Pennyroyal crowding itself out of the upper filter
I was looking back through my posts and updating post tags and saw the picture of the biofilter I took at the beginning of what we are laughingly calling summer. What a difference. Next summer I’ll see if I can find a yellow canna to add to the mix. The orange and red are lovely, but yellow would rock.
I’m still battling aphids in the plant wall, but I am making headway. Instead of seeing a dozen, I’m seeing an occasional very lethargic speck of green with legs.
Jill at JMH Water Gardens gave me a recipe for a fish safe aphid spray that seems to be working really well. The fish are alive and the aphids aren’t. I see that as being the measure of success. Oh, did I mention it’s cheap to make out of common stuff? Yeah, that too. Blend oil into a beaten egg white, store in the fridge.
Jill’s recipe says 1 cup of oil to 1 tbsp of egg white. I confess to not being that precise. Store in the fridge, mix a bit with water in a spray bottle and spray. I did say I wasn’t that precise, didn’t I? Her instructions say 2½ tsp of the egg/oil mix to 1 cup of water. I don’t need that much at a time so I mix a little over a teaspoon to ½ cup of water. Spray as needed. It doesn’t keep so dump what you don’t use right away and mix new each time you need it.
I went out to water a couple mornings ago to discover what I had thought were seeds on the water lily pads weren’t. Everything in the pond was covered with hundreds of aphids. Ugh. I guess I need to wear my glasses when I check things out. Wadly missed it too but he’s been working long hours for National.
I hosed the aphids off the leaves, swished the lone water lily in the water until the aphids were washed off and overfilled the pond washing the floating aphids off onto the ground. There are benefits to an above ground pond.
The second wash off was yesterday. I’ll keep an eye on this. Jill at JMH sent me a recipe for a fish safe aphid killer. It is my sincere hope I don’t need it.
Ricinifolia 'Immense'
It turns out the big begonia in my wall is Ricinifolia Immense, a rhizomatous variety.
I got a start for my ricinifolia Immense from a friend over 20 years ago. I’ve propagated it, given friends starts, passed my plant on to someone else and just lately got a start back. This plant LOVES being in the plant wall. The growth is more lush than when it was potted. The leaves are bigger, the stalks are longer. The largest leaf on this new start is 17″ long and over 13″ wide. The stem is a full 2 feet long. This new start hasn’t bloomed yet. I don’t expect to see a bloom stalk until this fall.
And I’ll be really glad when the weak chlorotic leaves age and fall off . . .
El Pleco
We have one plecostomus in our tank. Click on the pic for El Pleco in all his spotted glory.
Chlorotic leaves
It’s important to note the plants in the wall aren’t going to get everything they need from the fish. From this I’m going to extrapolate that the fish aren’t getting everything they need from the fish food.
If you look at the two leaves in the picture, you’ll see one is chlorotic (showing insufficient chlorophyll from deficiencies in nutrition aka splotchy color). The leaf on the right, the chlorotic one, is the older leaf. The leaf on the left is healthy with a much more even distribution of chlorophyll. The leaf on the left is new, appearing after I sprayed the wall with worm casting tea.
So I extrapolate . . . if the plants are getting incomplete nutrition from the fish, the fish are getting incomplete nutrition from the food they are eating.
I got the glass for LouAnn’s aquarium a couple days ago but didn’t get around to peeling the paper away until today. It looks good. The edges were really sharp so I used a foam sanding block to knock down the abrupt edges.
I need to make a frame for the bottom, so I’ll stop in at Home Depot and see what kind of corner molding I can find. If I can’t find corner molding I can make a frame by cutting down some larger dimension lumber. I’d like to use hard wood, if I can find something I like within my budget. I used to have an iron wood 6×6 but I think Dan (brother) saw it and got wood envy. Maybe I can find some maple . . .
Cucumber and lettuce seedlings
Our weather has been really miserable this year. Everyone’s gardens are in sad shape. We just haven’t had warm enough weather for plants to grow. We’re weeks behind on strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. It’s the middle of July and I’m just now getting local farm raspberries. I’m still picking salmon berries! In July! <gasp>
The tomato seedlings I planted out in May got hammered flat by hail. This year has been such a gardening bust I have lost most of my enthusiasm for trying to raise anything to eat. Pretty sad.
Last week I threw a variety of seeds into the grow bed. I’ll know what they are as they mature. Until then I’ll take joy in the fact that something’s growing . . .
