Garden Planning

How to Plan Your Perfect Tower Garden

Startup Stock Photos

Whether you’re starting your first Tower Garden or you're a Tower pro, it’s helpful to make a plan before you dig into planting. It simplifies things for you and will help your plants flourish for the best growing journey possible. 

 

1. Choose Your Location

Your Tower Garden has a few simple needs for growing your clean, nutritious produce:

  • Space You’ll need up to 3 square feet (0.28 m2) of space to house your Tower Garden. Consider allowing an extra foot (30.48 cm) all around the Tower so your plants can grow freely. If you’re growing indoors, check out these popular spots for an indoor Tower Garden, and make sure you have enough space for a mat under your Tower.
  • Light Most plants need 6–8 hours of full sun (outdoors) or, 14–16 hours under grow lights (indoors). If you grow outside in a location with intense summer heat, keep in mind your plants may appreciate a little afternoon shade.

Tower Tip: If only one side of your Tower Garden receives light, rotate it a quarter turn daily for balanced growth.

  • Water Since Tower Garden uses a solution of water and Mineral Blend, you’ll want to place your Tower where you can easily add clean water as needed. It’s best to not use softened, heavily chlorinated, or very hard water. 

Tower Tip: If you would like to naturally remove chlorine, fill a bucket with water and leave it out in full sun for 48 hours. Alternatively, add the water to your basin and turn the Tower Garden on for 48 hours before adding plants and Mineral Blend.

  • Electricity You’ll need electricity to power the pump (and LED Indoor Grow Lights if you’re growing indoors).

2. Select Your Plants

Think about what you currently use, or what you typically bring home from your favorite farmers market or store.

If you’re new to gardening (welcome!), these plants are a super-easy way to grow your confidence:

  • Leafy greens: arugula, chard, kale, lettuces, spinach
  • Herbs: basil, cilantro, dill, mint, parsley
  • Fruiting plants (many are best grown outdoors because they need pollinators): cucumbers, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, squash

3. Decide on Arrangement and Amount

You’ve got your location and your plant list. Now you can solidify your plan by deciding how many of each plant you’ll need to get started, and the best way to arrange them. Here are some handy guidelines for both. You can also download and fill out a handy planning worksheet to help you organize your Tower Garden.

Arrangement

It’s ideal to place small plants at the top and large or vining plants at the bottom of your Tower Garden, like this.

  • Top: Celery, chard, herbs, lettuces, flowers
  • Middle: Peppers, eggplant, beans, kale, collards, sugar snap peas, strawberries
  • Bottom: Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, all squash (four large or vine plants is the recommended max per Tower)

Quantity

If you’re growing with Tower Garden HOME, you can grow up to 32 plants at once (16 full size and 16 baby greens). If you’re growing with FLEX, you can start growing up to 20 full-size plants at once (or up to 24 full size and 16 baby greens if you also have the FLEX combo extension kit.

Here’s a suggested number of each type of seedling for an average family, although you might want (or need!) more or fewer of each:

O= Outdoor I= Indoor

  • Herbs: 1 of each (O, I)
  • Lettuces: 5-10 (O, I)
  • Bell Peppers: 1-2 (O)
  • Butternut Squash: 1 (O)
  • Aubergine: 1 (O)
  • Green Beans: 4+ (O)
  • Spaghetti Squash: 1 (O)
  • Sugar Snap Peas: 4+ (O)
  • Summer Squash: 1 (O)
  • Tomatoes: 1 (O)
  • Courgette: 1 (O)
  • Cucumbers 1 (O)

4. Check Your Supplies

The kit that arrived with your Tower Garden includes everything you need to get started!
Depending on what and where you’re planting, here are some additional accessories to consider:

If this isn't your first Tower Garden planting, double-check to make sure you have these items ready before planting:

Click here to download a PDF of the How to Plan Your Garden guide.

Garden Plant Guides and Seasonal Planning

Looking for more details about growing a particular plant in your Tower Garden? Get tips for growing a wide variety of plants. If you’re growing outdoors, you can also browse seasonal planning resources.

Join our growing community at

@towergardenofficial