Info

Questions

What is a Woolly Pocket?

Woolly Pockets are flexible, breathable, and modular gardening containers. They`come in two styles: those designed to be placed on horizontal surfaces, and those designed to be hung on walls for vertical gardening. You can use Woolly Pockets both indoors and out; they have built-in moisture barriers to help protect furniture, and they're equally at home outside in the elements. They're perfect for creating urban gardens where you have space to garden but no land to garden in. Woolly Pockets are lightweight and can be folded flat, which makes them very easy to use, move, and store just about anywhere.

What is a vertical garden?

A vertical garden, sometimes called a living wall, is an organized system of plants that grow vertically up a wall, fence, or other vertical surface. Vertical gardens are a beautiful way to show off plants, cover an unsightly wall, or create privacy in a courtyard. Because they are hung vertically, vertical gardens hardly take up any space. The Woolly Pocket Vertical Gardening System is unique because it's easy to install, completely modular, and very easy to maintain. We invented our vertical system because there was no other solution on the market that suited our needs.

What is breathability?

Plants need oxygen in their soil in order to thrive. Woolly Pockets are made of felt derived from recycled plastic bottles that allows the soil to refresh its oxygen supply. This feature is called breathability.

What are the benefits of breathable containers?

There are two primary benefits to container gardening in breathable containers. First, it allows the soil to aerate naturally, which reduces the need to drain the containers and also helps to conserve water. Second, when the roots sense air they do something called air pruning. This is the natural process of stopping their own growth when they sense they've reached the limits of their space. This keeps the roots healthy and stops plants from becoming root-bound by growing in continuing circles as they do in non-breathable containers such as clay pots.

What are Woolly Pockets made of?

Woolly Pockets have two main components: the breathable felt and the built-in moisture barrier. The breathable portion is made of 100% recycled plastic bottles that have been industrially felted. The moisture barrier is made according to military standards for impermeability from 60% recycled plastic bottles. We stitch each pocket together by hand with a double lock stitch and strong, UV-resistant nylon thread.

Where are Woolly Pockets made?

Woolly Pockets are handmade in the USA. We try to make as little impact on the earth as possible, and make every effort to use sustainable, local sources for all of our materials.

Who is the Woolly Pocket Garden Company?

We are a family owned and operated company based in Los Angeles and Phoenix. We do everything we can to practice sustainability. Our offices are solar powered and qualify for LEED Platinum. We recycle, we minimize our use of paper, and we even streamline our manufacturing, marketing, and shipping process by distributing Woolly Pockets primarily through our online store.

What kind of plants should I grow in my Pockets?

Nearly any container plant should be able to grow in Woolly Pockets. Pick plants that are the right size for their new Pocket home. The bigger the Pocket, the bigger the plant it can hold. We recommend finegardening.com, sunset.com, and Sunset's Western Garden Book to learn more about plants and gardening. Please remember that gardening takes time and care. Woolly Pockets will help you be a better gardener, but your plants and Pockets are still depending on you to be a responsible gardener. If you have any questions, please contact us. We're happy to help.

What is the best soil to use?

Choosing a suitable growing medium for your plants is key to your gardening success. The important thing to remember when choosing potting soil is that is should provide water retention, drainage, and nutrition. Most quality brands of all-purpose potting soil provide all of these things. Our current favorite brand of soil is called ProMix BX. It can be purchased at a variety of gardening centers including Home Depot. If you are having trouble finding or choosing a type of soil, please contact us and we'll be happy to help.

PLEASE NOTE: If the soil you choose does not provide enough water retention or you overwater your Pockets, they will most likely drain too quickly which will cause them to sweat and even leak. This will not only wet surfaces, it may also flush important nutrients from your soil.

Maximum Soil Amounts

How should I shape my Woolly Pockets?

You can shape Woolly Pocket however you like, rounded, squared, or even asymmetrical. Make sure there's more soil along the sides than in the center. It's also helpful to make wells around your plants to concentrate the water over the plants' root balls. Optimizing the distribution of the soil will help minimize the amount that your Pockets sweat. Sweating is when water begins to pass through the breathable sides of your Woolly Pockets. Sweating doesn't harm plants, although it might harm your furniture, but it does mean that you should cut down on the amount of water you're giving your plants or that you should check the soil to see if it should be loosened to allow more water to reach the root ball and to be absorbed.

How much and what kind of water should I use?

The amount of water a plant needs depends on what type of plant and what sort of climate it's growing in. We recommend watering according to the following watering table, and adjusting based on the particular needs of your plants and environment.

Maximum Watering Amounts

If Woolly Pockets moisten on the outside after watering, try watering half as much the next time. If moisture persists, be sure the soil you're using is a high-quality potting soil that stays loose and holds water.

Use filtered water in order to maintain the natural PH balance of the soil. If you can only use unfiltered water, you'll want to take your Woolly Pocket outside once a year to flush it. This means thoroughly soaking it until water runs out the sides. Flushing your Pocket won't harm your Pocket or your plant, in fact it will help it. Make sure you let it dry in the sun before bringing it inside to prevent the damp Woolly Pocket from damaging your floors or furniture. When you bring it back inside, don't forget to replace the nutrients lost with fertilizer.

Can I use drip irrigation for watering?

Our favorite way to water our plants is by drip irrigation because using a regular, timed watering helps insure a healthy garden. Any store bought drip irrigation system will work as well, if not better, in Woolly Pockets than in other gardening containers. We suggest using individually adjustable drip irrigation heads so that each plant gets its own adjustable water source. See drip irrigation video

Place drip irrigation heads as far as possible from the sides of Woolly Pockets to help avoid excessive sweating and potential leakage. With the Woolly Wally System, place drip irrigation heads along the back inside wall of the pocket.

