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It’s garden time here at the Savingsinseconds house! Now that spring is in full force, I am in the garden almost every free moment. I try to plant something daily — whether it’s seeds, bulbs, or starts. It’s fun and rewarding. This morning one of my zucchini seeds was just barely visible in the pot where it was planted….by evening, it was an inch tall. Crazy! I have something growing in every space I can find.

I’ve been home more this year, so it’s been easier to do succession plantings. The green container on the left was harvested just last week and is already grown back enough for a big salad. The blue pot in the corner was planted 3 weeks ago, and the green pot on the bottom right corner was planted with lettuce seeds 2 weeks ago. It’s such a treat to go out and cut a fresh salad for lunch or supper.

When we moved to our new house last summer, there was a lot of space but no ready-made vegetable garden. I knew I would want a place to grow greens right away this spring. My gift to myself was the Garden Tower 2 . This vertical gardening system combines the best of both my gardening worlds — growing plants and worm composting. I learned how to use worms for composting during quarantine. The castings are like gold in my garden! The Garden Tower 2 has a tube built in so that worms can travel through the tower and naturally fertilize the plants. I love that kitchen and yard scraps don’t have to go in the trash.

The Garden Tower was simple to put together, once I hauled the heavy box to the backyard. It’s all perfectly snug in this box, and comes with easy-to-follow instructions. I suggest moving it to the place where you plan to set it up and waiting to fill it with soil until you’re sure it’s going to be the permanent spot…it is not easy to move once it’s set up!

I was able to assemble it myself in under 30 minutes. Be sure you read the directions first because there are some handy tips (such as how to secure the composting tower with zip-ties). I used leftover 2020 seeds to plant the lower levels; the top 2 levels were left empty in anticipation of getting some broccoli starts from the garden center.

Here are the seeds I planted, with links if I could find them.

From Baker Creek: Buttercrunch lettuce, Parris Island Cos lettuce, Corn Salad, Suzhou Baby bok choy, Hedou Tiny bok choy, Purple Lady bok choy, Mizuna, Monstreux De Viroflay spinach, Five Color Silverbeet swiss chard, Bionda Di Lyon swiss chard, Yod Fah Chinese broccoli, Calabrese green sprouting broccoli, Rocky Top lettuce salad blend, Emily basil.

From Seed Needs: Tom Thumb lettuce, Bronze Mignotette lettuce, White Boston Lettuce. They are not currently open; however, you can order their seeds on Amazon. I could not find these particular varieties, but they do have other lettuce options.

Ferry-Morse Grand Rapids lettuce and Black Seeded Simpson organic lettuce.

From Botanical Interests: Premier blend kale (during June 2021, use code JUNESEEDS to get 20% off your purchase)

From Sweet Yards: Tom Thumb lettuce, Bloomsdale spinach.

Some of the pockets have duplicate seeds, and as I mentioned, the top levels being planted with nursery starts. As you can see, the Garden Tower holds a LOT of plants!

Here it is on March 20:

This was taken April 15. Look at those seeds — baby greens are so delicious! Remember, the top levels are nursery starts.

April 25 — just 10 days later!

On April 27 we had our first salad. I use scissors to clip the greens. They grow back in just a few days! The Garden Tower 2 has enough plant space to keep plenty of salad greens growing; you can cut just a few and save the rest for later in the week. This was a BIG salad bowl — enough for 5 servings.

May 1:

May 16: The baby bok choy was bolting because of the recent heat, so I took it out and planted in some container zucchini (Astia variety from Renee’s Garden.) I’m not sure how it will do in the tower, but it was worth a try.

I am thrilled with how the Garden Tower 2 allows my plants to grow in such a small footprint. The only drawback for me — it is quite expensive. I plan to buy one per year (or maybe every 2 years) so that I can build up to a nice vertical garden plot. The Garden Tower is pricey, but it’s truly of amazing quality. It’s going to be durable enough for years of use; I expect to use it for at least 20-30 years (and hopefully more!) Divided over time, the cost really boils down to a few dollars per year. To me, that initial investment is worth it because it offers the opportunity to grow delicious food at home. As I get older, I really appreciate the ease of container gardening. No weeding, no tilling, little watering, and all my plants in one space…it’s worth a few extra dollars. Today as I bought yet more potting soil, I commented to my husband that my gardening habit is getting expensive. For me, gardening is not really a money-saver, although you could argue that the food doesn’t have to be purchased. He replied that no, it doesn’t save money, but it’s worth it since I enjoy it so much….and everyone in the family benefits from it at some point. *Smart man.*

Of course, I still have my Earthbox containers going strong. I’m up to 8 Earthboxes now. We bought our first one in 1999, I think. Still works great and gives me an abundance of tomatoes every year! Here are 6 of them in a temporary spot — I might have to move them as the plants grow.

I also have 4 raised beds, but not really happy with them. I ordered 3 of them from Sam’s Club, and they are terrible. On one, the corner broke when I tried to straighten it. The 4th one is plastic (bought it at a yard sale for $5) and barely tall enough to hold soil for lettuce. I want to get some sturdier, more permanent beds in place over time. The raised beds will be a gradual project as we have time and money to build some. These junk beds will have to do for now! I’ll take some pictures of those next time.

So that’s what I’ve been up to! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying some “normal” days again. I’ll be back soon with more giveaways!