WallyGro Gardens – Installation and Care Instructions
What is a WallyGro ?
WallyGro Gardens are flexible, breathable, and modular gardening containers. They come in two styles: those designed to be placed on horizontal surfaces, and those designed to be hung on walls for vertical gardening. You can use WallyGro Gardens both indoors and out; they have built-in moisture barriers to help protect furniture, and they’re equally at home outside in the elements. They’re perfect for creating urban gardens where you have space to garden but no land to garden in. WallyGro Gardens are lightweight and can be folded flat, which makes them very easy to use, move, and store just about anywhere.
What is a vertical garden?
A vertical garden, sometimes called a living wall, is an organized system of plants that grow vertically up a wall, fence, or other vertical surface. Vertical gardens are a beautiful way to show off plants, cover an unsightly wall, or create privacy in a courtyard. Because they are hung vertically, vertical gardens hardly take up any space. The WallyGro Vertical Gardening System is unique because it’s easy to install, completely modular, and very easy to maintain. We invented our vertical system because there was no other solution on the market that suited our needs.
What is breathability?
Plants need oxygen in their soil in order to thrive. Wallygro Wallys are made of felt derived from recycled plastic bottles that allows the soil to refresh its oxygen supply. This feature is called breathability.
What are the benefits of breathable containers?
There are two primary benefits to container gardening in breathable containers. First, it allows the soil to aerate naturally, which reduces the need to drain the containers and also helps to conserve water. Second, when the roots sense air they do something called air pruning. This is the natural process of stopping their own growth when they sense they’ve reached the limits of their space. This keeps the roots healthy and stops plants from becoming root-bound by growing in continuing circles as they do in non-breathable containers such as clay pots.
What are WallyGro Gardens made of?
WallyGro Gardens have two main components: the breathable felt and the built-in moisture barrier. The breathable portion is made of 100% recycled plastic bottles that have been industrially felted. The moisture barrier is made according to military standards for impermeability from 60% recycled plastic bottles. We stitch each pocket together by hand with a double lock stitch and strong, UV-resistant nylon thread.
Where are WallyGro Gardens made?
WallyGro Gardens are handmade in the USA. We try to make as little impact on the earth as possible, and make every effort to use sustainable, local sources for all of our materials.
Who is the WallyGro Garden Company?
We are a family owned and operated company based in Los Angeles and Phoenix. We do everything we can to practice sustainability. Our offices are solar powered and qualify for LEED Platinum. We recycle, we minimize our use of paper, and we even streamline our manufacturing, marketing, and shipping process by distributing WallyGro gardens primarily through our online store.
What kind of plants should I grow in my Pockets?
Nearly any container plant should be able to grow in WallyGro Gardens. Pick plants that are the right size for their new Pocket home. The bigger the Pocket, the bigger the plant it can hold. We recommend finegardening.com, sunset.com, and Sunset’s Western Garden Book to learn more about plants and gardening. Please remember that gardening takes time and care. WallyGro Gardens will help you be a better gardener, but your plants and Pockets are still depending on you to be a responsible gardener. If you have any questions, please contact us. We’re happy to help.
What is the best soil to use?
Choosing a suitable growing medium for your plants is key to your gardening success. The important thing to remember when choosing potting soil is that is should provide water retention, drainage, and nutrition. Most quality brands of all-purpose potting soil provide all of these things. Our current favorite brand of soil is called EarthGro All-Purpose Indoor/Outdoor Potting Soil. It can be purchased at a variety of gardening centers including Home Depot. If you are having trouble finding or choosing a type of soil, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
PLEASE NOTE: If the soil you choose does not provide enough water retention or you overwater your Pockets, they will most likely drain too quickly which will cause them to sweat and even leak. This will not only wet surfaces, it may also flush important nutrients from your soil.
Maximum Soil Amounts
| Wally Pockets | .40 cubic feet per individual pocket |
How should I shape my Wally Pockets?
You can shape Wally Pockets however you like, rounded, squared, or even asymmetrical. Make sure there’s more soil along the sides than in the center. It’s also helpful to make wells around your plants to concentrate the water over the plants’ root balls. Optimizing the distribution of the soil will help minimize the amount that your Pockets sweat. Sweating is when water begins to pass through the breathable sides of your WallyGro. Sweating doesn’t harm plants, although it might harm your furniture, but it does mean that you should cut down on the amount of water you’re giving your plants or that you should check the soil to see if it should be loosened to allow more water to reach the root ball and to be absorbed.
How much and what kind of water should I use?
The amount of water a plant needs depends on what type of plant and what sort of climate it’s growing in. We recommend watering according to the following watering table, and adjusting based on the particular needs of your plants and environment.
