Customer Showcase # 55

About: I started with a 5-tier Medium Tower in July of this year to start a balcony garden for the kids and I to enjoy fresh produce year-round. I added a 5-tier Large Tower in August as my obsession and gardening plans grew!

Having never started a garden before, let alone a balcony hydroponic tower garden, I spend at least an hour a day reading to improve my knowledge. I’ve also learned a lot through trial and error over the last few months.

We have a south-facing apartment balcony that starts getting sunlight around midday, so I move the towers around to optimise the amount of sun the towers get over the afternoon.

Our first Sweet 100 Tomatoes and Spacemaster Cucumbers grown from seed should be ready for harvest over the next few weeks. As well as herbs and strawberries we are also growing lettuce, rocket, kale, spinach, mustard greens, snowpeas for salad leaves; as well radishes, beetroot, carrots, spring onions…. and more!

As I’m a geek, I’m currently converting a Google Sheets spreadsheet into an Airtable database, to help predict and record germination, maturity and harvest dates, as well as help with succession planting across the two towers.

My tips for new growers:

1. If you have younger kids, while they enjoy planting seeds, they can get impatient waiting for the plants to get established. Plant a mix of well-established seedlings and seeds in the tower(s) to begin so the kids can get instant gratification and then still have the excitement of checking for new seedlings every day.

2. Invest in a heat mat, seedling tray and grow light to help propagate seedlings indoors, especially in winter months. This can also help with your succession planting.

3. Expect to become obsessed with your Mr Stacky garden!