Next year I’ll be ahead of the game. I’ll have my grow beds well started inside my sun porch until it’s warm enough to move them out. I’ll have hydroton in the beds instead of gravel which will allow me to move them with growy bits intact. That’s the plan, anyway.
Added height and color dimension adds interest.
I picked up water plants for Wadly’s “pond” today. I happily spent every penny in my pocket! Jill Hartman at JMH Greenhouse and Water Garden was wonderful to work with as we picked through her stock, determining what would work and what would be questionable. I’ve got two hardy plants and two that will have to come in for the winter. I also got pennyroyal and fairy moss!
When winter gets close I’ll run over and refresh my knowledge on what will hold in the pond and what has to go indoors.
Wadly planted the big potted stuff in rock filled wire baskets. I put the pennyroyal and one of the reeds in the particulate filter. Everything else went in the bog filter.
I still have more to do, but this will hold for a bit. I’m happy!
Flush mechanism as flood tank fills
Though hard to see in this photo, there is a black hose attached to a white plastic elbow which allows water to flow into the counter-weight bottle when the water in the flood tank reaches sufficient height.
I made this change because the previous setup was too sensitive. This is less of a surgical solution and more of a “hit it with a hammer” fix. It works really well.
I haven’t gotten the second grow bed tray installed. I’ll get there . . .
One of the really good organic solutions for six legged pests is worm casting tea. I make a really small amount, but if you need to treat a bigger area, it’s easy to make more. Thanks to Ray on the Barrelponics Yahoo group for the instruction.
You’ll need a small airstone and a air pump. My aquarium air pump has two ports so I plug into the spare for making worm casting tea.
I’m giving the instructions for a quart, as that’s the amount I can make and use up before it’s not any good any more. It needs to be used within (if memory serves) a couple days.
For a quart, use filtered water, add 1.25 ounces of worm castings, drop the airstone in the bottom and let it bubble away for 12-24 hours.
Strain it and spray it where you need it taking care to get the under side of the leaves as well as the stems and tops.
Here’s the bonus bit. It’s perfectly safe for plant walls and aquaponic systems. Can’t beat that!
Lettuce seedlings in the wall gutter
I took the largest of the tomato seedlings from the wall gutter and planted them in the growbed outside. Then it hailed and we had a spate of cold wet windy weather. The wet part isn’t an issue, but the cold and hail and wind . . . toast. <sigh> I lost half the seedlings I planted out and the last two look like they’re on their last leg. If we get a spate of warm weather they might pull through. If they don’t I’ll put the 4 tomato plants still growing in the gutter in their place . . . when they get significantly bigger AND the weather improves. I have sun shade cloth buffering them just a bit, but a big sheet of plastic would have been better.
I’m adding another growbed to my outside tank. I like the new setup so well I’m going to max out the grow potential of the fish tank. I have to inventory my bulkhead fittings. I need two uniseals the same size for connecting another 5 gallon tank to the existing 5 gallon dump tank. Adding another tank and bed will change the dump time from ~15 minutes to ~30 minutes.
I threw about a dozen lettuce seeds into the plant wall gutter. By they time they’re ready to transplant out I should have the new growbed up and running . . . and warmer weather. <fingers crossed>
 This is the cobbled together frame. Three legs are pressure treated, one is cedar.  Frame set into the ground (~4" holes) with mortar tray in place  Flush tank in place, flush drain in place  Tank side of the bed showing loop siphon and fill tubing  The drain as the flood tank flushes |
Wadly and I got all the bits put together and I’ve taken pics to share.
This system is designed to be built out of 55 gallon barrels (see the barrelponics group on yahoo) but I’m having a hard time finding clean free barrels in my area. Instead, I opted for the $4.96 option . . . a mortar mixing tray from Home Depot. The gas to go to where I can get 55 gallon drums is more than the cost of the tray. Add to that the cost of purchasing barrels (current best price is $15 ea.) and I’m way ahead.
Wadly built the frame to support the mortar tray. I think it’s clever. All the wood is recycled bits and pieces assembled with torx screws.
I had originally planned for additional posts to hold up the dump tank until I got a clue <shaking head at self> and had Wadly cut me some 2×6 angled pieces to hold a 2×8 shelf. I drilled a notch on one side of the shelf to accept the bottom of the toilet fill kit installed in the dump bucket.
