Growing Food with my Tower Garden

I am so excited!  I have had my eye on a Tower Garden for a LONG time!  Probably for 2 years.  You see, I am terrible at keeping plants alive.  So much so, that I am actually surprised that I am good at keeping kids alive.  Gardening has never been my strong suit.  I am pretty sure I have a brown thumb.  So, you probably can see why a Tower Garden is so appealing to me!

What is a Tower Garden?

A Tower Garden is a vertical, aeroponic growing system, which allows you to grow up to 20 vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers in less than three square feet—indoors or out!  Yes, you can grown your food INSIDE!  They have these special growing lights you can use!  So, if you live in a cold and dark climate, grab yourself a Tower Garden and grow your food in the winter – indoors!  

This aeroponic system can grow food 3 times faster and produce 30% greater yields on average.  AND the Tower Garden uses 90% less water!  This is why my plants die.  I forget to water them.  The Tower Garden does it all.  I plant the plants in the little pods, fill the basin with water and nutrients, turn on the pump and BOOM, it starts watering.  

Curious how the Tower Garden works?  Check this out:

So cool, right?  Once I decided to finally bite the bullet I started obsessing about what I would plant.  How much lettuces?  How many herbs?  I have a smoothie every morning, so I need to be sure to get enough for those.  How much I get???  There are lots of website that offer this type of advice.  I knew to sure to get only the foods we eat.  Obviously.  The only foods you can't grow in a Tower Garden are root vegetables and trees!  So, my options were pretty much endless!  Of course I could start seedlings from the seeds that come with the Tower Garden.  Or, I could get seedlings that have already been started.  That sounded easier to me.

So, in the end, I decided to see what True Garden (a local seedling source here in Arizona) had available for me to plant!  Turns out, they had A LOT of options!  Woohoo!  I am growing a tomato plant – IN NOVEMBER!!!  

Anyway, after tips from a friend, I arranged my Tower Garden with heavy things on the bottom and tall things on the top.  This is what I came up with:

So, now that it is all set up, it is on a timer that turns the pump on and off every so often to keep water running through it.  Every week I check the water level and test the pH.  I haven't had to add any water as it is cooler and water isn't evaporating off like it does in warmer months.  When I add water, I will also add food.  So far these have been the EASIEST plants I have ever grown.  And they are growing FAST!  I will give you an update next week with the growth.  I can't wait to harvest some of the food!!!  

Here's how my tower garden first arrived:

Do you have a Tower Garden?  Do you love it?  What do you grow?  Any advice to offer me?  Let's hear it!

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