The wall garden is one of my favorite gardens. I have had it for over three years now. The selected plants are easy to grow. The garden is easy to manage, and still looks good even if slightly neglected. That is important when you get busy. Rainwater works perfectly in this garden, and you won’t get much salt build up compared to when you use tap water.
Reservoir: 25 gallons
Nurtient Mix: Half Strength
Media: Coco coir was used in felt pockets. Sand or perlite will probably work also, but I haven’t personally tried it.
pH: 5.5-6.2. The pH seems to be very stable in this garden. Maybe due to the coir media.
Pump: 220 gph submersible pump. In this garden, the pump has to pump water from ground level up to 6 feet. The flow rate at 6 feet is only about 30 gallons per hour. This is because the pump has to push the water upward against the force of gravity. The height to which a pump can pump water to is called head. Be sure to select a pump with the correct head. There is usually a diagram printed on the box or in the owner’s manual.
Watering: The garden is watered for every other day. Let the water run for about 7-10 minutes. The goal is to displace the old nutrients in the rootzone and replace it with fresh nutrients.
TDS (500 scale): 350-650ppm. Above 700ppm and your plants will grow a lot faster. That can be a good thing if you want to fill space. A bad thing if you don’t want to prune all the time.
Temperature: Above 70 degrees F. Below 70 the Anthurium and Spider Plant struggle to grow and might look unhealthy. You can trap some of the heat from the grow light by encasing the garden with plexiglass, if necessary.
Light: MarsHydro Ts1000 (on 10hrs/day at about 60% brightness) and some light from nearby windows. If you don’t want to use a grow light, I recommend having the garden in an area that receives bright indirect light for 6-8hrs a day. This recommendation is for plants that tolerate shade.
Comments: The growing space between the light and the reservoir is 4ft tall. This creates certain issues you need to be aware of. The first is the uneven distribution of moisture. When you water the garden, the pockets above drain into the pockets below. This means the bottom pockets are wet for longer. It’s not a huge issue. My plants were happy. If there is too much moisture in the bottom pockets, you could always mix the coir with a bit of course sand. The other issue is the uneven distribution of light. The plants closer to the light were growing a faster than the rest of the plants. To remedy this, a small piece of aluminum foil was placed above the Golden Pothos and English Ivy. This gave them a bit of shade and slowed the growth. Four feet of height is a long way for a modest light like the MarsHydro Ts1000 to shine. If the plants at the bottom of the garden look like they are reaching for the light, add a 50 watt led light to the bottom of the garden or pick more shade tolerant plants. Before you hang your felt pockets filled with coir, give them both a good rinse. This will help keep the water in the reservoir a bit clearer. The coir can make the reservoir water look a bit like tea, but it is harmless to the plants.
Pump and Watering Video
Plants: Most of the plants were purchased from ebay as rooted cutting. It was a very cost-effective way to gets lots of plants at a reasonable price. Plant 2-3 plants per pouch to fill in space quickly.
- Golden Pothos – easy to grow. Lay cutting on media with root touching surface of media.
- Anthurium – propagates by division.
- Inch Plant – looks good, very easy to grow. Roots easily from cuttings.
- English Ivy – grows easily. Looks good. A little more difficult to get cuttings to root than the other plants. The sap irritates some people’s skin. Wash hands after pruning.
- Spider Plant – easy to grow. Propagate from plantlets.
- Tradescantia “Green” – Not sure the common name for this plant. Very closely related to Inch Plant. Roots easily from cuttings.
- Bromeliads – The garden was too wet for bromeliads. They were removed and replaced with Anthurium.
Build: