Garden grab

Once you’ve decided to start a tower garden, it’s essential to understand the practical aspects, such as costs, what you can grow, and common concerns.

This article will guide you through these details to help you get started.

The Cost of a Tower Garden

Currently, there is one official manufacturer of tower gardens, offering systems that include everything you need to get started, including seeds.

• A single tower accommodates up to 20 plants and costs around $500.
• You can also purchase an extension kit to expand the capacity to 28 plants.

Investing in multiple towers might be more practical for larger families or those who cook frequently.

The Tower Garden Family Garden package, which includes three towers, offers savings compared to buying individual units.

You can also buy additional supplies or replacement parts separately, such as accessories or a heater for growing in cooler climates.

While the upfront cost may seem high, consider the long-term savings on fresh produce, which can offset the initial investment.

What Can I Grow with a Tower Garden?

Tower gardens allow you to grow a wide variety of foods, including vegetables, fruits, and herbs:

• Vegetables: Broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, peas, spinach, and more.
• Fruits: Tomatoes, strawberries, and melons.
• Herbs: Basil, chives, cilantro, dill, oregano, parsley, thyme, and many others.
• Flowers: Marigolds, salvia, pansies, and sunflowers can also be grown to add color to your garden.

With a tower garden, you can grow nearly anything you would in a traditional garden, using less space and fewer natural resources and enjoying a quicker harvest.

Is Tower Gardening Organic?

Although tower gardening is not technically considered organic due to the lack of soil—a key component—it offers many of the same benefits.

By using aeroponics, you eliminate the need for harmful herbicides and pesticides.

While a fertilizer solution is necessary to provide nutrients, this method is eco-friendly and safe for your family, using fewer natural resources than traditional gardening.

How Does Produce Taste from a Tower Garden?

The taste of fresh, homegrown products will blow your mind. Picking produce from the tower garden at the peak of ripeness is part of the experience.

On the other hand, in supermarkets, you may encounter products that have been harvested before they are fully ripe and may lose their flavor over time.

Vegetables like tomatoes and peppers have more intense flavors, while fruits like strawberries and melons are juicier and sweeter.

Once you’ve experienced the taste of homegrown produce, you’ll likely find store-bought options less satisfying.

Suppose you grow more food than you can consume immediately. In that case, you can preserve the surplus by freezing, canning, or drying it, allowing you to enjoy fresh flavors year-round.

Is the Plastic in a Tower Garden Safe?

A common concern about tower gardens is using plastic, which can leach harmful chemicals if exposed to heat.

However, the plastic used in tower gardens is treated with a UV protector, preventing it from breaking down and leaching chemicals.

This ensures that your plants grow in a safe environment, with the plastic helping to keep roots cool and prevent algae growth.

Can Children Enjoy a Tower Garden?

Tower gardens are an excellent way to get children involved and teach them about food production.

Many urban children need to be more connected to where their food comes from, often assuming it’s made in factories. A tower garden lets kids learn how food is grown, even in a small space.

Encouraging children to choose and grow their plants can foster a love for healthy eating and an understanding of environmental responsibility.

In Summary

Starting a tower garden is a practical way to grow fresh produce and a cost-effective and educational investment.

With the ability to develop a wide variety of foods, ensure safety, and involve children in the gardening process, tower gardening is a versatile option that offers numerous benefits.

Whether you’re new to gardening or looking to expand your current efforts, a tower garden can help you achieve your goals in a space-efficient and eco-friendly manner.

Tower gardening is a growing trend that allows people to cultivate their own food at home, even without a large yard.

If you’ve always wanted to grow fresh produce but lack the space, tower gardening might be the perfect solution.

What Is a Tower Garden?

A tower garden is a vertical garden that uses aeroponics to grow plants. This means plants are grown without soil, using only air and water. Tower gardens allow you to develop various plants vertically, saving space and eliminating the need for heavy soil. You can place your tower garden on a roof, patio, or balcony. Even if you have a yard, you can still benefit from the space-saving design.

Tower gardens are also aesthetically pleasing and can enhance the beauty of a small space while serving a practical purpose. With rising produce prices and concerns about the safety of commercially grown food, a tower garden is a worthwhile investment, especially for those interested in producing organic food for their families.

