Gardens That Grow on Walls

GIVEN the chance to accompany a team of botanists on a plant-collecting expedition to South America, most gardeners would probably be satisfied with the experience. They wouldn’t come home and try to recreate the rain forest in Manhattan.
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But Michael Riley isn’t like most gardeners. Mr. Riley, a former commodities trader turned plant expert who went on to become assistant director of the Horticultural Society of New York, was eager to move beyond potted plants in a way that hadn’t yet occurred to many others. It took a number of expeditions, a lot of research and more than a decade and a half, but by 2003 he had figured out how to grow a wall of plants inside his Upper West Side apartment.
“In the rain forest, I realized that plants didn’t need to grow in pots with labels,” said Mr. Riley, 64. “I wanted to grow plants in ways that were natural to them.”
With his partner, Francisco Correa, a Spanish teacher who is now 52, Mr. Riley attacked a corner of his living area, stripping the walls of plaster and affixing exterior-grade plywood to new and existing building studs. On top of the plywood went bitumen roofing to protect the walls. Cork bark was then stapled over that, and plants were inserted into pockets in the cork. Sprinklers and lighting were installed overhead, trenches were put in at the base of the walls to catch water that trickled down, and pools were added in the middle of the room to increase humidity.
These days, Mr. Riley’s project isn’t that unusual. Vertical gardens — which began as an experiment in 1988 by Patrick Blanc, a French botanist intent on creating a garden without dirt — are becoming increasingly popular at home. Avid and aspiring gardeners, frustrated with little outdoor space, are taking another look at their walls and noticing something new: more space. And a number of companies are selling ready-made systems and all-in-one kits for gardeners like Mr. Riley who want to do it themselves. (For those who prefer to leave it to the professionals, landscape designers can build vertical gardens for a hefty fee.)
In the last few years, companies that sell green wall supplies have seen a jump in sales. ELT, an Ontario company that specializes in green roofs, began selling living wall systems a little over three years ago and is now one of the biggest suppliers to the United States. Greg Garner, the company’s president, said that its green-wall sales have increased 300 percent since 2008. Four months ago, the company introduced a cheaper, lighter kit to make living walls accessible to the average gardener; prices start at about $40 for a one-square-foot panel.
“We’ve turned living walls into something anyone can do,” Mr. Garner said. “The walls have gone from zero percent of our business leads to 80 percent of our business, and it’s happening all over the place, from the Middle East to North America to Europe.”
Another big living-wall company, Gsky Plant Systems in Vancouver, British Columbia, was founded four years ago as a green roof supplier but now focuses almost exclusively on vertical gardens, which it designs, installs and maintains for around $125 a square foot. Hal Thorne, Gsky’s chairman, said the company’s growth in the last year “was phenomenal — we nearly doubled sales.”
Many of the modular systems — essentially plastic trays filled with dirt and attached to a wall, with a sprinkler or drip irrigation system installed above — differ dramatically from Patrick Blanc’s living walls, which can be seen in commercial and institutional buildings around the world, including the Athenaeum hotel in London and the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.
Mr. Blanc, who was inspired by tropical rain-forest plants he had studied, knew plants could survive on water and fertilizer alone, and developed a system for growing them on walls lined with felt. The living wall was part of his effort to bring greenery into cities. “When you live in towns, you don’t always go into gardens,” he said. “It’s really important to use empty spaces to invite nature into town.” Calligraphy
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Drug plant inspection schedule accelerated

The drug manufacturing plant responsible for an international recall of children's Tylenol and other medicines has been on a stepped-up inspection schedule by federal regulators since 2008.
The McNeil Consumer Healthcare plant in Fort Washington, Pa., has been inspected annually since 2008, says Douglas Stearn, an assistant director for compliance at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
On average, because of limited resources, the FDA inspects domestic drug plants only about once every two to three years, Stearn said. The agency uses a risk-based system to set inspection schedules. Plants making drugs with greater safety risks, such as blood thinners, are inspected more frequently, as are plants that have a more troubled inspection history.
"There had been issues raised in these past inspections," Stearn said. Some involved manufacturing, he said, but he couldn't say whether that was the reason for the increased frequency.
The FDA and McNeil have declined to release reports of inspections before the one in April that triggered last week's wide-ranging recall.
FDA: Drug maker knew of contamination
A congressional oversight committee called on the FDA Thursday to produce those records and others by May 17 as part of its investigation into what they called "alarming" problems the FDA found in April, especially the use of a bacteria-contaminated ingredient to make medicine. USA TODAY has asked for the release of recent inspections reports since Sunday.
The recall of infant's and children's liquid Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl products is the third recall in recent months involving McNeil plants, note Reps. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., in their letter requesting documents from the FDA. Towns chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; Issa is its top Republican member.
This raises "questions as to the adequacy of FDA's response to repeated problems with McNeil's manufacturing practices," the lawmakers wrote.
McNeil spokesman Marc Boston said the company is addressing the "unacceptable" quality issues the FDA has flagged.
The chance of serious harm is "remote" from drugs in the recall, according to the FDA. In late January, the FDA was at the plant investigating a complaint, but Stearn could not provide details. Before last month, the plant had full inspections in October 2006, February 2008 and May 2009, he said.
Stearn said it's the drugmakers' responsibility to maintain the strength, quality and purity of their medicines. "We try to ensure that that obligation is met," he said.
If it isn't, said Sidney Wolfe at the watchdog group Public Citizen, the FDA must take action: "If (the plants) fail in that responsibility, something drastic should happen."Wild horser
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