First Crops Planted in our Garden Tower

Yesterday afternoon we planted our first crops in our Garden Tower.  It took me a while to research and decide what to plant in the Tower for June since June is not a huge planting month.  I went with some starter plants to start with.  Hopefully something will work out.  If nothing else, I'm sure my herbs will do fine.  I also bought some seeds today and will plant a few of those soon.  I bought organic, GMO-free plants and seeds.  I found a local store where you can buy seeds in bulk for a fraction of the cost of starter plants.  My start plants cost $2.95-$3.49 each.  I spent $28.32 for the crops listed below.  At my local feed and grain store I spent $5.65 for 6 different varieties of seeds.  In the future I'm going to start with just the seeds. 

One thing I'm learning about gardening is that it takes time.  In God's time we'll have food.  Watching our garden grow has been a great listen on patience for Blue Rock.  I included the maturity time for each plant.  It seems like the average time for most crops to grow is about 2 months.  If we were having to grow food for our survival we would really need to be on top of this and constantly plant something new after harvesting another one. Also the bigger the crop, the longer it takes to grow.  Cantaloupe, watermelon, and pumpkins take the longest.

Zucchini Black Beauty: Maturity 48 days after planting (fruit size 2"x8" long)
Cucumber: Maturity 50-60 days after planting (fruit size 8-10" long)
Green Okra Clemson Spineless: Maturity 50-64 days (fruit size 3" long)
Cantaloupe: We planted this on top of our tower: Maturity 85 days (fruit size 3-5 lbs)
Sweet Basil: can harvest now
Peppermint: can harvest now
Oregano: can harvest now

Watermelon Crimson Sweet: Maturity 80 days after planting (20 lbs) - we planted this in it's own large container

Here are the seeds I purchased this afternoon.  Some I will plant now, some we'll wait until early Fall.  These came from bulk bins and the price was for a scoop of seeds.  The scoop is about the size of 1-2 Tbs.  The salesclerk helping me put in a heaping scoop of each seed in each bag.  He said to put them in the freezer and they'll last for years.

Oregon Sugar Pod Pea: Maturity 65 days - $.60

Sugar Snap Pea: Maturity 70 days- $.50

Buttercrunch Lettuce: 55 Days $1

Paris Island Romaine Lettuce: Maturity 66 days - $1

Danvers Half Long Carrot: Maturity 73 days - 1.75

Detriot Dark Red Beet: Maturity 59 days - $.80

I also bought two kinds of pumpkin seeds which are not listed in the prices above.  They both take 100 days to reach maturity.  These I will most likely plant in the ground or a large container.  I got a large variety for carving and a small variety for painting.  I think Blue Rock will enjoy helping us harvest the pumpkins and carving and decorating them this Fall.

All of our plants right now are in containers.  We are trying to decide where to start our in ground garden.  We have a lovely sprinkler system that we don't want to damage so that's why we haven't broken ground on our in ground garden yet.

Planting starter plants in the Garden Tower was very easy.  We took a shovel and scooped our some of the soil and then placed the plant inside, then placed soil back around the plant. 

If you're interested in buying a Garden Tower, you can order one here. 

Blue Rock helping set out our starter plants