Maximum Watering Amounts
| Wally Pockets | 3 cups per individual pocket |
If WallyGro Gardens moisten on the outside after watering, try watering half as much the next time. If moisture persists, be sure the soil you’re using is a high-quality potting soil that stays loose and holds water.
Use filtered water in order to maintain the natural PH balance of the soil. If you can only use unfiltered water, you’ll want to take your Wally Pocket outside once a year to flush it. This means thoroughly soaking it until water runs out the sides. Flushing your Wally won’t harm your Wally or your plant, in fact it will help it. Make sure you let it dry in the sun before bringing it inside to prevent the damp WallyGro from damaging your floors or furniture. When you bring it back inside, don’t forget to replace the nutrients lost with fertilizer.
Can I use drip irrigation for watering?
Our favorite way to water our plants is by drip irrigation because using a regular, timed watering helps insure a healthy garden. Any store bought drip irrigation system will work as well, if not better, in WallyGro Gardens than in other gardening containers. We suggest using individually adjustable drip irrigation heads so that each plant gets its own adjustable water source. Read Drip Irrigation Instructions
Place drip irrigation heads as far as possible from the sides of Wallys to help avoid excessive sweating and potential leakage. With the WallyGro Wally System, place drip irrigation heads along the back inside wall of the pocket.
Suggested Drip Heads Per Pocket
| Wally Pockets | Read Drip Irrigation Instructions |
Be sure to adjust your automatic watering system specifically for your plant varieties and environmental conditions. We recommend installing a Weathermatic irrigation management system that automatically adjusts watering according to daily weather conditions. You can find them at weathermatic.com.
Should I use filtered water for my plants?
We recommend that you always use filtered water, especially when watering indoors. This maintains the best PH balance in your soil. If you can only use unfiltered water, you’ll want to take your WallyGro outside once a year to flush it. This means thoroughly soaking it until water runs out the sides. Let it dry in the sun before bringing it inside to prevent the damp WallyGro from damaging your floors or furniture. Because WallyGro Wallys are inconvenient to take outside once installed, only water Wallys with filtered water. You can purchase an inexpensive water filter at www.brita.com.
How should I plant and maintain WallyGro Gardens?
In general, Wallys can be planted, watered and maintained just like any traditional gardening container. However, we’ve developed methods that are specifically intended to increase plant health and lower long-term maintenance needs.
Each Woolly Pocket has slightly different requirements. Please refer to the following index before planting your WallyGro.
Planting Instructions
Wally Pockets
In order to install your new WallyGro System, here’s what you’ll need:
A wall or other vertical surface
Wallys + wall anchors, one for each grommet
An electric drill, screwdriver, tape measure, level
Blue masking tape and a pen
Quality soil
Garden shovel or pail
Plants!
An assistant and about two hours of time
Using your level and measuring tape, place one piece of blue tape vertically down the center of the wall where you want to hang your Pockets.
Using your level and measuring tape, place a piece of blue tape horizontally along the wall where you’ll be drilling the holes to hang the Wally grommets. When hanging multiple rows space them 13″ on center vertically so that Wallys overlap a little to hide the wall behind them.
Using your measuring tape, mark the blue tape where the holes should be drilled and pre-drill each hole.
Remove the blue tape and install the wall anchors into the pre-drilled holes.
Hang your Wallys using the screws and washers that came with them. When you hang multiple Pockets, save the anchors that will hang two Pockets for last so you can double them up.
Fill each Pocket halfway with soil. Add your plants and top each pocket off with more soil, as necessary.
Watering WallyGro Systems
You should only use filtered water for watering your WallyGro System in order to maintain the natural PH balance of the soil. Carefully water each Pocket with about 5% water to soil volume. We like to water the soil closest to the wall to prevent water from running out the front. The wall is protected thanks to the impermeable moisture barrier in each Wally. Just to be safe, check your Pockets after watering. If it’s wet, you’re probably over watering. But don’t worry, just pat Wally dry with a towel and use less water next time.
Maintaining WallyGro Systems
We strongly recommend installing filtered drip irrigation for your WallyGro System. You’ll want to run the irrigation line along the inside of the pocket towards the back, right above the root ball of the plants. Think of the back of the Pocket as the watering side and the front as the breathing side. You’ll need an adjustable drip system so you can customize the amount of water to the needs of each plant. Plan to install two drip heads per Pocket. You will want to monitor the amount of water carefully to make sure they’re getting enough water to be happy, but not so much that they sweat. We recommend checking the back of the pockets for moisture once a month and adjusting the amount of water accordingly.
If you’re planning to install a large vertical garden, please contact us. We’d love to help.
All information above provided by WallyGro Company. Copyright WallyGro Company, Inc. All rights reserved.