Vertical Planter Garden and DIY Bench

May Updates: Vertical Planter Garden

I’m growing most of my garden in a GreenStalk vertical planter. I did a lot of research for what type of garden would work best in a patio with limited space. Since I don’t get a whole lot of direct sunlight in the afternoon, I decided a vertical planter with wheels would work best, so I can move it around as needed. You can read about how the GreenStalk’s watering system works here.

These pics are from May before I got more soil for the last 2 tiers. Bottom right: My Brandywine Pink tomato plant is doing so much better now that is has room to grow! The leaves kept falling off indoors because I was watering the plants so inconsistently (too much and too little).

The GreenStalk planter when I was unboxing it. The box it came in was huge, bigger than Mr. Gold! It came with extra goodies including a magazine, stickers and some parsley seeds 😁 I also ordered one of the plant supports for the bigger and vining plants like cucumbers and tomatoes. Bottom right pic: The watering disk at the top is where you’ll fill with water and each level pours water down to the levels below through a gray watering disk. 

When I first planted, I ran out of soil for the last 2 levels so I had 3 levels instead of the 5. You can see the plants that still needed to be potted up in the pics below. I’m not sure if I’ll keep all of them, I’m thinking of giving some away because I grew way too many jalapeño pepper plants. (They took so long to sprout so I planted extras just in case and now I have too many.) 

Top left: Mostly Jalapeño plants on the table. Top right: Zucchini plants for my parents. Since these are so big already I planted them in their own separate containers instead of the GreenStalk. Bottom left: My basil plants, bell pepper, broccoli, and a cucumber plant. Bottom right: My cherry tomato and Brandywine pink tomato plants. Most of the bottom leaves fell off on these. I’ve been struggling the most with these plants and hoping they do better outside like the one I already planted on the GreenStalk.

Plants from the garden center. I bought San Marzano tomatoes to make pizza sauce 😋 I also got Marigolds because they are good at deterring pests and attract bees to pollinate my cucumbers and tomatoes. They are also safe for cats, which is really important because there’s a few cats in my community that visit my garden regularly.

DIY Cinder Block Bench

I also made an inexpensive DIY plant bench with cinder blocks and a wood plank. This plank came with the house when I bought it and it was stacked on top the existing plank on the railing (where my strawberry plants are planted.) The cinder blocks were about $2 each so it cost me about $8 to make this bench. I also bought some decor and baskets at the thrift store to use in my garden - some baskets to plant flowers in and some racks to use as outdoor plant stands.

Top left: The baskets drying out after I washed them and sprayed them with top coat acrylic spray to protect them from the elements and sun. Top right: the zucchini plants and other plants as seen from inside the house. Mr Gold enjoys looking out the window and seeing all plants outside. This side of the patio is mostly in shade all day but it gets direct sunlight in the morning.

I still have some plants growing indoors, mostly herbs – cilantro, oregano and lettuce. I’m thinking of potting these in small tin buckets and 6” pots. One of my cherry tomato plants fell over so I trimmed it and added the stem into water and I’m hoping it will grow new roots and survive…  We’ll see how it goes. 🤞

You can see how the plant flopped over and was trying to grow back upwards. Instead of tossing it I decided to cut it and see if I can regrow new roots. I was worried that the long stem would be too weak to support the weight of the leaves and fruits later on.

I’ll make a separate post now that I have all 5 layers of the GreenStalk planted. I also have more plants in pots that I want to include after I finish setting them up outside.

How my garden was looking in May and early June. I’m thinking of putting the GreenStalk planter in the corner by the AC where the water hose is. The planters height and plant growth will add more privacy to my patio. Top row: you can see how much my strawberry plants have grown since I got the starter plants in April. I’ll need to repot the strawberry plant in the little black pot into a bigger container.