A module for soil and plants

DESCRIPTION
A MODULE FOR SOIL AND PLANTS
s This invention relates to a module for soil and plants.
A living wall is a vertical structure that can be mounted against a wall or other structure and is constructed from individual modules that contain soil and plants. A single or multi-sided vertical garden can be created from living walls.
io Living walls may be located both indoors and out, and offer many functional, environmental and aesthetic benefits. In exterior applications, living walls provide a form of urban agriculture or urban gardening, providing good use of otherwise unused vertical surface areas. Functionally, a living wall can clad an existing structural wall thereby extending the lifespan of traditional exterior wall materials and reducing heating and cooling energy costs. Living walls can also be fixed to interior walls and other upright structures.
An example of a module that can be used in creating a living wall is disclosed in International Patent Application Publication WO 2007/101 339, which discloses a vertical plant supporting system. The vertical plant support includes a wall having a panel and an anchor layer, and a matrix of tubes being connected to the wall. The anchor layer is located intermediate the panel and the matrix of tubes. The panel can be liquid impermeable and the anchor layer can be liquid permeable. The plant support disclosed in this document has a number of disadvantages, including the fact that size of the support is inflexible and the use of an anchor layer inside the support means that matrix of tubes has to be manufactured separately and inserted into the plant support at a later date, making the manufacture and use of the plant support more complicated than necessary.
It is therefore an object of the invention to improve upon the known art.
According to the present invention, there is provided a module for soil and plants comprising a body formed from a moulding of plastics material, the body comprising a plurality of vertical columns, each column comprising a plurality of cells and each column comprising one or more fixing tubes open from front to back of the module.
Owing to the invention, it is possible to provide a module that can be S used in a living wall structure that is simpler to manufacture and use and can also be cut into different sizes without losing any of the technical functions of the module or any of the fixing functions. This provides a more flexible module that can be used to fit to interior/exterior walls or similar structures that are not sizes that match the fixed size of the module.
Preferably, the body is formed from a single moulding of plastics material. A further advantage of the design of the module is that it can be moulded in a single stage moulding without the need to mould multiple components and then assemble the module afterwards. This is a significant advantage of the module, as this minimises the amount of human labour involved in actually constructing the module for its final usage, which is often the most expensive part of the process of creating the living wall from the individual modules.
Advantageously, the module further comprises a continuous reservoir running across the top of the vertical columns, where in each column of cells, a wall between the reservoir and an adjacent cell is provided with one or more slits. The module can also be provided with a channel running across the bottom of the vertical columns which, in profile, matches the continuous reservoir running across the top of the vertical columns when two modules are placed one above the other. The provision of the reservoir at the top of the module allows water to be provided to the soil and hence the plants that will ultimately be mounted in the modules. The channel at the bottom of the module matches the profile of the reservoir such that when the modules are in place on an interior/exterior wall or other structure one above the other, water can travel downwards between two adjacent modules.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-Figure 1 is a perspective view from in front and below of a module, Figure 2 is a side view of the module, Figure 3 is a rear perspective view of the module, Figure 4 is a front view of the module, and s Figure 5 is perspective view from in front and above the module.
Figure 1 shows a module 10 for soil and plants for use in the creation of a living wall. The module 10 comprises a body 12 formed from a moulding of plastics material. The body 12 comprises a plurality of vertical columns 14, in io this case three columns 14. Each column 14 comprises a plurality of cells 16 and each column 14 also comprises one or more fixing tubes 18 open from front to back of the module 10. In this embodiment, the body 12 is formed from a single moulding of plastics material. The entire module 10 is formed as a single solid unit of plastics material. The module 10 has eighteen cells 16, each of which is designed to receive soil to support one or more plants.
Different sizes of module 10 are possible, but the module 10 shown in Figure 1 has a height of 500mm, a width of 330mm and a depth of 100mm.
The module 10 is so designed that six modules 10 can be used to cover an area of 1m2. Once soil has been used to fill each of the cells 16, then plugs (small plants) can be planted into the cells 16 and the module 10 can be mounted onto a suitable surface. The plants will grow from the planted plugs and create a living wall as a decorative and functional feature of a structure to which the modules 10 are attached. Prior to filling the cells 16 with soil, a thin sponge or similar material can be placed into each cell 16 in order to retain water for the cell 16 once it is filled with soil.
Figure 2 shows a side view of the module 10, which allows certain features of the module 10 to be seen more clearly. Firstly, the module 10 further comprises a continuous horizontal mounting slot 20 running across the back of the module 10. This slot 20 is to assist in the fixing of the module 10 to the wall or other structure on which it is mounted. The module 10 is mounted by first fixing a horizontal bar across the wall or structure to which the living wall is going to be attached. The horizontal bar helps to support the weight of the modules 10 and ensures that the horizontal alignment of the modules 10 is readily achieved. The fixing tubes 18, which are open from front to back of the module 10, are arranged substantially in line and at the same height as the continuous horizontal mounting slot 20 running across the back of the module 10. The slot 20 is designed so that it is large enough to allow the module 10 to be mounted directly onto a 2 inch angle iron or can accommodate a rubber mounting strip.
