hey everybody thanks for checking back
in I’m back with Eric Van Deusen who’s a
student here at Ohio State and we’re on
the AG campus and there’s a lot of
effort going into sustainability and
Eric and I did the video on the plants
on the green wall but Eric how does this
transfer to homeowners I’d love to have
a green wall like this in my backyard
I’ve got actually got a wall on my house
where I could put this talked us through
the process of the mechanics of what we
need to do to have a green wall it’s
actually fairly simple
all you really need is a waterproof
barrier behind this felt and then
something to mount it to the wall and
actually use an aluminum frame just for
a more structural support but you could
use two by fours all you need to do it
to make sure it’s secure and the wood
the cedar on the outside is just really
to frame it in exactly you wouldn’t need
this frame we just did it to look better
more so to cover up the edges so we’ve
got these plant pockets where there’s
actually soil where the plant gets
planted and then behind the felt that
felts pretty thick it feels like it’s
like 1/2 3/4 inch thick yes it can
actually well if you were to look up
this felt it’s 16 ounce they actually
have 30 ounce felled okay just even
thicker but it’s made when you can use
either yes okay and that’s made from
recycled plastic that’s what we like it
from their ability standpoint hey and
you actually have two layers it’s very
simple you cut a hole in the top layer
or a slit then you put three staples one
on the outside and one at the bottom and
then I get that pocket and then you just
put the plants or plants in the pocket
and obviously we talked about some
failure with the plants because it got
very hot and sunny and you had a problem
with the what you call a fertigation
system because you’re you’ve got
fertilizer going through the watering
system exactly well let’s talk about
that and take this lid off and tell us
what you got going on with the
fertigation how complicated is that to
do very simple I mean the fertilizer
injector that we have it’s probably one
of your most expensive components that’s
really doing all
and the reason we include this for
negation system is because plants
evolved growing upwards across say like
a cliff face in nature sure and what
they’re usually what they’ve evolved to
instead of having excess soil like you
would on the ground they just they get
all of their nutrients through runoff
runoff in the cracks and crevices coming
down the cliff they sure essentially
this is what so we the standard nitrogen
phosphorus potassium and then trace
minerals to simulate that in a natural
setting because they don’t have as much
soil as they would on the ground so
that’s essential
and I notice that you’ve got a little
tray here to catch the runoff and the
runoff is going into a collection the
collection tank that you can use to
water other planets exactly
sustainability yes in practice all right
I really appreciate the time that you
spend with oh I got one other quick
question so do you have this on a timer
yes right now we have it on a timer but
eventually because we have a lot more
resources and academic knowledge you
would at home but will actually have a
microcontroller system that with sensors
telling us when to water in which
portions of the garden are dry now but a
simple garden timer that you could put
on a hose faucet would work equally as
well in the home landscape awesome Eric
thanks for sharing with us really good
job of demonstrating sustainability and
something creative that you could do in
your backyard we’ll see you next time
for your garden
Tom's Tips: Irrigating Green Walls (Click to Reveal Transcript)