Transforming Your Spare Room With a Vertical Vegetable Garden

Create a Personal Produce Section in Your Own Home

One of the best parts about growing your food in a vertical vegetable garden is having the ability to home a variety of different plants indoors AND outdoors. One of our Garden Tower® users, Neopeasant, turned their spare room into a beautiful indoor garden. We were so inspired by their story that we wanted to give some additional tips and tricks to those looking to us their Tower indoors.

Why You Should Grow Your Own Food

Save Money While Taking Control of Your Diet 

There are a few main reasons why many people want to grow their own food:

• Saving Money: Gardening is a great investment, as our Tower and LED lights last for years. This means that for years to come, you’ll be making fewer trips to the grocery store and buying less produce. People tend to waste less food when they grow it themselves, so you’ll cut costs this way, too.
• Having Control: Want to grow organic? When you sow the seeds and monitor plant health, you have complete control over the environment it’s grown in. Plus, you can pick herbs and veggies during peak ripeness and there’s no guessing about where your food comes from.
• Better Quality Produce: When you’re growing your own food, this gives you access to tastier, more nutritionally dense foods that are more convenient, too. This allows you to stay healthy while not taking much time out of your day.
• It’s Just Plain Fun: Let’s be real—gardening is fun! Many people simply take pride in tending to a garden of their own. Plus, gardening has also been known to help improve mental health.

No matter who you are, there’s a reason for everyone to try their hand at growing their own herbs and vegetables.

Understanding Indoor Growing Requirements

Give Your Vertical Vegetable Garden the Right Environment

When growing indoors, properly managing your room’s conditions is key to your garden’s success. The three biggest things that we stress are lighting, temperature, and moisture. Because your Tower is indoors, it obviously won’t receive as much sunlight as it typically would outside. Additionally, if it’s winter, it will receive even less light than before due to the sun’s light not being as strong. This is where our lighting kit comes in handy—giving 90 degrees of high-quality, flicker-free light, you don’t have to sacrifice your comfort for your plants to have the perfect amount of light.

Your gardening room also needs to be at the correct temperature—if you’re growing in an extremely hot or cold climate, it’s especially crucial to your plant’s health that temperatures are monitored and kept stable. Additionally, keeping an eye on moisture will keep your compost and plants healthy. Neopeasant recommends placing a fan in the room you’re growing in for moisture control, as not having a breeze can make humidity levels spike. With too much humidity, fungal infections can run rampant in your Tower, and if left untreated, this can lead to plant death. The good news is that fungal infection symptoms are unique, making diagnosing easier. Typically, plants suffering from fungi have their older leaves damaged first. As long as you’re on top of your room conditions, though, your plants will be happy and healthy all season long.

Taking Care of Worms and Managing Vermicompost in Your Vertical Vegetable Garden

Elevate Your Indoor Garden With Nutrients From Vermicomposting

Managing your vermicompost indoors isn’t much different than maintaining it outdoors, however it will require some extra attention and TLC. A common concern that many beginner composters have is the potential for smells and pests. With proper care and ratios, though, your compost should simply smell like soil. Using 3 to 4 parts browns to 1 part greens is a great way to keep the anaerobic smell and pests away. This is because many pests are attracted to wet compost—try also keeping a few handfuls of browns on top or covering the top of the column with a nylon stocking to keep pests such as fruit flies away from your compost. 

Additionally, regularly aerating your compost will help manage moisture as well. This process isn’t difficult once you get the hang of it—just give it some time and always do your research! If you’d prefer to opt-out of the composting benefits of your Tower, however, you can always fill up the tube with potting soil mix and a bit of slow-release fertilizer, too.

The best part about growing your own food is that with the right materials, everyone can do it. Ready to transform your boring spare room into your own personal produce section? Visit Garden Tower Project today to learn more about our Garden Tower® and the best tips and tricks to keep your plants healthy.