Suggested Drip Heads Per Pocket

Be sure to adjust your automatic watering system specifically for your plant varieties and environmental conditions. We recommend installing a Weathermatic irrigation management system that automatically adjusts watering according to daily weather conditions. You can find them at weathermatic.com.

Should I use filtered water for my plants?

We recommend that you always use filtered water, especially when watering indoors. This maintains the best PH balance in your soil. If you can only use unfiltered water, you'll want to take your Woolly Pocket outside once a year to flush it. This means thoroughly soaking it until water runs out the sides. Let it dry in the sun before bringing it inside to prevent the damp Woolly Pocket from damaging your floors or furniture. Because Woolly Wallys are inconvenient to take outside once installed, only water Woolly Wallys with filtered water. You can purchase an inexpensive water filter at www.brita.com.

How should I plant and maintain Woolly Pockets?

In general, Woolly Pockets can be planted, watered and maintained just like any traditional gardening container. However, we've developed methods that are specifically intended to increase plant health and lower long-term maintenance needs.

Each Woolly Pocket has slightly different requirements. Please refer to the following index before planting your Woolly Pocket.

Instructions

Planting Instructions

Wee Woolly Woolly Patch Woolly Ridge Woolly Knoll Lil' Woolly Meadow

1. Fill Woolly Pocket halfway with potting soil.
2. Plant Woolly Pocket with just about any type or variety of plants. Loosen root ball(s) carefully by scraping them with a planting trowel and gently squeezing them. The goal is to increase the root ball's ability to absorb water.
3. Fill Woolly Pocket the rest of the way with potting soil so that root ball(s) are adequately covered with soil.

Planting Instructions

Woolly Meadow:

Because Woolly Meadow is so large, she comes with a drawstring so you can stabilize her sides as much as you need to. This also means you should put her where you want her to live before you fill her with soil because she'll be too heavy to move after she's filled with plants.

1. Pour six cubic feet of soil into the middle of your Meadow and carefully push the soil into the edges and corners so that it's even distributed along the bottom of the Pocket.
2. Tighten the drawstring until the sides are standing up straight.
3. Fill the rest of the Meadow with the remaining soil. Don't fill her with more than 12 cubic feet more of soil.
4. Push the soil into the corners and sides making sure to level it with a little extra around the edges. Then tighten the drawstring until Woolly Meadow is in the shape you desire.
5. Organize your plants where you want, and then, one-by-one, plant them just as you would plant a garden in the ground, digging a hole, planting the root ball, and covering the root ball with more soil.

Watering & Maintaining Woolly Meadow

Because Woolly Meadow is so large, you should only use filtered water for watering in order to maintain the natural PH balance of the soil. Woolly Meadow is too large to take it outside to flush, even just once a year.

Moving Woolly Meadow

Unlike clay pots this size, Woolly Meadow is lightweight and flexible. When empty, she can easily be folded up and carried by one person. When moving full Woolly Meadows, you can slide her across the floor for short distances, being very careful not to scratch your floor. To move her further distances, we recommend finding three other volunteers to help. It's best to lift her by her corners and move her slowly into her new home. Alternately, you can use a dolly to move her. You can make your own dolly using 3/4-inch plywood and casters. We still recommend using volunteers to lift your Woolly Meadow onto the dolly.

If you wish to move an already planted Woolly Meadow to a new property, you might consider carefully taking each plant out, placing it in a paper sack, folding your Woolly Meadow for transport, and then replanting at your destination.

Planting Instructions

Woolly Wallys

In order to install your new Woolly Wally System, here's what you'll need:

• A wall or other vertical surface
• Woolly Wallys + wall anchors, one for each Woolly Wally grommet
• An electric drill, screwdriver, tape measure, level
• Blue masking tape and a pen
• Quality soil
• Garden shovel or pail
• Plants!
• An assistant and about two hours of time

1. Using your level and measuring tape, place one piece of blue tape vertically down the center of the wall where you want to hang your Pockets.
2. Using your level and measuring tape, place a piece of blue tape horizontally along the wall where you'll be drilling the holes to hang the Woolly Wally grommets. When hanging multiple rows space them 13" on center vertically so that Wallys overlap a little to hide the wall behind them.
3. Using your measuring tape, mark the blue tape where the holes should be drilled and pre-drill each hole.
4. Remove the blue tape and install the wall anchors into the pre-drilled holes.
5. Hang your Woolly Wallys using the screws and washers that came with them. When you hang multiple Pockets, save the anchors that will hang two Pockets for last so you can double them up.
6. Fill each Pocket halfway with soil. Add your plants and top each pocket off with more soil, as necessary.

Watering Woolly Wally Systems

You should only use filtered water for watering your Woolly Wally System in order to maintain the natural PH balance of the soil. Carefully water each Pocket with about 5% water to soil volume. We like to water the soil closest to the wall to prevent water from running out the front. The wall is protected thanks to the impermeable moisture barrier in each Woolly Wally. Just to be safe, check your Pockets after watering. If it's wet, you're probably over watering. But don't worry, just pat Woolly Wally dry with a towel and use less water next time.

Maintaining Woolly Wally Systems

We strongly recommend installing filtered drip irrigation for your Woolly Wally System. You'll want to run the irrigation line along the inside of the pocket towards the back, right above the root ball of the plants. Think of the back of the Pocket as the watering side and the front as the breathing side. You'll need an adjustable drip system so you can customize the amount of water to the needs of each plant. Plan to install two drip heads per Pocket. You will want to monitor the amount of water carefully to make sure they're getting enough water to be happy, but not so much that they sweat. We recommend checking the back of the pockets for moisture once a month and adjusting the amount of water accordingly.

If you're planning to install a large vertical garden, please contact us. We'd love to help.