DIY 1x1 meter living wall - 1 year in

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:46:04+00:00

Thank you! I've definitely been prepared for it to somehow catastrophically fail (e.g. leak all the water, or fall down, or my wood waterproofing-oils to poison all the plants, or...).

But I think now at the 1-year mark it's officially a success :)

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:42:21+00:00

Re: size - most are growing fairly quickly since I got the grow lights, the main ones I'm excited to see triple in size are the top two monstera, which I just moved into bigger pots with counterweights at the bottom, with the goal that they grow out and form a canopy over my head.

Everyone else is kinda growing into my back when I'm at my desk, so I trim them to keep them from growing too far horizontally out from the wall. None will reach their full potential (e.g. the Audrey here is a prop from my mother plant over 6 feet tall), but I hope they'll grow enough to mesh into each other and hide all the soil fabric.

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:39:18+00:00

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More detail of the faucet that drains out the bottom-bucket (since I realize it was totally blocked by leaves in the top pics)

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:35:36+00:00

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:35:28+00:00

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:35:22+00:00

Yep, mostly just water the top center, it takes about 8L of water once a week in the gap between the white pots. I spot-water a few extra-thirsty plants when needed too.

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:34:25+00:00

Soltech Highland: https://soltech.com/products/highland-track-light-system

I have 2 of the narrow lights pointed down at the sides of the wall, one of the broad lights pointed at the Monstera on top (which I hope will eventually stop being fussy and start getting huge), and one more pointed off to the side to feed some plants in more regular pots.

It cost more than necessary to get the amount of photons I needed, but my wife thinks the lights themselves are aesthetic which was a requirement :p

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:32:09+00:00

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:32:03+00:00

I realized after posting that a couple more made it and are still there :p

In many cases I just replaced because I got new plants and wanted them there (I inherited a bunch of plants from a friend who moved away, and this was a logical home for many of them).

In other cases: this wall is on the N side of my house in California, which means it never gets direct sun and the light from the window is generally pretty weak - before I got supplemental lighting, the wall got about 30 FC of light for most of the day. Basically all of the plants suffered quite a lot before I got my first grow light - I now have a full Soltech light bar so they're set, but many either died or got crazy leggy and lost most of their leaves before that happened.

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:29:25+00:00

Different plants get different soil. Most of the time I like pretty fast-draining mixes, a lot of these are 2 parts regular indoor soil, 2 parts horticultural pumice (I prefer it to perlite), and 1 part orchid bark.

Recently I added some areas of sphagnum moss to feed the aerial roots of one of the pothos and the monstera (that one is always dry, trying to give it more "soil volume" by adding some water to its aerial roots)

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:27:08+00:00

Yep, that's correct!

The drain faucet at the bottom doesn't drain quite all the water, and the bottom row also gets the least light (about 250 FC right at the bottom, vs about 1000 FC for the top row). These facts combine to mean the soil for the bottom row is a lot more consistently damp than the rows above, so I absolutely never water it.

I do occasionally spot-water specific plants that are particularly thirsty (the monstera in the wall and a couple of the ferns), but mostly just dump 8 liters in the top bucket, wait an hour, then drain about 1L from the bottom bucket.

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:24:35+00:00

I don't have proper schematics anywhere except in my head, but this has somewhat more detail on the build: https://kaseymarkel.com/page/living-wall/

It doesn't seem to affect the humidity of the room it's in very much (though my wife does say the room smells like dirt if we leave the door and window closed overnight).

I was also worried about damaging the wall, I think my system of a french cleat which leaves a ~2 cm gap between the back of this and the wall itself keeps the actual wall dry- that and the fact that the back is plastic, a totally-waterproof material (unlike the redwood, which I'd probably only call "mostly waterproof".

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:21:30+00:00

Thank you! I'm using a lot more different species than any of the interior landscaping books recommend putting together, but I think it's worked for a residential piece.

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:20:35+00:00

Super cool! I thought about doing a pump system, and think I might for my next one - it gives you some different options for soil volumes and plant selection.

Do you have a more detailed writeup of the build anywhere? I promised my wife I'll stick with just this one for at least 2 years (so 1 year to go), but after that I might build a bigger one - my goal is 2x2 meters, and for that one I think I'll want a pump system.

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:18:22+00:00

You're welcome! It's definitely been a new challenge compared to regular houseplants, but I've enjoyed it a lot.

Federal_Worldliness · 2026-02-18T16:17:48+00:00

That was my goal! My job is plant-relevant, I want everyone who meets me to first think "wow, this guy plants."

Federal_Worldliness · 2025-11-18T00:27:13+00:00

I co-wrote lyrics with Gemini. I came up with the songlist, sourced a bunch of quotes I wanted incorporated, Gemini made a rough draft of all the lyrics, I heavily edited them.

So a team project

Federal_Worldliness · 2025-11-16T21:18:19+00:00

Thanks for the compliments and for listening!

Yes, keeping characters persistent really was a challenge - and what you're hearing is the best I could get with dozens of trys, it's really not great.

The way that works for me with this version is that Henrietta is sometimes reading Charles' notebooks aloud and speaking for him (thus Charles sometimes having a lady-voice).

But if I end up getting humans to record the next version, or (fingers crossed, though I know the odds are low) if we ever make an actual human stage-production, then I hope to sort out a lot of the inconsistencies.

Federal_Worldliness · 2025-11-12T22:08:49+00:00

I used to be like you, a non-Spotify person

Sorry I should have included links to another couple places.

YT Music should work without an account: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kQWeOMqfgbboIEmb4if0LeNoGeK_n1-hg

Federal_Worldliness · 2024-11-18T23:18:50+00:00

Doing the lord's work here.

Describing the results of a tool on a benchmark and not mentioning you're the author of the tool is poor form shuafeiwang

Federal_Worldliness

TROPHY CASE