The Benefits of a Tower Garden

One of the most apparent benefits of a tower garden is growing food in a small space. However, there are many other advantages:

• Pest Reduction: Growing without soil reduces the risk of garden pests, as many insects that attack plants thrive in soil. While some insects may still pose a threat, the problem will be much less severe than in traditional gardening.
• Less Weeding: Weeding is minimal in a tower garden. While weeds can appear, they are far fewer than in a conventional garden.
• Ergonomics: Tower gardening involves less bending and stooping, which is especially beneficial for those with back or knee issues.
• Cost Efficiency: Although the equipment requires an initial investment, tower gardens save money in the long run by reducing the need for purchased produce.
• Faster Growth: Plants grown in tower gardens mature more quickly than those grown in soil, meaning you can enjoy the fruits of your labor sooner.

How Does a Tower Garden Work?

A tower garden has a large plastic column with hydroponic net pots placed throughout. Inside, a pump circulates the water over the plant’s roots, and a reservoir holds a liquid fertilizer to provide essential nutrients. While plants still need sunlight to thrive, the absence of soil simplifies the growing process.

When you purchase a tower garden kit, you’ll need to assemble it, which usually takes about 30 minutes. The kit typically includes a seed-starting kit for growing seedlings, which you can later transplant into the tower garden.

Once set up, routine maintenance involves:

• Checking the water pH.
• Cleaning the filter.
• Monitoring for any weed or insect issues, though these are rare.

In just a few weeks, you can begin harvesting fresh vegetables and greens from your garden, ready for use in your kitchen.

The Bottom Line

Tower gardening offers a practical and space-efficient way to grow fresh produce at home. With its numerous benefits—from pest reduction to faster plant growth—it’s an appealing option for novice and experienced gardeners. Whether you’re limited by space or simply looking for a more efficient way to garden, a tower garden could be the perfect solution.

Gardening is good for the soul, whether you do it for fun or as a business. Gardens supply fresh food and improve our landscape.

But gardening also comes with some potential drawbacks. 

Backyard gardens, for instance, requires hard work and commitment. Acknowledging the highs and lows of gardening will help one determine if this project is worth their effort.

Benefits of Gardening

There are several reasons people should grow a garden, including:

1. Saves money in the long run

Getting started in your garden can be expensive. And it may seem cheaper and easier to buy veggies at supermarkets, but once your plants have grown, you’ll start saving a lot. 

Growing your garden pays you back both financially and health-wise.

Gardeners often get most out of their space by practicing succession planting or growing vegetables that can be stored like carrots or potatoes. 

And although flower gardens don’t save you any cash, the sense of pride and personal satisfaction make it a worthwhile investment.

2. Improve heart and mental health

Gardening is an excellent exercise for everyone regardless of age or physical conditions. It helps maintain the flexibility of one’s muscles. 

But most importantly, it helps burn calories and by so doing, strengthens your heart. This, therefore, reduces risks of heart attacks and strokes.

Also, growing plants is a wonderful way of escaping everyday stress. Digging reduces tension hence calms people’s minds. Anytime we obsess with negative thoughts, reconnecting with the natural world can get us out of our heads.

3. Plants beautify landscape

Everyone loves to live in a beautiful environment. The sight of trimmed flowers in one’s compound makes their home look appealing. 

Flower gardening can be useful to people who want to beautify their outdoor spaces. 

Flowers may not save you any money, but at least your home will not be dull.

Photo by debora carl landscape design - Browse landscaping ideas

Pitfalls

Even though gardening has many benefits, it also presents many disadvantages, which are:

1. Time

Growing and tending gardens require time. Planting is not even hard, it’s the activities that follow that make this process somehow tricky. 

You must:

• weed, 
• water, and 
• fertilize your plants. 
• then you also must harvest. 

All these things take time. If one is busy with work or other commitments, they may not have much spare time, and hence gardening may be difficult for them.

2. Cost

Starting a garden is not cheap and even maintaining it is expensive. 

One will need to purchase vegetable seeds or flowers, then gardening tools like shovel, rake, and tiller. 

And even watering your plants is pricey, and you’ll also buy fertilizer and support systems like trellises!

But, these costs are only higher when starting, but afterward, it becomes cheaper and enjoyable.

3. Space

Individuals can try to use their space efficiently. But, gardens take away a portion of your lawn or patio.

