Garden Tower 2 Review: Is It Good For A Small Indoor Garden?

Easy to grow a lot of organic veggies and salad greens in small places. Self-contained design handles composting. Just put in kitchen scraps and worms will do the rest. You can grow flowers among edible plants. Ideal for patios and condos and great for any age.

My Garden Tower 2 review covers this Starter Bundle from Garden Tower Project. The Garden Tower 2 lets you organically grow 50 plants in only 4 square feet for at least 12 years.

Recently named the “World’s Most Advanced Container Garden”, its design conserves water and maximizes soil nutrition. 

This rotating tower has six stackable levels and a composting core.

The Garden Tower product line is the only self-contained growing system with this latter feature, which is great for a garden in a small space because it contains the compost’s smell. You can also easily grow herbs including mint, garlic (and also garlic cloves!) , cilantro​​​​ as well as veggies such as brussel sprouts and even potatoes!

When I’ve had sore muscles from gardening, I often wished I would have had the ergonomic Garden Tower 2.

The strong ball bearing near its base makes the tower easy to rotate with one hand. This also allows you to use it in a tight space and control how much sunlight each plant receives. 

Note: You can also get it on wheels with the Move and Grow Bundle, although it’s more expensive and doesn’t come with starter supplies.

If you’re willing to spend a lot more money, you can get the Garden Tower 2 Deluxe Bundle, which comes with wheels and starter supplies.

What Is The Garden Tower 2 Made Of?

The 36-pound Garden Tower 2 is made of durable and food-grade HDPE, which is free of toxic ingredients like BPA and PVC. This plastic is recyclable, UV-resistant, and made in the U.S.A. Even the dye is FDA-approved, so you can enjoy your veggies worry-free.

What Are The Dimensions Of the Garden Tower 2?

The Garden Tower 2 stands 43-inches in height and is 25-inches wide. 

What Else Comes In The Garden Tower 2 Starter Bundle?

GTP’s Starter Bundle also comes with:

• Organic, all-purpose fertilizer by Dr. Earth
• 50 reusable plant markers
• 2 soil moisture indicators
• A seed-starting greenhouse with 72 cells
• Expanding soil pellets for seed-starting
• A $20 gift certificate for Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds (for more gift ideas, check out my gift roundup for gardeners who have everything)
• Discounted shipping

If you plan to use it indoors for your indoor garden, check out this LED grow light kit.

PROS

• Composting core turns food scraps into fertilizer
• Insulated design conserves moisture and extends growing season
• Turns easily
• Plastic is durable and non-toxic
• The Starter Bundle comes with everything you need to get started

CONS

• Bundle is more expensive than just buying the tower
• Plants have to be small enough to fit in the tower’s pockets
• Bad option for vining plants

The Story Behind Garden Tower Project

Garden Tower Project dreams of a world in which people everywhere grow their own organic food.

Based in Indiana, the small company began after founder Colin Cudmore learned about America’s numerous “food deserts” — areas where people lack access to fresh food. 

Starting in 2010, he and his business partner Joel Grant designed three generations of composting, water-efficient Garden Towers. 

The original Garden Tower and Garden Tower 1.1 were so successful that supporters raised $431,000 to make the Garden Tower 2 a dream come true.

There are now almost 20,000 Garden Tower owners and counting.

Before Buying A Garden Tower, Consider These Things

Garden towers allow people to grow delicious, organic fruit and vegetables with hardly any space. To enjoy these benefits, however, it’s important to choose your tower carefully:

Materials

When using any container to grow food, it’s important to know what it’s made of. Watch out for towers containing toxic chemicals!

Longevity

Since it’s a way to spend less on produce, many would consider a garden tower an investment. A more expensive product may be a better deal than a cheaper one if it’s designed to last longer.

Do You Need A Gardening Tower Or Something Else?

A gardening tower is ideal for growing lots of plants in a small area. 

However, a gardening tower isn’t the best vertical gardening option for everybody. Here are some other types of vertical gardening products:

Hanging Wall Planters

A hanging wall planter  from Amazon might be your only option if all you have is a window or an extremely tiny balcony. However, you can also use a hanging wall planter to achieve a living wall look or block an unsightly view.

Trellis Gardens

For growing vining crops, you may like a product such as this trellis garden on wheels  from Amazon.  