The 5 gallon dump bucket is recycled and the drain plumbing parts cost about $10. I didn’t have any of the adapters and connectors for 1½” pipe though I did have some 2″ and a 2″ elbow all glued together which I used. Everything is dry fitted so it can be disassembled and adjusted or cleaned.
All along the length of the drain pipe are skill saw cuts ¾” apart. They are cut across the length of the pipe and go through 1/3 the thickness. The next time I take it apart I’ll get pictures. The end cap had six holes drilled in it.
When I build the next bed I will run one drain down the center and see how that works. Or maybe use 1″ pipe instead of 1½”.
I have three tomato plans (SunGold, Beefsteak and yellow cherry) and 4 green pepper. I will add red pepper as well when I can get some plants.
Wadly has cut a cover for the tank but the edges need routered and it needs waxed to keep the rain from soaking in. It’s in the shop waiting for me to get out there and do the task.
Wadly and I got the new growbed up and running. I am using the same Rubbermaid 100 gallon stock tank for the fish and bought a new (spent a whole $4.96) mortar mixing tray for the growbed. It’s about 20″ x 30″ and about 7″ deep. It doubles the grow area from the old bed.
I’ve got the dump tank (recycled 5 gallon bucket) set up and working, though a little more fine tuning will no doubt be required. I’ve got to address the water into bed distribution line as the dump does two things that it shouldn’t, it spills water over the side of the bed from the rush of water and it digs a big hole in the gravel. I need to moderate that and will pick up the parts today to make that happen. Wadly and I jury-rigged what we’ve got. It works but badly and I can’t fix it without a few more parts.
I also need to get a petcock valve for the tank side of the tee to regulate the flow to the dump tank. For now I’ve bent the tubing and have a knee-high nylon (my favorite filter medium) around it to pinch the flow a bit. That will work in the short term but in the long term I’d like to have a little finer control.
Wadly’s going to build a cover for the tank to keep the sun out and the algae growth (causes a big PH rise) down. I had the tank covered with a piece of white tarp last year, but he’d like something with better eye appeal.
If you’re interested in a growbed of your own, visit the barrelponics yahoo group for like minded folk.
Seedlings
Wadly says he’s got another baby fish in the tank. I’ve laid on the floor and looked but haven’t gotten a glimpse yet. The previous baby grew to be recognizable as a female guppy who is now nearly the same size as the adults.
Wadly stopped at Glacier yesterday and brought home five buckets of pea gravel for me. I’m going to need more to fill my new grow bed (grout mixing pan – 7″x22″x32″), but it’s a good start.
I’m definitely going to fill the gutter with pea gravel and plant things in it. It works too well not to. I’m going to have to rework the overflow to keep the gravel in the gutter. If I could find some hydroton locally I’d use that, as it’s much lighter than gravel, but I haven’t come across any yet.
I’ve got seeds showing growth in three of the five coco coir mats. I’ve got seedlings coming up out of the gravel between the coco coir mats. I’ve got some hollyhock seeds planted in the gravel, lovely purple ones. I’m really looking forward to those popping up.
The wall is filling in and showing less background felt and more color
The bud on the Christmas cactus has matured. It’s gorgeous.
Still no sign of the salamander. <wince> I’m not taking any bets on his survival. <sigh> I should have done a better job of researching.
 Last day of March . . . still big holes in the wall where the last three plants go  Begonia blossoms . . . unassuming and unspectacular but nice just the same  Gloxinia in all its glory  Primrose getting set to take off |
I still haven’t gotten the last three plants in the plant wall. <sigh> Maybe I can get two of them in today. Everything’s mega-healthy, growing and half of the bloomy stuff is doing just that.
Wadly noticed one of his fish bouncing off a rock on the bottom. That translates to parasite issues with his tank. Monday he dosed his tank with a parasitic that contains sodium chloride (salt). It will be interesting to see how the wall handles an increase in the salt content of the water. He’ll have to dose the tank two more times to ensure full treatment. He’ll empty 25% of the tank water before each of the two additional treatments. That should keep the salt content to a reasonable level so it doesn’t impact the wall plants <fingers crossed>.
The wall gutter makes treatment so easy. Wadly put the granulated prep around the overflow pipe in the gutter. The water flowing through the wall and into the gutter dissolved the granules and carried the treated water down into the tank.
Currently I have blossoms on two begonias (one white, one pink) and the gloxinia and buds on the Cape Primrose and Christmas cactus. We’ll see how everything survives treating the fish.
