British artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey are creating temporary grass masterpieces, by making grass grow on vertical surfaces and have been doing it since 1990.

An example of their work as detailed on Arts Admin is Dilston Grove created in 2003.

Dilston Grove, formerly known as Clare College Mission Church is now a derelict church in Bermondsey. Ackroyd & Harvey temporarily transformed the church into chamber of living grass.

How to Grow Grass on a Wall

As reported in New Scientist the Grass Wall process involves:

1. Stripping walls down to bare plasterwork
2. Smearing the walls with a layer of soft moist clay a few millimetres thick. Moisture content is critical as if it is too wet it will slide off  or too dry and it will peel away.
3. Press in about 10 seeds every square centimetre of clay so that the finished surface resembles a sesame seed cake.
4. The walls are then watered three or four times a day to make sure that the clay doesn’t dry out.
5. In about six days the grass will germinate and then only water once per day
6. Unfortunately the dense growth of the grass starts to get mouldy after about 25 days. This is because the grass grows so densely that air cannot circulate and water becomes trapped. After about a month the grass wall is taken down.

If only it lasted for a long time it would be a great option for vertical gardeners, but a great spectacle none the less.