And for someone with a small property, it means even less space for other activities like playing or creating seating areas.

4. Physical work

Gardening is physical work. Digging and kneeling can harm your muscles, joints, and bones, causing pain and damage. You can get carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), for example, because of compression of the nerves in your wrists when working with your hands in the garden. 

Leaning and bending over your plants can lead to chronic back pain, and squatting can cause knee pain and damage.

Conclusion

Gardening has both highs and lows. But, the many advantages of growing your plants outweigh the handful of negatives. 

The disadvantages all have solutions. It’s all about your specific needs and preferences, but if it intrigues you, give it a go.

Then again, there are lots of reasons not to garden. Plus, it is not a cheap hobby. 

But if you love doing backbreaking physical work and don’t mind getting dirty, then gardening is an excellent hobby to start! 

A garden is known to be a house of happiness for many homeowners – the place to forget all the stress and tensions from their job. 

To achieve this, you’ll need a garden that is healthy and not only colorful and lush green.

Designing a garden can be hard. Figure out precisely what you want to do, how you want to do it, and where you want it.

But it does not have to be hard.

If you want to design your garden (this is the most gratifying way to go), then follow these easy steps.

1. Choosing a Location for your Garden

The immediate step is deciding where you want to put the garden.

Guess what, you probably already know where you want it.

If you’ve thought it would be nice to have a garden in front of your window, then that is where you should put a garden.

Gardens are not permanent! We can alter them to fit our needs.

2. Setting up your Garden

The second step is how you want to set up your garden. 

A few key things are

• how big you want it (easy, you only have as much room as you have to work with)?, 
• do you want it rounded or squared?,
• what plants do you want (perennials or annuals?). 

A combination of Annuals and Perennials make the most stunning gardens. 

Does your house have an L shaped indentation on it? They enable the making of beautiful half circle gardens. Put those plants grow smaller one’s upfront and most prominent in the back.

Mix the plant – it is not a must you put them in a straight line.

3. Gardens need work

The third step is action! Get out the gardening tools and begin your work. 

Gardens don’t go up by themselves, you know. 

If after you have completed your garden, you don’t like it then play with it until you do. 

The best thing about gardens is they are always a work in progress. You can change them up as often as you’d like to or leave them be.

4. Consider the Climate

Give your garden a multi-colored hue. But if you do not have a favorable climate for exotic plants or flowers do not plant them. They would need extra care, and the chances of survival are lesser. 

Photo by Lauren Dunec Design - More landscaping photos

Often people make the mistake of planning a garden based on what they see in gardening books. Rather use plants capable of adapting to local conditions and climate.

5. Group your Plants

Theming parts your garden by using colors is an easy trick to enhance your garden. 

You can use both trees that have colored leaves and flowers to make your garden a riot of colors. 

In the absence of seasonal flowers, you won’t be deprived of color in the garden. 

6. Pay Attention to Garden furniture

Are a table and chairs the center of interest in your backyard or patio? Pay attention to outdoor furniture, as furniture can be a great design element in your garden.

Then add some color with a flower arrangement.

Photo by Wallace Landscape Associates - More landscaping photos

Prefer fragrant herbs and flowers to fascinate the senses even further. Choose herbs that you can use as a freshly picked garnish like coriander, parsley, and chives. They provide lovely enzymes too.

7. Insects

Pollinators, like butterflies and bees, are great to have in the garden, but make sure your yard is not infected with pests.

This enables your garden to be more safe for relaxing and children to play.

Conclusion

You need to choose what you want from your garden:

• a tranquil place to relax after a workday, 
• a place to entertain friends and family,
• do you need to consider the needs of children, pets or elderly relatives?
• do you like to your hands dirty on gardening?
• would you prefer low maintenance garden?

All these things will impact how you design your garden, and how much work is needed.

Gardening has its ins and outs, but for most of us, it’s a lot of fun to do and can be relaxing. And in this day and age anything that is relaxing and enjoyable is something worth doing!

What to do now that you’ve purchased your seeds? It is an excellent idea to plant your seeds indoors and give them an early start to the season.

When your plants have a head start, they will be able to mature earlier in the growing season. Some plants need extra attention that can be provided for them by being planted indoors.

