I know the feeling I found an old vertical soil garden that I filled up with perlite and grew asian vegetables I now have filled with strawberries, this is an older photo but showing some plants.

That's a very cool looking vertical garden. Did you feed the plants just hydroponic nutrients? Did your garden with perlite-only have drain holes, so you had to water often? I don't mind watering once a week, just would not want my plants to die if I went on vacation for a week. I have thought also about just a 50/50 ratio of soil and perlite with regular soil nutrients, to be safe. Thoughts?

I must confess that originally I used to water from the top every 2/3 days as it would run into a holding cup at the bottom that I would in turn re use until all the nutrients were used up. I did use perlite and still do but I got lazy and hooked this vertical garden up to my ebb and flow so that a couple of times a day when my ebb and flow kicked in , I adjusted a drip in into this vertical garden and it runs back into my reservoir. As I am going overseas in about a months time for 4 weeks, this will automatically water and return the nutrients back.

The photo was taken about two minutes ago with my strawberry plants, I still have another two holes to fill with runners from my drip system.

Hey Robert, update on the hanging plants. I used a 50/50 potting soil-perlite mix and lined the bottom with clay pellets, and they seem to be doing ok, as I re-potted two weeks ago. The 3 lb hooks have not given way at all (let's hope it stays that way). I gave a tug on the roots, and there is some resistance, so I think they have fully rooted and will be ok. I picked the hardy English Ivy as my plant of choice. Plastic planters is the key to keeping the weight under 3 lbs. Though not as "expensive" looking, you can paint them or decorate them to appear that way. Five dollars apiece on Ebay can't be beat!

I wish I could go full-on hydroponic, but I do not have the right system right now. In time, hopefully! I have another hydroponic ivy in clay pellets and it is really taking off. When I move to a place with more sunlight, I will give basil a try. I love hydroponic growing, but it is a bit more utilitarian--there aren't that many systems available for just plain old decorative houseplants, that aren't expensive.

Hi jentsu926 thanks for your update, I have found the clay pellets fall out of the holes so a perlite or soil perlite mix could do the trick.

I have found another way of anchoring plants into their holes and that is by using rock wool which means that you can start the plants in rockwool and re plant into the holes with no soil or perlite coming out which also makes it neat and tidy, plus lowering the possibility of bacteria in the soil mix.

You can still water from the top and catch the nutrients that have flowed through in a cup and at the end of the day or whenever watering needs doing ( your plants will show how happy or unhappy they are, so rewater again using the same principle.

Keep us posted as to your progress.