James Deskins > Projects > Living Wall
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Throughout the winter and spring of 2014 I worked with local civic organizations and The City of Harrisonburg, VA to design, build and install a fully automated vegetated wall system. The 60 sq. ft. wall is irrigated by 50 gal. of stored rainwater and powered by 20 Watts of PV. The wall was intended to encourage increased public use in a underutilized parking deck.
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I choose to plant the wall with Sedum varieties. These perennial plants are known as succulents and have a great capacity for storing water. They will tolerate being divided quite well, which is allows for economical reproduction. The plants will also produce a flower adding to the visual spectacle.
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The process of preparing the surface for the wall included painting the stairwell and installing aluminium mounting brackets. Engineering was completed on the mounting system (brackets and fasteners) prior to installation.
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I tapped into a section of cast iron drain pipe that was servicing a single drainage point on the upper deck of the parking garage. Once the storage capacity of the rainwater tank is reached water flow resumes down the original path to the storm drain. The system has multiple clean out points and can be easily drained for winterization.
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The pump used was a standard diaphragm pump capable of operating at 3.3 gallons per minute powered by 12 Volt 18 Amp hour sealed deep cycle battery. I custom built the pump house in efforts to securely conceal the solar rain pump and battery charging electronics. The pump is on a switch wired to an automatic programmable timer.
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The irrigation system is drip fed, laid on the top shelf of each row of growing modules. It also has a secondary gravity feed option built in, accessible via the roof of the stairwell.
specialty equipment used:
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A very special thanks to everyone who helped and supported this project along the way! You know who you are!