My Latest Healthy Obsession – My Tower Garden

Although this has nothing to do with Esthetics or Beauty, I cannot resist writing about my latest obsession, my TowerGarden. Gardening is always something that I desperately WANT to do every summer but have a difficult time finding the actual time to get it accomplished. Between the tilling and weeding and planting and watering and feeding, well, it’s like having another child or a new pet. As a gal with 3 kids and a thriving business, finding the time to do this has simply been impossible the last few years.

I said to my husband at the beginning of this summer “I wish there was a garden that I didn’t have to weed, water or till to create it” and he told me there was a gal in one of his network groups that sold just such a thing. So we set off to see her TowerGardens (she actually has 3 beautiful ones on her deck). Well needless to say, I was amazed. These gorgeous standing gardens self-feed and water themselves (they literally have timers that turn it all on and off by command) and create amazing organic gardens out of the reach of most critters and with no messy soil or weeding. This was certainly the answer.

How Does It Work?

It’s truly an amazing planting system. It works Aeroponically. It pushes food, air and water through the roots of the plants by forcing the liquid and air up through the top and drizzling the water through the hanging roots of your plants. I’m not doing the explanation justice, so check out this video:

How The TowerGarden Is Better For You And The Environment

After investigating the system thoroughly I found out that it’s actually growing produce that is healthier to eat and less taxing on the environment. For example, the repeated use of ground soil, even with organic gardening, is depleting the nutrients in our food. Scientific American says “Modern intensive agricultural methods have stripped increasing amounts of nutrients from the soil in which the food we eat grows. Sadly, each successive generation of fast-growing, pest-resistant carrot (produce) is truly less good for you than the one before.” The advantage of the TowerGarden is that you supply your produce with rich nutrients as part of the growing process, and because it’s grown Aeroponically, you never run out of nutrient rich food for your plants. More and more farmers are beginning to grow plants this way too because there are significant benefits including:

• The plants grow healthier and much faster than plants in soil
• It uses less than 10% of the water and landed needed to grow traditional plants
• It generates 30% more produce than through traditional methods
• The cost to produce your fruits and vegetables is significantly lower
• The system is easy to maintain
• It can actually come indoors in the winter and you can continue your garden regardless of season!
• Studies show that children that help with a garden actually eat a greater variety of fruits and vegetables

What Can You Grow In The TowerGarden?

I think the better question on this is what CAN’T you grow in the TowerGarden. Really the only things you can’t grow in it are root vegetables and tree fruits, the rest is available. For a complete list of things you can grow, check it out at the TowerGarden website.

How Is My Garden Growing?

On Father’s Day we finally found the time to assemble and begin our own TowerGarden project. So now we are just a few weeks into the process. I purchased some pre-started Strawberry plants and a bunch of seeds for other growing the week we ordered our TowerGarden. I thought it would be interesting to plant some of the strawberries in a pot so we could do a side-by-side of the TowerGarden plants versus the traditional ones. Here’s where we are so far.

Week One

Planted strawberries in pot and in TowerGarden, planted seeds in the provided seed growing system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Days In – Progress Report

Just 10 days in we were able to transfer most of the seedlings into the TowerGarden, the strawberries were growing extremely well already.

 

 

 

 

 

Just 2 Weeks After Father’s Day

I can’t stop looking at the TowerGarden, I cannot believe how quickly everything is growing. We already have flower blossoms on the strawberry plants and the potted strawberries are not nearly as healthy as the TowerGarden plants!

 

 

4 Week Progress

The TowerGarden is growing like CRAZY! I have all kinds of actual strawberries growing, the lettuce is nearly ready to harvest, the tomatoes and cucumbers and green beans are branching out toward the tomato cage. We decided to try to grow artichokes even though this is not the proper climate for them and they seem to be growing fantastically!

Final assessment: This thing is amazing, I can’t wait to pluck my first fruit/vegetables from it and eat them with my family! If you want more information about it, I have a wonderful rep and I can put you in touch with her!

Sources:

http://www.towergarden.com/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss/

http://www.citylab.com/tech/2013/10/computer-assisted-aeroponic-growing-future-urban-farming/7207/