Jared & Jennifer planting in their GreenStalk Garden planter system. Photo by J&J
It has long been a secret of small gardens that to get the most out of your space you should grow vertically. But before you start thinking that means only peas, beans and cucumbers – stay with me a moment.
It doesn’t matter whether you have an apartment or dozens of acres to grow on we can all benefit from growing vertically. If it grows up you save floor space, be it on the patio, deck or even in a raised bed. Going up means more food and plants in the same amount of floor space.
But what if you don’t want just peas and beans or vine plants like tomatoes and cucumbers. Can you still grow vertically?
A Whole Garden, Vertically
Certainly you can. One great option is to use the GreenStalk Garden which lets you plant all sorts of things, from onions and lettuces to flower and herbs in a small 2′ x 2′ footprint.
This planter has 6 deep pockets in each level. You can buy it in either 3, 4 or 5 levels. These deep pockets give your plant a much better root growing area to help ensure that the plant is healthy and provides you with a bountiful crop. How deep? Carrot deep. Yes, carrots growing vertically right there on your back deck. How awesome is that!
We planted ours with a whole lot of things: low-growing peas at the bottom, lettuces, onions, borage, cosmos, strawberries, pineberry, lavender, parsley, thyme and more. A whole garden worth of crops in a 2′ x 2′ area. Crazy!
We went with a 5 level system – because we have 7 people in our family and because we want to grow a lot of different things. We also were sure to get the spinning base so that we could put the planter in a corner and easily access all the veggies and fruit with a simple turn.
The 5 level system takes just about 4.5 cubic feet of material. So, if you are buying your potting soil from a garden center just get 3 bags of the 1.5 cubic feet bags and you’ll be just fine.
Built-in Water Irrigation
But what about water? That’s the next best part… this planter is its own drip irrigation system!
You pour the water in the top basin and the water flows to distribution shelves at each level. From there the water slowly drips into your soil.
If you leave yours out in the rain… no problem! Each level has good sized drainage holes so the whole system can drain well and make sure you soil doesn’t get too wet at all.
Bonus Tip
And here’s a bonus tip: With so much root growing area and with really good drainage holes between each level – toss in a few worms! We did, right in the bottom level! We hope the worms will leave behind their coveted nutrient rich manure (worm castings) and work their way up the system over the season.
You can’t go wrong with the GreenStalk Garden – you surely have a place where you can use it whether you want to grow a large display of bee-friendly flowers or a whole garden full of food. Make the most use of your space and grow up!
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Hello, you mentioned you had a good harvest on your English peas and I would like to know what variety you planted. I got discouraged years ago with my English peas being such a scant production and would like to try the variety that did well for you.
Thank you for your commitment to continuing to post quality instructional videos!
Hello Carlota, in this video we grew a variety called Little Marvel. It doesn’t climb very high. Out in our regular garden we grew Maxigolt and Peneolope. They also don’t climb high, but the pods were larger and produced many more peas per plant.