Author Archive

I’m lucky to live together with a man that waters the plants in our home once in a while..

As I’m a little lazy myself to water my plants every day (I sometimes forget!), I really wanted to make an automatic watering system, so the watering of the plants would go by itself.

Water Pump in water basin

An automatic water system is also very useful when I go on a trip, so I don’t need to ask my neighbors to water the plants.

The watering system of my green wall consists of several parts, including the tubes, drippers, timer and water pump.

I simply program the timer, so the water pump starts pumping water around three times a day. The only thing to do is add enough water to the water basin.

Quite convenient isn’t it?

Emeline

As you know I built a green wall with a watering system that works by itself.

I have to say it’s working very well and it suits a lazy person like me a lot!

However I found out that my vertical garden does need some maintenance once in a while..

Today I found out that one of the drippers got stuck and that no water was flowing through it. Therefore one plant didn’t get the water that it needs. This plant looked already weak for a couple of days, now I know why!

A filter in your watering system will help you in the first place to keep the water clean that is flowing through the dripping system.

However it can still happen that some dirt will get into your drippers, resulting that part of your green wall is not receiving enough water.

My tip: Make sure that you can access the drippers, so you can clean them if necessary.


Emeline

One of my favorite things to do in the weekend is to visit a plant and flower market. In my city Shanghai. There are several large markets like this and they sell many plants that are suitable for vertical gardening.

Me plant shopping for my green wall

These are mainly indoor plants, as only few people in Shanghai have a garden. The lack of a garden was by the way one of my reasons  to build a vertical garden. You can imagine that my apartment looks green from the inside!

The past years I tried many different plants. Not all plants are suitable for vertical gardening..

However there are plenty of suitable plants available for your vertical garden or green wall. When you’re building a vertical garden for inside your home, you can choose from a selection of Ivies, Flowering plants, Exotic plants, Vegetables and even Fruits!

Emeline

One of my Ivies died several weeks after I planted it on my green wall..

First I didn’t understand why this happened, as my watering system is functioning very well and the plants receive plenty of water.

After talking with a gardener friend I realized the problem: my Ivy plant received too much water, and the roots started to rot.

Ivies don’t need a large amount of water. When you plant Ivies in the ground, watering them once or twice a week is already sufficient. Handling Ivies for your vertical garden is a bit different from planting them in your garden:

Tip: I would advice to plant Ivies at the top of your green wall where these get less water than at the bottom. Do not over water ivies or the roots will start to rot and the plant will die.

Emeline