PERTH city council’s Northbridge green wall has turned brown with a dry winter and hot summers, but here in Freo we’re having better luck.

Perth’s wall was also plagued by doofuses pulling out the plants at ground level, but even higher up the west-facing wall has been scorched by the arvo sun and stayed stunted.

The two smaller trial versions in Fremantle—a joint project between the council and Curtin Uni sustainability policy institute—are north-facing and they’re doing a fair bit better.

While the one in Kings Square has suffered from thieves yanking plants out, the flora they haven’t stolen yet is pretty healthy.

Over at Westgate Mall they’ve stuck it up out of reach and the whole thing’s thriving.

The green wall trial started because in 2011 Vincent city council attempted to force a developer to stick one on the side of his new building. He appealed and got the condition removed, on the basis that they’d never been tried here and there was a lack of knowledge about how the walls would work in Perth.

CUSP says there’s plenty of examples of healthy green walls around the world but “few in similar climactic conditions to Fremantle” where long hot summers and salty sea breezes are the order of the day.

So far only one species in the trial walls has failed and had to be replaced.

by DAVID BELL