Transforming a Desert Yard Into an Urban Garden Oasis With the Garden Tower® 2 Planting System
Instagram Influencer Mazeratie’s Experience With Indoor Gardening and the Garden Tower® 2 System
For Mazeratie, pursuing a vegan lifestyle meant transforming more than just her diet — it also meant opening herself up to a new world of possibilities for nutrition, cooking, and sustainability.
Mazeratie, or @msweet185 as she’s known online, is a Phoenix-based blogger, Instagram influencer, and gardening enthusiast who makes her living writing about her passions — the vegan lifestyle, beauty, fitness, travel, haircare, and cooking. Recently, she added a new topic to her repertoire: sustainable gardening with her Garden Tower® 2 vertical planting system.
Mazeratie’s Journey to a Healthier Lifestyle
Mazeratie’s tower lives in her backyard, bringing a pop of bright colors and fresh scents to her urban apartment. As a longtime vegan, Mazeratie is committed to healthy, delicious eating. Now, the Garden Tower® 2 planting is the next step in her journey.
“I’m a veteran dieter with low carb and fasting being my specialties,” Mazeratie told the Garden Tower® 2 system team. “On what felt like my 3 billionth time losing the same weight on the same diet and feeling like crap the whole time, preparing tray after tray of increasingly huge chicken breasts and constantly googling carb counts I just kind of…snapped.”
In preparation for a friend’s wedding in Mexico, Mazeratie tried out another diet that left her feeling frustrated, disappointed, and caged in by her limited dietary options. Eventually, she knew it was time to try something new — something that made her happy, rather than agonizing over calories and restrictions.
Switching to Veganism
“I didn’t want to continue to struggle with my internal debate over eating what I knew was healthy,” she explained, pointing out that on certain popular diets, people trying to lose weight aren’t supposed to eat sugary fruits like apples, but fatty bacon is somehow okay. Instead of counting carbs and calories, Mazeratie decided to try out Pescatarianism on her trip, cutting out red meat and other proteins and replacing them with fish, with the intention of switching to veganism upon her return to the States.
“Immediately I felt relief,” she said. “That night the rehearsal dinner was at a Brazilian Steak House and I wasn’t in the least bit tempted to eat meat. The next day we rented a car to do some exploring… That afternoon, I ordered my first completely vegan meal in a tiny organic restaurant and it felt right. Three days later, when I returned home, I went through the fridge bagging up stuff to give away and throwing away others in preparation for my first vegan grocery haul. I haven’t looked back since.”
Mazeratie’s switch to veganism meant more fresh fruits and veggies, and a change to recipes and a lifestyle that she wasn’t familiar with.
“When I made the decision to become vegan I first went online to look for inspiration and advice,” she said. “And while I did find some amazing resources, I didn’t see many faces that looked like mine or lifestyles that I felt I could relate to. So I started my Instagram, and later my blog, with the goal of teaching people about veganism, being a living example for the lifestyle, showing that being vegan doesn’t mean dismantling your life or resigning yourself to boring food, and helping more people feel included and accepted in the movement.”
Now, Mazeratie has incorporated the Garden Tower® 2 into her lifestyle, and plans to use it to teach her subscribers how fresh produce can transform a vegan lifestyle.
Incorporating the Garden Tower® 2 System Into Your Lifestyle
“I love fresh produce, but one of my biggest pet peeves is food waste,” she says. “I regularly find that despite my best efforts, there is some spinach or cilantro or other fresh fruit/veg that’s spoiled because I didn’t get to it in time. So, growing my own with the Garden Tower® 2 vertical planting system is saving me money and eliminating food waste immediately. I also find that, as I grow more, I purchase less which saves me money in the long run. And, best of all, I feel more connected to my food. I know exactly how it was grown, exactly where it came from, what was or wasn’t used and I never have to read food recall alerts.”
And she knows that the Garden Tower® 2 vertical planting system can have equally transformative results for her readers, many of whom live in “food deserts,” the term used for areas where the only immediate access to food is through convenience stores and other quick-fix food options. For many people who live in cities or certain rural areas, getting to a grocery store for fresh produce can be costly, time-consuming, and difficult.
“Many people reach for whatever is closest when they’re hungry and the result is nutrition that’s not as stellar as it could be,” says Mazeratie. “By having access to fresh, homegrown fruit and veg whenever you want, you’re more likely to increase your consumption and, as a result, improve your health.”
She acknowledges that a Garden Tower® 2 vertical planting system can be expensive to start, but the results are well worth it. “While the towers can represent a big up front cost, the produce you grow can help offset costs – produce in food deserts tends to be very expensive – and getting involved in growing your own food gets you more excited to eat it. The towers also help improve your gardening skills, increase yield (yay – veggies to share!) and minimize water and materials needed to get growing.”
Mazeratie also wants her readers to know that living a healthier lifestyle is easier than it might look.
“It’s more accessible than you think!” she says. “I want people to understand that healthier living is not unobtainable. It may feel overwhelming, but when you start working on small, incremental changes day by day they all add up. It also doesn’t mean you eat bland, boring food, or you never have any fun. One of the biggest misconceptions I regularly hear is that vegans ‘don’t care’ about food and nothing could be further from the truth. Vegans are not one homogenous group. Outside of the ‘no animal products’ there are no other rules. Not liking avocado doesn’t mean you can’t be vegan, it just means there’ll be more avocados for me. Yum!”
“My next step is making sure we cross the finish line with actual edible vegetables intact!” she says. “After that, I’m really hoping to experiment with a few new crops, get more into composting, and find other ways to make my lifestyle more sustainable. In the meantime, I’m working on some new recipes that I’ll be able to create with my homegrown produce!”
When it comes down to it, the Garden Tower® 2 planting system has offered Mazeratie an excellent new way to incorporate fresh, sustainable food into her diet, and she’s excited for the opportunities it presents. For people who live in dense cities with little room for a full garden, or areas where grocery stores and fresh produce are far away, a well-stocked Garden Tower® 2 vertical gardening system can bridge the gap between the food desert and healthy eating.
How can sustainable produce transform YOUR lifestyle?
Bio
Mazeratie (@msweet185) is a Phoenix-based blogger and plant enthusiast living & writing about her vegan lifestyle — from beauty, fitness and travel to recipes, natural hair care & more. To follow Mazeratie’s journey, subscribe to her channels on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube, and follow her adventures on This is Not A Blog, her online resource for vegan beauty, travel, recipes, inspiration, and more!