Garden Tower Project

Does anyone use a garden tower project? Is there a way to make a DIY one? We have one but would like to expand our urban patio garden but can not afford the high price tag.

I made this one last week as an experimental onion growing system.

I also grow zucchini and squash in a compost tower made from concrete reinforcing mesh lined with weed mat. It's 6ft across by 5ft high (it's primarily a soil building system) so not exactly a system for an urban patio.

Hi Rivière and welcome to permies!

This is a good, relevant question for urban gardeners. I did not know exactly what a "garden tower project" was and had to go search for images. I like the idea a lot, it efficiently allows you to grow some smaller productive plants that you like in a vertical space. What I didn't like so much, however, is the plastic. I don't think the world needs more plastic if it can be avoided for the application, so I was looking for something else, and also something DIY-able as you requested.

I found this DIY tower, for one. The finished product looks like this:



and the price (they list costs of all materials involved) seems to depend on the cost of cedar or another relatively rot-resistant wood in your area.

The website that the project lives on, Remove and Replace, also seems to be pretty interesting for permies!

I wonder about some design improvements too, though they would make it harder to build. If the soil trays were not completely flat, but tilted slightly towards one corner, like the earthen roof of a wofati, the water might have a place to go, so the wood would last longer and have less tendency to rot. And a big aircrete mold for one of these might last forever!

But anyway, maybe the project above is good for a start?

Dave, That design is lovely, though I have 2 reservations: first, is that the garden towers have a central worm composting tube, and the second is that the shallow soil trays (if I understand the photo correctly) will dry out fast. The just means extra fertilizer, and the second may only be an issue in drier climates. Still, something to consider.

One could theoretically design a form for a single tier that stacks. If everything planted in it will grow out or hang down, it doesn't need the successive upper tiers to be smaller.

What about a pagoda shape? Four or five tiers stacked. Or the individual tiers could be quarter-turned, for access and light.

-CK

So I know their website has an interactive planting guide but some of their suggestions have not worked out too well for me in the past. I am thinking of having one of my towers devoted to perennials like strawberries and herbs. Any suggestions on how to arrange this? The other tower I would like to have high yeilding nutrient dense veggies, probably mostly greens and succession planing them as tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins etc never did well in the tower for me. I think I will have 5 too 10 grow bags for these larger plants.