Johnson's clean water method uses plants but in a different way
Wadly’s really into building a community freshwater aquarium. He’s now got a pair of platties in the tank. He’s looking for a good fish and plant book for freshwater aquariums. I ran into this while trying to find a “one book covers it all” on Amazon . . . it made me laugh! Same result, totally different approach.
Johnson gives a really thorough rundown on his system what plants to use, how to propagate . . . pretty cool! This might be the approach if you don’t have a lot of wall space or aren’t a huge plant fan like I am.
If you need a clean aquarium, don’t want to do water changes and don’t care a fig about sticking your nose into a wall of green every day, this may be the book for you.
With LouAnn’s plants in the gutter waiting for the building of her wall, I’ve got to have a better way to control the depth of the water in the gutter. It doesn’t need to flood for long, but it does need to flood reliably without running water over the top of the gutter onto the floor (yeah, that happened <sigh>).
So I did a bit of building and I now have a stand pipe in the gutter.
Recycled fitting stuck in a measured length of poly water pipe, 1½" of bicycle inner tube and a rubber band
I had intended to use a different fitting but the hole I drilled was just a bit too large. Note to self, buy more sizes of hole saws.
With a “never say die” attitude, I started scrounging.
In one of our bins in the shop I found an 8″ long piece of poly water pipe with the fitting still stuck inside. Ever tried to remove a fitting from poly pipe? You’re better off buying a new fitting. The assembly was just what I needed for a launching point for the gutter standpipe. It wasn’t big enough to fill the too-large hole and I had no way to fasten it in, but it was the start I needed. With a short length of bicycle tubing (always some of that hanging around) and a rubber band, I had the makings of a nice gutter seal/stand pipe.
Stand pipe installed in the bottom of the gutter.
I pulled the inner tube down until is acted as a sleeve at the end of the poly pipe and over the hip of the fitting. I pulled a rubber band out of my stash and slid that over the upper end of the inner tube to act as a center for rolling the inner tube, applied aquarium sealer around the valley above the fitting hip and slid the assembly in the bottom of the hole in the gutter. While Wadly held it in place I smeared more aquarium sealer around the gutter opening at the top and rolled the inner tube down until it snugged up tight against the bottom of the gutter. I cleaned up all the extraneous aquarium sealer and it’s ready to go. I still have to drill a couple weep holes and connect the fitting to the aquarium.
Plant wall with gutter filled with spare plants being held over for LouAnn's wall
I got all the plants I wanted out of my test wall and in my new wall on 2/22. I still have three big plants and a bunch of background stuff still to plant but that will have to wait a bit. Visually the wall is a mess . . . but that’s a temporary condition. The plants will grow and find their place. It takes time for it to fill in and become a mass of greens.
If you’ve ever had an aquarium and have had to mess with all the extra equipment needed to keep your fish healthy, you will really appreciate a plant wall used as a biofilter. The wall does it all! The only maintenance required to keep the aquarium healthy is to keep the water topped up and the fish fed. That’s it. Nothing else. No extra equipment, no water changes, no fuss, no mess.
1 pleco, 2 catfish, 4 small goldies, 8 silver cloud, 6 neon tetra, 2 sword fish, 3 guppies, 2 golden eye - total of 26 fish
Our aquarium is in full daylight and there is no algae except on the glass side of the thermometer where the pleco and cats can’t reach. That’s a total of 26 fish. As the wall matures and the fish grow the system will stay in balance.
If Wadly had stuck with goldies I wouldn’t need an air stone or a heater, though I will say the plant wall does better using heated water.
Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings
So let’s look at the chemicals. I didn’t bother with doing a PH test because our water is low PH and we moderate it with oyster shell in the wall gutter. Everything is perfect.
Aquarium Feb 2010
One of the benefits of a grow wall is not having to clean the aquarium or do water changes to keep the fish healthy. A grow wall is an awesome biofilter. Just keep the water topped up and feed the fish.
I do have one caveat. Don’t purchase fish that require a brackish environment, like mollies. They don’t do well in salt free water. Salt in the water will do ugly things to the plant wall so stick to fish that don’t require salt.
Here’s a link to a site that offers insight on which fish to start with.
I’ve been searching for a site with instructions for building an airlift pump for pumping well water. I found the site last year when I was looking at windmills running compressors. In today’s search I ran across a cute little Instructable on airlift pumping for a hydroponic system. I have to do some testing but I think this might be a good way to supply water to a plant wall. As spring gets closer I’ll have to test this technique to see how much water it will pump and how high.
