Matt’s Do it yourself suggestions on materials and plants

Vertical Garden New York

Matt from http://diygreenwalls.blogspot.com/ has built a green wall in his home in NY and provided lots of details on how he did it.

Greenwall Building Instructions

The frame is made out of 1″ aluminum stock that looks like a trellis/lattice work. Sheets of expanded PVC were attached using rust proof screws. Then 2 layers of moisture retention mat is stapled on with rust proof staples. A submersible pump on a timer pumps water up to a tube running under the felt across the top of the wall.

Matt just used one tube at the top, but he suggests having a tube for every 8-10 vertical feet. He used regular flexible clear hose he bought from his local hardware store and then drilled holes in it. (However, if you use an opaque tube it helps prevent bacteria growth, so that may be something to consider when you’re building your wall) At one point the pump’s filter slipped and sucked up some leaves. That made the drilled holes in the tubing clog. Matt says that emitters might have made that process easier and they can control flow which was an issue at first with his tube and he had to balance pressure and gravity.

There is a basin at the bottom of the wall built from expanded 3/4″ PVC.

He planted 3.5 inch plants in slits 5″ wide separated horizontally by 2″ gaps. The rows were 4″ apart vertically and the plants are staggered every other row. He cut the slits in the first layer of felt (only the first layer gets cut), took the plant out of the small plastic pot, stuffed it in the slit, and then stapled around it to form a tight little pocket (about 4-5 staples). You don’t want too many staples in order to avoid inhibiting root growth.

Plant Wall

Living Wall Materials

Frame:

1″ Aluminum Square Stock available at a local hardware store

Cheaper Eco Alternative

FSC Cedar Strips 1″x3″s Cheaper than aluminum and far better for the environment. I’d build my next wall with these.

Surface:

Sintra Expanded PVC Sheets 6mm You really need 10mm, but they didn’t have it so Matt bought 2 6mm ones.

Cheaper Eco Alternative

Corrugated Polyethylene Plastic Sheets 10mm
These are untested, but Matt’s thinking these would work even better.

Fabric:

Moisture Retention Mat MRM14 (100% recycled polyester and polypropylene)

Misc:

Rust Proof Staples 12mm (you may need to tailor the length depending on the thickness of your surface material) These are rust proof not rust resistant. There is no iron in them so they can never rust. Expensive but worth it.

Submersible Pond Pump You’ll need to adjust the pump to the size and height of your wall. This one is a guideline. Matt bought his at a pet store and they fitted the pump with adapters so he could connect it to polyethylene tubing from his local hardware store.

Green Wall

Vertical Garden Plants

Each wall can be setup to provide varying amount of light, water, and nutrients. Patrick Blanc has used thousands of different types of plants on his walls. In theory almost any type of plant can work.

Each wall builder will need to decide how much light, water, and nutrients they want to provide. Here’s a brief overview of Matt’s wall.

Light

Matt has decent light in the room but decided to add some supplemental light from compact fluorescent bulbs. The lights used are just regular lights, not special ‘grow lights’. Matt thinks his plants would survive with out the additional light but the extra light can only help and it makes the wall look nicer. Powerful artificial grow lights are available if you want to grow high light demanding plants. Typically if you’re growing edibles you’ll need lots of light, but regular indoor plants do not need as much light.

Water

Matt waters his wall 4x a day for 10 minutes a day (by drip tube on a timer).

Nutrients

The best way to determine how much nutrients to give the plants is to watch them. Matt has added fertilizer to his wall once in the time I have had it and doesn’t see the need to add more. Matt’s not looking for growth, just for maintenance. There is soil around the root ball of each plant and as the water trickles down the wall it picks up nutrients from the soil in each plant. He’s not adding more fertilzer now because he doesn’t see the need… although he may add more in the future.

In a massive greenwall like Patrick Blanc’s, there are different ecosystems in the wall (the tops of the outdoor living walls get more sun and dry out faster and the the plants at the bottom get more shade and stay wetter) For a medium to small greenwall, the plants are all going to be in the same ecosystem and so you’ll want to pick plants that have similar light, watering and fertilizing requirements.

Here’s a partial list of plants Matt used on his wall listed in order of quantity.