If you’re interested in maximizing your gardening space even further, consider exploring tower gardening. Check out our article on The Benefits of Tower Gardening: Grow More with Less Space to learn how you can grow a variety of plants vertically, saving even more room in your garden.

Soil blocks

Soil blocks are inexpensive and easy to use. Organic vegetable seeds can easily be planted in soil blocks.

When the plants begin to grow and form a root system, the soil blocks will provide them with lots of space.

Each soil block will contain all the nutrients that are needed for growing plants.

Many organic gardeners have used soil blocks and found them to be an excellent way of planting seeds indoors.

There are a variety of sizes of soil blocks.

Most people like to use the 2in/5cm size. For larger plants, you can start with this size and then transplant the seedlings to a more massive soil block when the roots need more space.

Choose a soil block that is sturdy enough to stand some rough handling.

Soil

It is also essential to buy some soil which has a combination of compost and peat.

You may wish to make your soil mixture instead of buying it, which will be just as effective.

You will need to find a sturdy tray to put underneath your blocker once you have filled it with soil so that everything is kept together.

Planting

Do all of the plantings for one whole tray at the same time. Now when you want to transplant your seedlings outside, they will all be the same size.

One or two seeds can be placed in each soil block and covered with some of the soil mixes.

There are some seeds which need light to germinate, and these should not be covered.

To save space, it is a good idea to plant several seeds in the same block. It will not harm seeds to be planted together in a small place, and they may do very well with this arrangement.

It does not matter if you place four onion seeds in the same blocker because they will grow apart from each other once you plant them outside.

Soil blocks typically can be planted a little smaller than potted seedlings because the blocks can be handled and hold together.

Prevent diseases

You want to make sure that no fungi disease grows on your indoor plants. A fungi disease called damping off is one of the more common ones.

If young plants have lots of suns and not too much water, this kind of infection can be prevented.

Proper air circulation is crucial to prevent these diseases.

Watering

It is best to water the plants from the bottom, not from the top, to prevent disease.

The seedlings will reach down through the soil to find water and will grow deep roots.

The soil will soak up the water from the tray underneath the blocker if you fill the tray with water.

Moving outside

After the plants have grown too big for the blocker, you can move them into a pot to make more space for their roots.

As soon as the weather is warm enough, you can plant the seedlings outside to grow for the rest of the season.

Just remember to choose the right location to keep your garden healthy and beautiful.

How efficient gardener you are can be determined by your garden and the methods you use. So stop dabbling your thumbs and put your green fingers to use.

As far as gardening is concerned, if you put in hard work, your efforts will never be useless.

Starting a garden is not easy, especially to someone who’s not familiar with the different plants that exists. It’s undoubtedly difficult for me, as I’m just starting out, and the garden is more for relaxation.

But, before I drop any seed, I need to figure out few things:

1. I need to know my garden’s condition.
2. I need to research on various plants that stand a survival chance in my small piece of land.

If you are starting too, you need to evaluate those things as well.

Then, you can head out and pick what you prefer, and those that suit your cultivation methods.

Different plants have different needs

The plants you choose depend on many factors, such as

• orientation,
• size, and
• soil type of your garden.

However, every garden will benefit from a well-executed planting scheme, and plants can help one create that effect they want.

I did some research so that this guide will help individuals choose the right plants for their yards.

Start by assessing your outdoor space

Before choosing any plant, you need to recognize how much space you have. Measure the size of your garden by a tape measure.

Knowing how much space you have will help determine what plants you’ll grow and your gardening design.

If you have lots of space, plant large and fast-growing specimens such as Roman chamomile. But, if your land is limited, then you should try container gardening.

For those with limited space, another great option to consider is tower gardening. This vertical gardening method allows you to grow a variety of plants efficiently in a small area. Learn more about its benefits in our article on The Benefits of Tower Gardening: Grow More with Less Space.

Determine the soil type

Just by looking around your neighborhood, you can tell which soil you have in your plot. If, for instance, camellia grows in that area, then probably its ground is pH neutral to acidic.

However, for accuracy, you can buy simple and inexpensive PH test soil kit, which gives useful information. Loose soils are generally sandy, and those that clump together are clay.

Once you’ve determined which soil you have, selecting plants wouldn’t be hard.