Right most plant is wilted completely upside down.
I’m washing all the soil off the roots for this plant wall so the aquarium water will be clear, not tea colored. The waffle plants were the first I put in the wall. Each container had 4 or 5 plants. I got them washed and separated and planted in the wall. While several of the plants didn’t look happy, one of the plants had a very serious case of the wilts to the point it was drooping with the top hanging below the insertion point in the wall. I thought for sure the plant was done for <rolls eyes at my vernacular> but it’s perked back up today, 3 days after planting. Let that be a lesson . . . if it’s a cutting or you massacre the roots, just because it wilts doesn’t mean it’s dead. Be patient and give it a chance to recover.
Wadly has decided he’s going to take care of the aquarium <SCORE!!> so I’m going to off the goldies onto LouAnn to feed her wall and let him do his guppies and comets and whatever in this tank. I no longer have to feed fish and he no longer has to whine about not having an aquarium in the house! How cool is that?! No watering plants, no feeding fish . . . I just need to sneak in a bit of potash monthly and I’m golden. <grins hugely>
Hot waxed plywood, 45 mil EPDM rubber and felt.
I’ve been planning this new plant wall for a while. I’m not giving detailed directions because, trust me, the method sucks for general application. I have to test this dead cheap method to see if it’s viable. If I can prove it viable I’ll share the method. For now, suffice it to say I’ve got plywood backing . . . again. <wince> Sorry ’bout that.
So here we are, new 5′ wide by 4′ tall plant wall. This one actually has a frame! Woohoo. The layers are:
The frame is recycled old growth 2×4 with a groove to accept the plywood. The plywood is screwed to the frame.
The gutter is 6″ schedule 40 pvc pipe cut lengthwise from the stash Dan supplied. The ends are aquarium siliconed scrap plastic. The drain hole is in the center. The gutter is screwed onto the back and stabilized with nylon strapping.
So far, so good. I've got one plant (right hand side) that's probably not going to make it.
So far I’ve planted areca palm, wood fern, waffle plant, some sort of flowering succulent (the stand-alone green blob – I have three of these, only one planted so far), the stripey plants I got on my latest run (4 of those) and two dumb cane, one of which has neophyte roots. I have one more chunk of dumb cane to plant.
I still have a lot to put in the wall but cutting the holes without piercing the rubber backing is a PITA and time consuming. I think the end result will be worth it.
6" schedule 40 half-pipe with center drain. The oyster shell in the bottom is to moderate our 6.0 PH water to a more comfortable (for both fish and plants) 7.4
Here are the things I’ve learned so far.
Wall at Kaija's.
My tiny test plant wall has done a bit of traveling. It’s traveled back in time and down the road! It’s now hanging just a bit crookedly (we didn’t have a level!) on a wall at Kaija’s garden center over a bucket of goldies! Look at the dumb cane! Doesn’t it look awesome?!
Most of the wall traveled perfectly. All of the wall would have traveled perfectly if it hadn’t gotten squashed by something falling on it. Most of the peperomia in the upper left corner was broken off as a result. <sigh> Wadly lost his professional driver scout badge for that oops.
On the plus side, there are two more sprays of blossoms emerging. Go begonia!
Felt peeled back at the edge near the dumb cane. Click to enlarge
I ordered stainless staples yesterday. <rolls eyes at self> Silly me thought I could get them locally! Not. Well, at least not in the logical place. I got them online through DoItBest and they’re being delivered at no charge to my local DoItBest store. Works for me.
I’m way too eager to get my new wall up. There’s not a whole lot of patience attached to this endeavor.
Oh! Good news! Terry has finally shown an interest in the fish tank! He brought home two fancy guppies and some foliage! <LOL> He even laid down on the floor to watch them for a while. Works for me!
I’ve pulled about 6 staples at the edge of my original plant wall to see what things look like. I’ll do a lot more of this as I get closer to putting up the new wall. Click on the image to enlarge it and look how the roots have grown. They look great! One has grown to the edge and changed direction and headed back in.
So now the zillion dollar question is . . . how well is the wax and oil sealed plywood backer going to hold up? The wall is 8 months old and the backer looks good but I started with good quality exterior (waterproof adhesive) plywood. How will it look in 8 more months? In 8 years? I don’t think it’ll hold up that well over the long run, the wood is bound to rot. Using a preservative might improve things but it could/would seriously kill the fish.
