Interview with Jesús Castiello: The vertical gardener
Today we have the pleasure of introducing you to the gardener of the Hotel Sauce in our interview section. Yes, you read correctly. At Hotel Sauce we have a garden. We are a small hotel in the heart of Saragossa, without a terrace or land. But we love plants and we wanted to have a garden.
And for a few months now our wish has come true thanks to Jesús and his project Plantas On Wall. A hanging garden with automatic irrigation, a water saving system and its own lighting lamps that have made the Sauce Hotel lobby a much more welcoming and lively place.
Having plants nearby provides many benefits. We should all have more plants around us.
Tell us, Jesus, what is Plants on Wall?
Plantas On Wall is a company specialized in the creation and maintenance of vertical gardens and green roofs on buildings. It is a concept that has been operating in other places for many years and is being implemented here little by little. Especially among people who are aware of the importance of investing in plants and natural vegetation. In this case, the Hotel Sauce has opted to install a green wall with natural plants.
What does it mean to have plants nearby, to live with them?
Having plants nearby provides many benefits. We should all have more plants around us. In homes, in companies, in hotels… We live in a very polluted environment and surrounded by stress, and plants help us live in a warmer and more relaxed environment. They also purify the air.
What conditions do we need to be able to install one of these gardens?
It can be installed anywhere. In reality you don’t even need to have a wall. We can even build the vertical structure. The basic conditions are light and water. We get water with closed irrigation systems with a pump. And we can also install artificial lighting if there is not enough natural light. Agro light is used, the same system as in vegetables and greens in greenhouses.
We are a hotel, but who usually requests these types of projects?
Mainly hospitality, companies… we have also collaborated with architects on projects for town halls or shopping centers and even for designations of origin and food brands.
Do you have any striking or emblematic projects in the pipeline?
We’re doing some pretty cool stuff right now. For the denomination of Idiazábal cheeses we are going to make a sheep with a head and legs made of stone and a body made of a vertical garden. Something similar to the dog at the Gugenheim in Bilbao. We are also preparing vertical gardens at the Grancasa Shopping Center, here in Saragossa. And we are also preparing for an energy saving campaign for a brand of household appliances. We are going to prepare a giant letter A that will go to various parts of the city.
What kind of plants do we have growing in our garden, here at the hotel?
In the hotel you have very resistant plants, which need little water and, above all, do not generate pests. So they need very little maintenance. They only need minimum conditions of light and water and we provide both with our system. They are also plants that are good all year round.
And this is a question that has nothing to do with gardens, but we ask it to all our guests. What is the strangest thing that has happened to you in a hotel?
I once went to a hotel with my wife when electronic locks were a novelty. We couldn’t open the door and started to wonder if we had forgotten the room number. So we were trying several rooms in the hallway. Finally we had to go back to reception and they accompanied us to show us how they worked.
