I'm still eye'ing that one side of the patio where we have a 6' privacy fence. I'd LOVE to replace that with one of these. I was thinking of using a solar powered pump (would only run on sunny daytime hours, but that sounds reasonable, doesn't it?). My partial plant list: snow peas, day-neutral strawberries, mesclun-type cut-and-grow-again salad greens, cucumber (a string trellis to let grow up and root at will), herbs along the top of the wall where it will dry out the most.... I would *like* to use a roll sheets of coir mat instead of synthetic felt, and something other than the expanded PVC base -- I believe the purpose of the PVC is to provide (1) LIGHTWEIGHT rigid base that is stapler-able AND keeps the staples from pulling out (2) moisture barrier for the actual building wall -- there's actually something like a 12" gap in between for ventilation to prevent moisture-related problems like mold (3) keep moisture from evaporating too quickly. So I'm not sure if a material that is NOT waterproof would be too drying. His massive PUBLIC designs require material that doesn't deteriorate easily, but for my smaller-scale projects, I'm not sure that anything more than several years is absolutely necessary.
I would like to make mine double-sided, with the edibles on the SW patio side, and part-shade ornamentals (thinking ferns on the bottom) on the NE side.
What you said about "no room for roots" -- I believe the entire moisture retentive FELT structure is going to hold the roots. So yes, the people in the video overplanted and in that sense, there's not enough room, but it you plant with enough space for future growth in mind, it would work. For indoor structure, long-lived plants would be preferable. For my outdoor structure, nothing's going to survive the winter so exposed, so everything will be grown as an annual. I would cut the spent plants at the roots, leaving the older generation roots in the mat medium to add to the structure.
That corner of the house has a downspout with a rain barrel, so I'm thinking I could rig some way to use the rain barrel as the supply reservoir....
Oh, I wish I (or anyone in this household) was handy

I have most of the basic ideas thought out -- I just don't know if (1) if my ideas are structurally feasible, (2) if I can *find* all the components, and (3) if I could build it.