The module 10 also comprises a continuous reservoir 22 running across the top of the vertical columns 14. The reservoir 22 is part of a watering io system that is built into the living wall as it is constructed. Modules 10 mounted horizontally adjacent have a flexible pipe run along and through the hole 24.
The flexible pipe is provided with holes to drip water into the reservoirs 22 of each module 10. In each column 14 of cells 16, a wall between the reservoir 22 and an adjacent cell 16 is provided with one or more slits and in each column 14 of cells 16, a wall between adjacent cells 16 is provided with one or more slits. This allows water introduced at the top of the module 10 via the reservoir 22 to migrate downwards through the soil and plant roots.
The back of the module 10 is shown in Figure 3. This Figure shows the continuous horizontal mounting slot 20 running across the back of the module 10, which is to assist in the fixing of the module 10 to a wall or other structure.
The fixing tubes 18, which are open from the front to the back of the module can be seen in this Figure. Once the module 10 is mounted onto the horizontal bar on a wall or structure, then screws can be used through the tubes 18 to complete the fixing of the module 10 in position. The tubes 18 are isolated from the cells 16 through which they run, so any water in a cell 16 does not escape via a tube 18. The front openings of the tubes 18 can be seen in Figure 1, and the back opening of the tubes 18 can be seen in this Figure.
One of the main advantages of the design of the module 10 is that each column 14 of cells 16 is provided with a fixing tube 18 and one column 14 comprises two fixing tubes 18 open from front to back of the module 10. This ensures that the module 10 can be cut into smaller sizes without affecting the ability of the cut-down modules to be fixed in place using the same fixing mechanisms as the full-size module 10. Also present in Figure 2 is a channel 26 running across the bottom of the vertical columns 14 and, in profile, matching the continuous reservoir 22 running across the top of the vertical columns 14 when two modules 10 are placed one above the other. The S channel 26 is also provided with openings 28 to allow water to migrate down through a cascade of modules 10.
A front view of the module 10 is shown in Figure 4. The body 12 is made of three vertical columns 14 of cells 16, with six cells 16 in each column 14, making a total of eighteen cells 16. The front of the fixing tubes 18 can be seen, which are open from front to back of the module 10. The left-hand column 14 has a pair of fixing tubes 18, while the other two columns 14 have only a single fixing tube 18 each. If the module 10 is cut, for example down the line between the middle and right-hand column 14, then the cut-down module can be used without any further changes needed and can be fixed to a wall or other structure again without any further changed being made to the module 10.
As mentioned above, in each column 14 of cells 16, a wall between adjacent cells 16 is provided with one or more slits 30. In the preferred embodiment, there are two slits 30 between each adjacent cell 16 that are in the same column 14. There are no slits between cells 16 in different columns 14. Additionally, in each column 14 of cells 16, a wall between the reservoir 22 and an adjacent cell 16 is also provided with one or more slits 32. In the preferred embodiment, there are three slits 32 between the reservoir 22 and each adjacent cell 16 that are in the same column 14. These slits allow water that is introduced at the top of the module 10 to migrate downwards through the soil and plant roots that are present in each cell 16.
Figure 5 shows the front of the module 10 in a view similar to Figure 1, but this time looking from above rather than below, effectively showing the module 10 upside down. This view shows that each wall between two horizontally-adjacent cells 16 is provided with a slit 34. For clarity, only one such slit 34 is numbered, but each pair of horizontally-adjacent cells 16 is provided with the slit 34. The purpose of the slit 34 is two-fold, firstly to allow root migration between the plants that grow in the individual cells 16 and secondly to allow water to circulate within the module 10 between adjacent cells 16. The slot 34 is in a position that is low down on the wall between two adjacent cells 16 so that excess water within one cell 16 will migrate to S adjacent cells 16.
The module 10 has slits 30 that are provided on horizontal walls of adjacent cells 16 to allow water flow through the module 10. A slit 30a on each horizontal wall of the module 10 is of longer length than other slits 30 on the same horizontal wall. The longer-length slit 30a is the slit 30a closest to an io external wall of the module 10. Each of a pair of adjacent horizontal walls of the module 10 are provided with a slit 30a that is of longer length than other slits 30 on the respective horizontal wall and the two longer-length slits 30a on adjacent horizontal walls of the module 10 are located at opposite ends of the module 10. This creates a water path that effectively snakes from right to left is and back again through the module 10. This provides efficient watering of the plants in all of the individual cells 16 within the module 10.