Elsa Pataky, in her most personal interview: "I have sacrificed my career to be a mother, and I feel very proud"
Bárbara Rey Actis, the longevity expert who explains how to reach one hundred years in top shape: "It is proven that intermittent fasting lengthens life"
A sleep expert points out foods that help you sleep: "Protein and magnesium promote deep rest"
Spring begins to sneak through our balconies, at least in terms of sun and temperatures;
You know, one day we take off our katiuskas and the next we wear our sandals and look for plants to turn the terrace or balcony into the best garden.
Because the desire to go
outside
gets us;
With the arrival of good weather, these are the most coveted spaces in any home since the pandemic made us want contact with nature more than
ever
.
But what happens when meters are scarce and that green window is reduced to a minimum?
"Well, it is also possible to turn a small
balcony
into a garden," says an expert on the subject,
Marisa Martos.
She, an agricultural engineer from the
Polytechnic University of Madrid
converted into a businesswoman and designer of vertical gardens, does it every day from the company with the same name, My Vertical Garden, specialized in installing gardens high up
,
taking advantage of walls and
space
. "upwards to leave the other free, the horizontal, which is what we all need to be
comfortable
in our homes and which we usually do not have," he says.
With her we talked about what she knows best,
vertical gardens,
those that are installed anywhere, no matter how small and wherever it is, even inside the home in an unexpected area of the
hall
,
bathroom
or
kitchen
, "places where you can't imagine them, but where the result is spectacular, it is the way to introduce plants into the home without taking up meters."
It is also the new trend in interior design, she points out, and a "quick way to radically change the decoration of any space," she explains.
As they did, for example, at a stand at
Madrid Fashion Week,
where they placed a huge fuchsia-colored vertical garden, quite a challenge, she remembers, because "it was very complicated to dye so many plants and flowers."
From civil works to gardens
Marisa Martos began to enter this sector in a way as improvised as her gardens sneak into homes.
Although she had studied
landscaping
and the environment, she was dedicated to civil works in an engineering company, until the 2013 crisis put her in a bind: "We
engineers
had to go to Peru or Colombia, the only countries where construction was still going on. roads, railways, hospitals..., but I had a family here and I didn't want to move."
It was when she decided to turn her eyes to her initial training, specialize in
gardening
and push upwards, in every sense: "Vertical gardens seemed like the most innovative thing to me, besides, I am from Córdoba and I always say that their origin is in the patios of
Cordoba
."
With clear ideas and her business project in mind, Marisa Martos began making
vegetable paintings
at home.
"I was
pregnant
with my third daughter, and far from taking away my energy, it gave me energy, it was a driving force for the business. I set up a greenhouse at home and started selling to acquaintances and then online."
It worked, but whoever bought didn't just want a small painting, but a
garden
.
Putting the pieces together, like a puzzle, was the next thing.
And then, professionalize the business: "I lived in an attic and there came a time when I couldn't take the panel down the stairs (laughs)."
She rented a small space and the business grew.
"The boom came the summer of the
pandemic
," she confesses.
She had started by hiring a person for a few hours, in 2018, to help her;
Today there are ten that make up the staff.
"This has always been a
women
's business , until two years ago there had never been a man on staff; we have a special sensitivity," she says.
Javi martinez
Gardens that do not take up space
"Having a beautiful space that inspires is always achieved with plants," says Marisa Martos, who assures that they are often placed in apartments.
"The good thing about a
vertical garden
is that it doesn't take up space. No matter how small a home is, everyone has walls."
And even this can be dispensed with: "They are perfect on
small balconies
, and if these are so small that there is not even a façade, they can be placed on the floor. Accompanying them with a piece of artificial grass on the ground you get a real garden in a minimum space".
In this case, they also decorate the
home
inside, "not only do you enjoy it when you are outside, in summer or spring, but also in winter, from the sofa, because it will always be what you see through your glass," adds Marisa Martos.
A way, also, to gain
'green' meters
at home and bring it closer to
nature
even in the narrowest and darkest streets in the city centre.
A garden without maintenance
At this point I am more than convinced that my small terrace, or even my living room, needs to liven up with a vertical garden.
But I still think they are difficult, and expensive, to maintain.
I'm wrong.
There are several types, even for
clumsy ones
, which "do not need any type of
maintenance
and allow you to go on vacation without worrying about who will take care of the plants," says Marisa Martos.
They are the preserved ones.
"They are made with natural plants that have been cut when they are at their maximum splendor. They have then undergone a treatment to stabilize and
preserve them
. This keeps them
intact
and smooth. They do not need anything, neither light nor water, and they do not grow, so they always remain beautiful, like the first day, they are designs that last forever," he explains.
You can also opt for natural
vertical gardens
- "the most delicate and complicated, both to care for and to install because they need water intakes and drains," he explains - which still include
automatic irrigation
systems so that they do not become slavery. , or because of the indestructible design with artificial plants, with increasingly successful textures that make it difficult to differentiate them.
Javi martinez
Moss, the star of a vertical garden
In any case, today the star in this type of garden is the
preserved one
, which in addition to its appearance has an added advantage: time.
No more buying small plants and waiting years to see them grow;
The
garden
appears at home from one day to the next and at the right size, no more, no less.
Once the design leaves the workshop, it is taken to the home in small blocks and there it is assembled, without work and in just a few hours, on any surface: brick, plasterboard, glass... even on the screens or ceilings of the house.
shower
, "suddenly it seems like you are taking a shower in the Amazon or in La Pedriza," he points out.
In kitchens, the trend is to place them in the office areas and on the islands or on the walls of the peninsulas.
What is the plant that looks best in this type of garden? I ask Marisa Martos.
"The
moss
, specifically the mixture of the plane with the ball type, which generates different volumes."
The expert recommends combining it "with
succulent
plants and various species of
eucalyptus
, which results in pieces full of
movement
that come in different tones and take up hardly any space. The most beautiful thing is to mix volumes, shades of green and textures.
Ivy
is also always a success, and another species that attracts a lot of attention is the
fern
, it looks phenomenal."
The really complicated thing in a
vertical garden,
whatever type it is, is getting the
initial
design .
"In the case of the preserved ones, it takes a long time to work on them, which is why they are somewhat more expensive, their price starts at about 300 euros per square meter, although it always depends on the plants we choose. The advantage is that
you install
it in one day and then you forget; you will always have it
impeccable
, for years, until you get tired of it," concludes Martos.
Articles Marisa del Bosque
Decor
Trends