Have You Thought About Growing Your Own Produce?
By WALTRAUD UNGER
April 23, 2020
Zucchini and Zucchiniflowers growing on Waltraud's Tower Garden
Credits: Waltraud Unger
1 YOU CAN GROW YEAR-ROUND
Tower Gardens are a state-of-the-art vertical aeroponic growing system, allowing you to grow vegetables, herbs, and flowers in less time than it takes to grow in soil. Because they don’t require any soil you can grow plants anywhere. With the addition of sun-spectrum LED grow lights, it’s easy to have your garden indoors close to your kitchen or outside on the patio. Depending on the configuration you will be able to have up to 36 different plants at your fingertips. There is nothing better than picking fresh, beyond organic herbs right when you need them.
Health and transformation coach, Waltraud Unger, holding Swiss Chard harvested from her Tower Garden
Credits: Waltraud Unger
2. IT SAVES YOU MONEY QUICKLY
Have you ever gone produce shopping with the intention to prepare it within a few days and then had a change of plans? Days and weeks go by and you finally find a bag of wilted greens or rotten cauliflower hiding in the back of your refrigerator. Well, you are not alone! It’s not only costly to toss expensive produce, but it’s also aggravating to find a spoiled bag of herbs or produce when you finally want to use it
When I decided to buy my first Tower Garden, I saved enough money from buying expensive organic produce that my Tower Garden had paid for itself within six months. Now I not only get to eat fresh produce right off my tower, but I also save money.
Once the Tower Garden was paid for, I only needed to replace nutrients, seeds, and rock wool once or twice a year. The total yearly cost is less than my former monthly produce bill! I call the Tower Garden my “Giving Tree” as it keeps on giving me produce for next to nothing.
3. YOU CONTROL HOW YOUR PRODUCE IS GROWN AND HANDLED
I found that the plants in my Tower Garden are much healthier and stronger than the same plants in my organic garden beds. They also seem to be much less affected by bugs and diseases than their dirt growing siblings. There is hardly any need for pest or disease control. If I occasionally find some bugs on my plants, I can easily take them out of the towers and treat them organically without affecting the other plants. It gives me peace of mind that my family and I are the only ones handling the produce in my Tower Garden. I have full knowledge of who planted the seeds, cared for the plants, and harvested our food. I know exactly what came in contact with my food and what did not. I feel the same reassurance and comfort I did when growing up with my grandma’s vegetable garden right outside our kitchen door; this time just a little updated.
4. THE PRODUCE HAS MORE FLAVOR AND GROWS FASTER
I enjoy experimenting and often plant the same seeds in my Tower Garden as I do in my organic soil beds. The consensus from friends and family has been that the produce from my towers has more flavor than from my garden beds. It’s sad to admit, but true. All the hours and pain working the soil, pulling the weeds, and watering my crop doesn’t yield better produce.
The University of Mississippi did a scientific comparison of Tower Garden farming to conventional growing and found a much higher yield and more flavor in produce harvested from Tower Gardens. Check out this link to the research results. I can definitely agree with their findings.
5. IT USES LESS WATER THAN CONVENTIONAL OR ORGANIC FARMING
The Tower Garden is a closed system without soil. It uses aeroponic technology to deliver water and nutrients directly to the roots of the plants. There is hardly any evaporation or wasted water. Some tests at NASA show that you can save up to 98% of water with these towers. With water being such a precious resource, this is a wonderful ecological benefit as well as significant cost savings. Plus, it aligns with my sense of sustainable living!
If you are like me you will enjoy all the other cool and nerdy benefits of Tower Gardens. Check out these research-based benefits of growing your produce with a Tower Garden in this blog post.
6. KIDS EAT MORE PRODUCE IF THEY GROW IT THEMSELVES
Kids are naturally inquisitive and want to participate in whatever others are doing. Tower Gardens bring the farm to the child. They get to witness firsthand the life cycle of plants from planting seeds to growing healthy plants and harvesting food.
My children love to watch the seedlings grow and pick greens and herbs for their lunch sandwiches. They take on roles such as refilling the tank to care for the tower and harvest the plants we grow. In return, they can’t wait to eat their greens.
Waltraud Unger grew up learning from her mother and grandmother how to grow delicious organic food and embraced Tower Gardens a few years back when she struggled with growing her own organic produce on a shady suburban plot. Now she enjoys fresh and delicious produce all year long as she grows indoors as well as outdoors with her Tower Gardens.
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