A city, a flowery village, it’s very pleasant. The revegetation of public spaces improves our living environment but the bill is often heavy for the municipalities between the purchase of plants, water expenses, maintenance.
To reconcile flowering, environmental quality and cost control, two friends from the Gard had the idea 6 years ago of creating vegetated totems. They can be installed anywhere, since they are removable.
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Jérôme Gautherat is with Jonathan Nicolas the co-founder of the company Atelier Organique which manufactures these totems: “NOTOur solution is divided into three main parts: a lower part on which you can hang a wood and metal structure. And on this structure, you can install many pots. The result is a 360°C floral totem. The totem encompasses any type of mast and poles, lights without touching them or degrading them. We imagined this solution to limit the wheelbase on the ground, not having to dig the ground.”
“The totems are self-supporting, so it is possible to install them in all urban areas, squares, sidewalks, storefronts…”
Jonathan Gautherat, the Organic Workshopat franceinfo
Each totem has a built-in 420-litre tank that allows water autonomy for four to six weeks, depending on the size of the model chosen. The number of annual fillings is of the order of 8, large maximum.
Each plant installed benefits from its own watering by a root micro-irrigation system invented by the two entrepreneurial friends.
The totems are planted at 360°C with perennials for shade and sun. Jonathan Nicolas is in charge of the choice of plants: “Overall, itThey are evergreen plants that bloom in different seasons (sedum, sedge, delosperma, heuchera, euphorbia… We look green all year round.
Our objective, as we are going to position totems all over France, is to adapt to the plant palette of perennials that works well in each city or region where we are going to position them.
The totems are programmable to connected remotely. It allows to manage via Bluetooth, wi-fi or 3G the programming or the verification of the irrigation. It is also possible to check the level of the water reserve and receive an alert a few days before to plan the filling of the tank. The objective: to reduce the time granted to the maintenance of these totems.
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The first Atelier Organic totem was installed last October in the town of Saint-Mathieu-de-Trviers in Hérault. Others should soon find their place in a dozen municipalities in the Occitanie region.