Vertical Garden Tower and Composter for Indoor/Outdoors Growing

We love the plant tower concept for saving space and extending the growing season. Plant towers can be used indoors with grow lights in winter, and are great for balconies, decks or patios for summer.

Some of the best things to grow in a plant tower are herbs, microgreens and salad greens for year-round fresh greens. A grow tower right outside your kitchen makes it super easy to regularly cook with fresh herbs.

There are a number of plant tower options that help you maximize growing ability in a small space. Some are stackable, some include a composting core that’s an ecological nutrient recycling system. 

A plant tower provides the most plants in the smallest space.

Problems with Plant Towers

We’ve experimented with another type of plant tower and have some important tips on that. We ordered the Nancy Susan 3 tier to try indoors in late winter for growing microgreens.

The challenge in plant towers is how their height casts shadows on the side away from the window. You can read more about our experience with that in this article on garden planters.

So if you’re going to do well with indoor towers, you’ll probably need a large overhead grow light. It will probably work fine to have a grow light that catches the side of the tower away from the window, though you still may need to rotate the planter to provide more even growth. 

Plant towers may need to be turned for more even exposure to sunlight. 

Plant Towers: Pricey… but Worth it?

We’ve figured that for our family, a grow tower will pay for itself in about four months by savings in grocery purchases. As vegetarians, we eat lots of fresh organic veggies, and especially salads, and of course the store bought organics are always more expensive. After that… it’s all positive net savings.

You can get a smaller, less expensive plant tower, such as the stackable 3-9 tier variety, or pay more for plant towers that include a composting core. The composting cores are designed to be a complete plant eco-system for kitchen scraps, plant nutrients, compost tea and even vermiculture.

So while the Garden Tower with the composting core is a bigger investment up front, it could pay for itself in just a few months savings on groceries and fertilizers. Or, you could invest less and simply keep your composting bins separate.

If you’re good with building things, you can create your own! Some in the Gardens All community have already done that successfully, and we’ve included some how-to videos below.

Planters in Use by Gardens All Facebook Community Member

Using Plant Towers in the Garden

And, here’s the comment and photos from a GardensAll Facebook community member, Lynda Reynolds, followed by photos of hers in use in her garden, beginning with the top image of this article:

“I have 2 plant towers… version one and then two. I love them and plan on getting two more. Even though I have 16, 4X16 raised beds (!… go Lynda!!) the towers are fun and very productive.”

Growing Strawberries in Plant Towers

I leave my strawberries in my Tower every year for the last 5 years and they keep coming back and they have good strawberries on them. I did replace 6 old plants for new ones this year and they’re blooming now with strawberries on them.
~Georgia Bass Netherland

All Plant Towers

Plant Tower PROS

• Grow more food in less space
• Easier to harvest the freshest, most nutritious veggies, fruits, & herbs
• Easier access – like raised planters
• Having a ‘garden’ in places it wasn’t possible before
• Better success, reduced water use, and longer growing seasons
• Reduces grocery bill
• Easier accessible gardening for:
  • balconies & patios
  • limited space
  • limited mobility
  • handicapped and senior
  • fun and educational for children

Plant Tower CONS

• Uneven access to the sun due to the tower height
• Planting is harder given all sections versus in simple rows as with raised beds
• Limited growing per slot
• Hard to clean out and change/refresh soil

Garden Tower Pros and Cons

The Garden Tower Project Composting Tower PROS

1. Growing 50 plants in just 4 square feet of space
2. Uses food scraps to power the integrated core vermi-composting nutrient delivery system
3. Avoiding herbicides, pesticides, and other contaminants
4. Reduces grocery bill, food waste, and trash!

The Garden Tower Project Composting Tower CONS

1. More expensive than standard vertical planters
2. Additional mess that’s hard to clean up with the composting core
3. Bigger, bulkier and heavier than most plant towers
4. Harder to move around

For the flat-bottomed plant towers, you can use heavy duty plant dollies to both elevate the tower further while making it easier to move around.

Grow towers are fantastic fun for children. If you eat a lot of salads like we do, garden towers work great as salad towers for daily clippings of the freshest possible greens. 

This ingenious Vertical Composting Garden Tower — now called ‘Garden Tower Project’ started as a highly successful Kickstarter campaign that was fully funded in just 33 minutes!! Wow! Looks like confirmation of a good idea!

Are you handy with your hands and tools? If so, you may prefer to make one than buy one. We have info and videos on how-to build your own on as you scroll down in this article.

You can get the Garden Tower Project 2 from Amazon, or direct from the company.

Here’s How it Works…

If you’re a handy DIYer, keep reading to see how this composting plant tower works and then how to build your own!

In this first video, John Kohler from GrowingYourGreens.com, shows us how to assemble the Garden Tower. In it he covers how to make a nutritious potting soil for your plants, fill and plant out the Garden Tower plus add red wiggler composting worms.

As you can see, he’s growing mostly salad greens, such as arugula, spinach and lettuce in his plant tower.

How to Assemble the Garden Tower Planter

The Vertical, Composting 50 Plant Patio Farm

by Garden Tower Project

This animation demonstrates how the Garden Tower works and what it’s capable of offering. Find out more at Grow Tower Project.

Build Your Own Plant Tower

If you want to try building your own – Check out the videos below. We’ve had several members of the GardensAll Facebook group share photos of the plant towers they created out of 55 gallon drums.

Around the Home: #2 Making a Garden Barrel

Showing the technique used for the thick walled barrel.

Building a Grow Tower (part 1)

By The Self Sufficient Life

Part 2 – Homemade Grow Tower

Here’s another article on vertical garden ideas growing that may interest you.

Please send us your plant tower photos and experiences and we’ll add the here.

Let’s keep on growing!