years ago, the foldable static type of vertical screens were quite popular, and many of these can still be found in traditional homes where they are treasured for its timelessness, and perhaps, priceless value.

In developed Asian countries, vertical screen panels made of silk and framed with high quality selected timber materials are often available through auctions where they regularly fetch staggeringly sky-high prices.

Vertical screens of the static type may be of varying heights and widths, depending on the size of the area to be blocked off. There may be one or more panels each measuring from 30-60cm in width with several panels hinge-locked to each other to enable easy folding and shifting, while the height may range from 150-180cm.

Such measurements usually allow for a fairly good-sized area to be partitioned into a work or study corner, or even a station for tired minds and bodies to take a quick snooze without allowing for prying eyes or snoopy noses to extract some juicy information.

Living vertical screens are actually more cumbersome and tedious to set up and put to use. This is mainly due to a tiresome hands-on approach whereas static screens are usually done by a contractor or supplied by someone else with the owner doing nothing except writing a cheque as payment.

Generally, screens of all kinds are used to cut out noise, screen out dust and light, and dent the advances of intrusive noses and peeping eyes. In the outdoors, living vertical screens may be cultivated and set up easily especially for the purpose of blocking out the less than pleasant views such as run-down dog kennels, chicken coops, and so on.

Certain trees are perfect for screening off the negative image of has-been bungalows, country homes or other properties, and for this purpose, Polyalthia longifolia or ashoka tree as it is commonly known, is wonderful as a tall and tight green screen.

Other trees can also be used but the advantage with ashoka tree is that it is perennially green with a narrow spread that usually measures from 90-120cm. As such, a row of such trees set at a planting distance of 1 metre should be able to create a tight green wall between neighbouring lots.

Easy way to grow vertical screens

One of the most common garden plants that are available everywhere for use as screens is Epipremnum aureum syn. Scindapsus aureus. Locally, it is widely known as money plant especially among feng shui buffs, but other common names such as taro vine, silver vine and ivy arum are also used elsewhere.

Money plants are not only beautiful climbers for both indoor and outdoor use, but they are also capable of removing toxic gases such as benzene, toluene, xylene and formaldehyde from indoor areas.

That’s a double bonus when cultivating money plants, and when good money feng shui is added in, that’s a triple, gigantic godsend. Now, if this does not drive more plant enthusiasts to go for such rewarding plants, then I don’t know what will.

The materials required are quite simple and are readily available. This should include a pot of good topsoil, some raffia strings, thin gauge G.I. wire or clear fishing lines that are made of extruded smooth monofilament unbraided nylon or dacron, and a few pieces of bamboo slats of length 230 cm and width 3-4cm with thickness of 1.0-1.5cm, plus several shorter pieces each measuring 45cmx2cmx2cm.

It is possible to replace the bamboo with aluminium or M.S. bars, timber pieces or tree branches, but the former is still most preferred material to build up a green vertical screen.

To get things moving when trying to set up vertical screens, the most important thing is to look for long strings of the vine, preferably up to two meters long. Shorter cuttings may do but it may require a much longer period of time to grow a fairly thick screen.

Tuck the basal end of each string into a suitably sized pot that is filled with a good topsoil, and pull the distal end so as to stretch it to hang over some structures, and in time, they should produce a luxuriant layer of greens.

Each pot should be able to hold about five to seven strings of the vine, but anything less than that may need many more months to mature into a respectable screen.

Once the vines have firmed up and are beginning to extend its tips, stake two pieces of bamboo firmly into the pot at opposite sides to create a plane, or a tripod if three pieces are used.

The common practice, however, is to use only two pieces for an effective screen to be created. With the wire or nylon strings, tie the short bamboo pieces across the two stakes at three levels to create a simple lattice for the vines to grow over. Even though raffia strings may be used, they are less preferred as they tend to look more unsightly.

When this is done, it is now time to pull up the vines and lay them over the bamboo lattice, with some intertwining to allow for a steadier and firmer hold. Place the pot in a partially shaded location for several months while continuing to lift up and turn the cascading stems into the desired flat panel shape.

With five to seven pieces of vines, the coverage should be quite appreciable even though it may take four to six months for the foliage of the money plant to grow a complete cover.

After completing the first pot, it is now time to do a second or more of such pots for vertical screens, depending on the distance to be covered. The height and width of each individual pot of screen may be varied according to the needs of the location, and they may be widened or heightened midway during their growth by adding and extending the lengths of the bamboo pieces.