A bucket-and-trellis setup is ideal for indoor vertical gardening, especially for an indoor herb garden, since the soil stays close to the floor. There are many good reasons to have an indoor garden, which I’ve written about here. If you’d like to make your own but don’t know where to start, here are some ideas! 

For Growing Lots Of Organic Food, Go With The Garden Tower 2

To describe the Garden Tower 2 in three words, Garden Tower Project chose “grow organically anywhere”. And that’s exactly what it excels at:

Any Sized Space, Anywhere

To understand the amazing space efficiency of the Garden Tower 2, compare it to the square foot gardening method. With the square foot method, some plants need a full square foot of space. 

To grow 50 such plants, you’d need 50 square feet! But with the Garden Tower 2, you can achieve the same yield with only 4 square feet of space. Just keep in mind that you still need some other supplies for indoor gardening.

It’s Core Strength — Compost

You won’t find any other gardening tower that works like the Garden Tower product series. A composting core runs through the center of the tower, covered in perforations so roots can access the nutrients.

It works with food scraps, alone, but look at what happens when you add worms:

As if the compost wasn’t enough, worms turn it into high-quality manure. As they travel through the surrounding soil, they keep it in perfect growing shape by distributing manure and beneficial microbes and making air pockets.

Nutrients, Nutrients Everywhere!

Worms are only one of three ways the Garden Tower 2 keeps its soil rich throughout. Watering the tower from the top helps nutrients travel downwards and a 2-gallon drawer at the bottom collects that water and its nutrients to use all over again!

Here’s the top:

And here’s the bottom drawer:

Watch a video about how it all works:

Here Are Some Testimonials

After scouring the internet for reviews from different websites, I found a nice bunch that all look positive.

Here’s one from Burpee.com:

Notice that both of these users have back problems but use the tower with ease!

Here’s another positive Garden Tower review:

Similar Alternatives To The Garden Tower 2

Unfortunately, the Garden Tower 2 isn’t cheap. There are some more affordable alternatives, although none of them have an internal composter like the Garden Tower’s.

5-Tier Vertical Planter From GreenStalk

This product is good for someone who wants to grow a lot of plants in a small space but can’t afford the Garden Tower 2.

Like the Garden Tower 2, this plastic planter has a cylindrical shape covered in planting pockets. Each tier can hold about a cubic foot of soil. If you do the math, that’s actually close to the Garden Tower 2’s 6-cubic-foot capacity.

Though it’s probably not as good at conserving moisture, this product does have an internal slow-drip watering system. Even though it’s cheap and simple, this planter’s reviews are overwhelmingly positive.

If you’re curious to learn more about this planter, head over to Amazon . 

Bostick Flower Tower

If all you want is a tower of flowers, all you need is this cheap plastic planting tower by Bostick. It has a watering tube through its center that distributes water (and fertilizer) evenly throughout the soil.

This planter’s capacity is MUCH smaller than the Garden Tower 2’s — it can only hold about a half a cubic foot of soil. It might be good for growing herbs, but definitely not larger vegetables.

Want to learn more about the Bostick Flower Tower? Check it out at wayfair.com.

Watex Metal Mobile Green Wall

Though this product isn’t exactly a tower, I included it because it’s on wheels. It isn’t nearly as ergonomic as the Garden Tower 2, but it’s at least easy to move without being lifted. This makes it suitable for people with physical limitations.

With a total capacity of 0.75 cubic feet, this product’s growing power can’t compare to the Garden Tower 2’s. However, it has nine small upper containers for herbs and two large lower containers that could grow cabbage-sized veggies.

If you are interested in this vertical gardening system, visit Amazon .  .

I Hope You Enjoyed My Garden Tower 2 Review!

I hope you found what you were looking for in my Garden Tower 2 review and my review of similar products. 

Any vertical gardening system makes efficient use of a small space, but the Garden Tower 2 is by far the best at growing organic food. Not only can it grow 50 plants in 4 square feet — it has a composting core, you can turn it with one hand, and its plastic is food-grade.

Interested in the Garden Tower 2?Click here to learn more about it and the products that come in GTP’s Starter Bundle.

This post contains affiliate links and I will get a small commission if you buy through my affiliate link.

Last update on 2023-03-24 at 21:29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API