Vertical wall gardens have recently become a popular architectural and aesthetic design feature throughout the building community. In addition to providing numerous and different types of plants in a small footprint, these gardens are also used to help purify interior building air and improve water quality. One problem with many current vertical wall gardens, however, is that the matrix in which vegetation is planted may dry out, and does not adequately re-wet, resulting in inadequate liquid transfer from the matrix to the vegetation and poor vegetation health. Consequently, many of the current hydroponic systems need to run water frequently through the matrix, leading to a surplus of wastewater and nutrients. Conversely, soil-based wall gardens are difficult to monitor water retention, often becoming too wet during early phase plantings and root-bound before the wall can reach maturity.
It would be beneficial to develop a vertical wall garden that can retain and provide water to plant roots to maintain the health of the plants and reduce the amount of water and resources required to sustain healthy plant growth.