Structural and load assessment
Saturated weight of modules, media, plants and water calculated against the host structure, with fixing details signed off before installation.
Specialist system
Vertical Gardens and Green Walls
Modular green walls on live infrastructure and building facades — engineered for structural load, irrigation redundancy and the maintenance access that keeps them alive after year one.
A vertical garden is the most failure-prone thing in landscape architecture, because it removes every buffer a plant normally has. Media volume is tiny, the wall reflects heat, roots cannot chase moisture, and a pump failure in May kills the installation in about seventy-two hours. The walls that survive are the ones where structure, irrigation and maintenance access were engineered before the species list was drawn.
GNIX has built and maintained roughly 34,000 sq ft of vertical garden on live public infrastructure: 24,000 sq ft across three flyovers in Jalandhar under Jalandhar Smart City, and 10,000 sq ft on four DMRC metro stations in Noida under the Noida Industrial Development Authority. Both are exposed, high-traffic, difficult-access installations — the hardest version of the problem.
Our approach starts with the boring questions. What is the saturated load per square metre? Where does the water come from and what happens when the pump stops? How does a maintenance crew reach row fourteen? Answer those, and the horticulture is straightforward.
Specification notes
| Planting density | 25–36 plants per square metre in modular systems |
|---|---|
| Saturated system weight | Typically 50–120 kg per square metre depending on system |
| Irrigation | Zoned drip, dual pump, filtration, flow alarm and manual bypass |
| Time to full cover | 8–12 weeks in warm weather with reliable irrigation |
| Maintenance cycle | Fortnightly to monthly visits; quarterly deep servicing |
| Delivered to date | 34,000 sq ft on flyovers and metro stations |
What you get
- A wall that is still full at the third annual maintenance cycle
- Structural and waterproofing risk closed out before installation
- Species zoned by measured light rather than by pattern alone
- Maintenance access designed in, so upkeep is a visit rather than a project
Scope
What the service covers
Modular system supply and installation
Frame, module and backing-panel systems selected for the exposure — flyover soffit, metro facade, building elevation or interior lobby.
Irrigation and fertigation
Zoned drip with dual pumps, filtration, flow monitoring, manual bypass and dosing for liquid feed. The single most important system on the wall.
Light-zoned species planning
Planting mapped to measured light across the wall face — rhoeo and sun-tolerant species in exposed bands, syngonium and ferns in shaded zones.
Access and maintenance planning
How the wall is reached for trimming, replacement and repair, planned at design stage rather than discovered in year two.
Annual maintenance contracts
Scheduled trimming, replacement, media top-up, irrigation servicing and reporting — including on walls installed by other contractors.
Method
How the work runs
- 1. Survey and light mappingOrientation, shading, measured light bands, wind exposure, water source and access constraints.
- 2. EngineeringLoad calculations, fixing design, waterproofing interface and drainage route for irrigation runoff.
- 3. Design and species zoningPattern developed within the light bands, with species chosen for regrowth from cut-back rather than replacement.
- 4. InstallationFrame, modules, irrigation, then planting — with pre-grown modules where an instant finish is required.
- 5. MaintenanceWeekly checks in the first season, then a scheduled contract covering plants, irrigation and structure.
Plant library
Species we commonly specify for this work
Each entry carries mature size, spacing, water demand, planting window and the maintenance cycle it commits you to.
Syngonium
Syngonium podophyllum
The backbone species of Indian green walls: fast, forgiving, available in green, cream and pink forms, and able to regrow from a hard cut-back in place.
- Height300–600 mm in a wall module; trails to 1 m+
- WaterConsistent moisture
- MaintenanceModerate
Money Plant
Epipremnum aureum
The most forgiving plant in Indian interior and vertical landscaping — trailing, variegated, nearly impossible to kill, and the standard filler for green walls and planter edges.
- HeightTrails 1–3 m from a module
- WaterModerate
- MaintenanceLow
Rhoeo
Tradescantia spathacea
The purple-backed rosette that survives full sun on a green wall and doubles as a hard-wearing groundcover — the toughest plant in the vertical garden palette.
- Height250–400 mm
- WaterLow to moderate
- MaintenanceLow
Boston Fern
Nephrolepis exaltata
The soft texture layer of a green wall — lush and immediately convincing in shade and humidity, and the first species to fail when irrigation slips.
- Height400–700 mm arching fronds
- WaterHigh and consistent
- MaintenanceHigh
Spider Plant
Chlorophytum comosum
A striped arching rosette that fills modules fast, propagates itself on runners and tolerates the light swings that kill fussier green-wall species.
- Height250–400 mm
- WaterModerate
- MaintenanceLow
Evidence
Projects using this capability
CompletedVertical garden
Jalandhar flyover vertical gardens
Modular green walls installed and maintained across three flyovers, turning grey infrastructure surfaces into continuous planted facades.
- ClientJalandhar Smart City
- LocationJalandhar
- ScopeDevelopment and maintenance of 24,000 sq ft vertical garden
CompletedVertical garden
Noida metro vertical gardens
Green walls on four operational DMRC metro stations, bringing planted surfaces into daily commuter infrastructure.
- ClientNoida Industrial Development Authority
- LocationNoida
- ScopeDevelopment and maintenance of 10,000 sq ft vertical garden
Frequently asked questions
How much does a vertical garden cost in India?
Cost is driven by the system, the height and the access, not by the plants. A modular exterior wall on a facade with easy access sits at one end; a flyover soffit needing traffic management and a boom lift sits far higher. Always price the five-year maintenance alongside the installation — that is where the real cost of a green wall lives.
Why do vertical gardens fail?
Irrigation failure first, wrong species for the light band second, and no maintenance access third. Plant health is almost never the root cause; it is the symptom.
Which plants survive on outdoor green walls in India?
Rhoeo for exposed sun bands, syngonium and money plant for shaded and semi-shaded zones, spider plant in the middle, and ferns only where humidity is reliable. Species that resprout from a hard cut-back are strongly preferred.
Can you maintain a green wall built by someone else?
Yes. We take over existing installations regularly. The first visit is an audit of irrigation, structure and species suitability, because those three determine whether maintenance alone can fix the wall.
Read next
Guides on this subject
Vertical gardens · 5 min read
Vertical Garden Systems in India
A practical guide to green walls on Indian buildings and infrastructure — system types, structural load, irrigation redundancy, species zoning by light, maintenance access and realistic running costs.
Read the guideMaintenance · 4 min read
Landscape Maintenance Contracts (AMC) in India
How to write and evaluate a landscape AMC — frequency tables, measurable standards, replacement turnaround, irrigation servicing, reporting and the pricing models that quietly guarantee decline.
Read the guideRelated
Services usually taken alongside this one
Annual contract
Landscape and Greenery Maintenance (AMC)
Annual maintenance contracts that keep planted assets looking deliberate — with a written calendar, defined KPIs and reporting instead of an unscheduled crew.
Service detailCore service
Landscape Execution and Plantation
Full softscape execution for campuses, townships, industrial sites and public realm — from soil and levels through planting, lawns and irrigation to a working maintenance handover.
Service detailAdvisory
Greenery and Plantation Consulting
Advice before execution — species strategy, plantation planning, tender scope review and honest assessment of what a site and its maintenance budget can actually sustain.
Service detailPlanning a plantation, landscape or green wall package?
Send the site details, the drawings if you have them, and the maintenance budget you expect. You will get an honest read on species, timing and what the site can actually sustain.