A Tower Garden is an aeroponic growing system. Using just water and a nutrient called Tower Tonic (no soil), a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs can be grown outdoors. Indoors it’s best to grow lettuces and herbs. Here’s why…
Growing on a Tower Garden gives your students the opportunity to plant the seeds, watch them sprout, and take care of the seedlings until they’re placed into the Tower Garden. Once in the Tower Garden, the weekly maintenance is all it takes to complete the growing cycle. While they’re growing, your students will get excited about coming to class on Mondays to see the plant growth over the weekend.
A broad range of curriculum is available to help you in your classroom.
Once plants have matured, your students will be able to harvest and eat what they’ve grown right in their own classroom. I had a teacher tell me her students would eat lettuce they grew on a Tower Garden even though they wouldn’t touch the lettuce on their food tray. It’s true that if kids grow it, they’ll eat it.
The Tower Garden requires electricity nearby to run the pump and the lights. It also requires a water source that isn’t softened. I’ve had good success with un-softened city water. The water source doesn’t need to be close by. I’ve rolled the Tower Garden to a utility sink for the first filling, then had kids I’m working with use a watering can to carry the water each week. Depending on the size of the plants, it usually takes 2 – 4 gallons a week to refill the Tower Garden. Read Weekly Maintenance.