For example:

• Goldenaster and most succulents survive in dry soil.
• Hydrangea and Siberian iris will do well in marshy soil types.

Understand your climate

Hardy perennials should be planted in cold conditions. People who live in cold climates will have luck with resilient flowers and shrubs such as

• sorrels,
• daylilies, and
• ostrich fern.

These plants can survive fluctuating temperatures.

For gardeners living in tropical and subtropical climates, heat-tolerant plants such as amaranths and some ferns will be best.

It’s also wise that one considers precipitation levels of their area:

• If it’s raining a lot where you live, your plants won’t need much extra watering.
• Gardens and plants in a dry climate exposed to hot temperatures need a lot of watering.

Determine the light levels in your garden

Observe and write down the hours of direct sunlight your yard receives each day.

• 8 or more hours is considered full sun while
• partial sun is between 4-5 hours.

Remember that plants have different light requirements. Therefore not all specimens will survive in your area.

Understand annuals, perennials, and edibles

Annual plants like dahlias and zinnias have great shapes and stunning colors. Most require low maintenance; hence, people can grow different species together.

Again, gardeners should also grow perennial flowers and shrubs for beauty.

Perennials are tough and return year after year as long as one takes proper care of them.

Then also consider growing vegetables and fruits as they provide healthy nutritious foods. This, in the long run, will cut down the cost of going to grocery stores now and then.

As you can see, choosing the right plant narrows down to

• your garden size,
• its type of soil,
• your preference, and
• location.

But, you can also experiment with different options to determine which plants do well in your area and which don’t.

Choosing plants for your garden can be exciting and fun.

Certainly, a lot of the choices you make about the plants will be based on your taste and style.

But remember to take into consideration these basic factors mentioned here.

What to do next when you have purchased the seeds for the plants? What’s the right way to plant them? Indoors with soil blocks or outdoors?

So what a better place to spend a lazy afternoon than in a garden?

This site celebrates gardening and nature, and also my love of a few other things, like photography, the environment, native plants, and my family. I’ve added a touch of fantasy, a feeling of peace, and an appreciation for the beauty of nature. After all, nature can give us an order that the rest of life sometimes denies us.
And I’m Paul. Welcome!

Thy journey be auspicious;
may the breeze,
Gentle and soothing, fan thy
cheek; may lakes
All bright with lily cups delight
thine eyes,
The sunbeam’s heat be cooled
by shady trees,
The dust beneath thy feet
the pollen be
of lotuses.

from Sanskrit play, c.400 A.D.

This morning I decided that I would use the inspiration of the sunshine coming through my curtains to start the day on a positive note and do something that I have been putting off for about a year…

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been wondering if a gardening blog is something of a burden or a joy. I’ve had a few eras when my energy has been low, and my thoughts have joined in. It is one thing to write a blog when one is feeling happy, but quite a different thing when one is a bit flat.

I live in the beautiful county of Yorkshire, and I decided to start a new chapter in my life and start blogging.

Someone asked do I like gardening?  For a little while, I couldn’t answer, but as I drifted on, it came to me: I love gardening because gardens are such amazing and powerful places.

So what do I want from my garden? 

• Relax,
• play with our kids,
• have quality time with friends,
• enjoy in the color, scent, and shapes of perennials,
• to seed the tomatoes for our salad,
• enjoy the butterflies, birds, bees, and many critters.  

Amazing stuff, yes?

Where you tend a rose, my lad,
A thistle cannot grow.

from “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Garden helps us connect with nature, but for me, more compelling is that I can express creativity in myself.  When we spend so much time in our desks at work, acting in roles where we have to overcome our essential needs, gardening is our own space. Just being in our area, re-connects us with whom we are, and re-wires our brain.

I’ve just started gardening, but gardens have always been a meaningful part of my life; ever since I was a small child who dragged his mom around the yard asking the names of all the flowers.  Those flowers are in bloom in my garden soon, I hope.

I’m picturing my mom now, and I’m transported back to childhood and those summer days in the garden.

So, you see, gardens are places where we can connect (or re-connect), with what is relevant and meaningful to us.

We also help reverse the damage that our lifestyles and economic systems are inflicting on the earth. We can create valuable habitats for butterflies and bees by choosing the right plants. 

Our gardens are places of healing, connection, and nourishment. 

Until next time, enjoy and love your garden.