The goal is to have a long lasting plant wall at a bargain basement price. I’m not talking industrial application here. I want a long lasting personal plant wall that is affordable enough that virtually anyone could build it. I want the total structural and equipment cost to be (with scrounged bits a pieces) around $100 for a 25 square foot wall. Obviously, the bigger the wall is the bigger the cost will be. More wall means a bigger pump, a bigger aquarium, more fish, more tubing, more felt, more backer . . . The more bits that can be scrounged the lower the cost.
I haven’t been able to find HPDE sheets at a reasonable price so I’m thinking through other options. I want to use plywood in the support structure because it’s strong and inexpensive . . . and Wadly picked a pile of it up for nothing but the gas to go get it. I have to develop a method that will truly waterproof it without killing the fish that feed the wall.
What if I cover the plywood with a self-sealing layer that will prevent water from getting to the plywood. Maybe rubber pond liner . . . I can get a 5′x5′ Firestone 45mil EPDM pond liner online for $11. That’s a great price but the shipping is $14.44. Ouch. I’ll check locally and see if I can find that size or one that is close that is under that total cost. If shipping were half the stated cost I could see trying it. Yeah, that’s me, Ms. Cheap. Paying full price for anything disturbs me . . . I need to balance price plus tax against price plus shipping. Tax on $11 is under a buck. So even if the liner is $18 locally, with tax it’s still less expensive. And if I get it locally I don’t have to wait for it to arrive.
What if I applied the pond liner with a water hardened adhesive? Hmmm. Then if water seeped around the shaft of a staple (not likely as EPDM rubber unstretched is moderately self-sealing) the adhesive would kick in and harden, sealing the hole. It’s a thought. The water hardened sealer would have to be fish safe. I might try and get my hands on some TF Sealant.
I bet I could use a layer of torch (asphalt based roofing material). It’s really self-sealing. I wonder if it would kill the fish . . .
I just had a thought. I ordered ½” stainless staples. If the pond liner is too thick the staples can’t get through the felt and through the rubber with enough length left over to fasten deeply into the plywood. The staples I pulled from the edge of my current plant wall were very secure (hard to remove).
RightBrain aquaponic wall with tilapia
This gets my official seal of coolth. A plant wall and aquarium very different than mine! Visit the site and see the construction and the fish with babies!
I’ve added a bit of a treatise on aquaponic plant walls to my Long Bits of Stuff under Gardening. Enjoy!
Plant walls, gardening and the science of aquaponics
I’ve also added a link on the ammonia to nitrate cycle.
I’ve been looking at fish net . . . I think the answer may be to tie my own. I can do that. I’ve added a spool of my favorite woven cord to the shopping list. I think I’m going to have to tie the netting as I go down the wall installing plants. That’s the only way I can conceive of getting the net installed exactly where/how it needs done. I’ve got a shuttle/needle, I think. I’ll have to dig out mom’s binder of needles and shuttles to see if I have what I need. She did tatting (whole different thing) so I know there’s a tatting shuttle in there.
I have to laugh at myself. I am SO anal. I can see it’s going to take me hours to put together a fairly simple 5′x5′ wall. I know if I don’t do it in my totally anal fashion I will be tearing it apart to rebuilt it later. Because I have built a wall already I know what I want to do to have a long lasting wall that looks good . . . and incorporates a lot of my existing house plants so I don’t have to do quite so much watering!
If you have a minute, watch this video. It’s a very cool self-contained plant wall.
I’ve been working toward building a wall for LouAnn. She loves my wall and wants one of her own. I can do that!
LouAnn has a narrow wall just inside her bay window that will accommodate an 18″ wide by 5′ tall vertical garden. I have the sheet of LDPE ready to rip. I’m going to use composite lumber for the frame and stand. I have to keep an eye out for the right aquarium. I saw one at Goodwill that would have been perfect but failed to grab it. <sigh> Hindsight.
I am going to set the LDPE backer in channels in the frame. I anticipate the whole being stronger than a sum of the parts as the LDPE will add rigidity to the composite once it’s secured into the channels. I plan to use 1x4s (I found a place that produces composite fence pickets in the right dimension). I can make the entire frame out of 2-8′ lengths.
I’ll add bits of info and pictures as I get the project pulled together.