12 Tower Garden "Tricks" That Will Surprise and Delight

Tower Gardeners are an enterprising bunch. Spend a little time browsing social media and you’ll see what I mean.

Growers are getting more out of their Tower Gardens thanks to clever hacks and creative DIY projects. And with Halloween only a few weeks away, I thought it would be fun to share some of these delightful little tricks.

Let’s begin!

1. Custom Support Cage

A number of plants — including beans, cucumbers, and peas — grow in a climbing, vine-like fashion. These kinds of crops greatly benefit from a little support. That’s why Tower Garden offers the Support Cage.

But Robin needed a more custom solution, so she built her own support system using PVC pipe.

2. Reservoir Auto-fill Kit

Like to travel? Tower Garden is pretty good at taking care of itself. But what if you’re going to be gone for several days (or weeks) — how do you make sure the system doesn’t run dry?

The low-tech solution is to ask a friend or neighbor to check in on your garden while you’re away. But this Tower Gardener took a more automated approach. He installed an auto-fill kit that adds fresh water to the reservoir whenever the nutrient solution dips below a certain level.

3. A Protective Enclosure

Joan was losing her harvests to deer, birds, raccoons, or other animals. She was, that is, until her husband built this nifty enclosure.

And it’s even on wheels! Pretty neat, right?

4. Shrink-wrap Seedling Shield

To protect tender seedlings from wind and other elements, Tara took a resourceful approach: She attached plastic wrap to her Support Cage.

Since the material is clear, it allowed sunlight to still reach the plants.

5. Water Level Gauge

Every evening, I remove my Tower Garden’s reservoir lid and peek inside to see if I need to add water. Jason Boothe simplified this process.

He created a custom water level gauge that enables him to check how full his reservoir is with a quick glance!

6. Temporary Greenhouse

If you liked the plastic wrap trick above, you’ll love this.

Tony protected his two Tower Gardens from late freezes in Michigan with a simple greenhouse made of 2x4s, an aquarium heater, and — you guessed it — plastic wrap. (Industrial-grade stuff!)

7. Reused Net Pots

This Tower Garden trick is one I often use myself. Washing and reusing net pots for an extra season is an easy way to save a little money on gardening supplies. (But I recommend reusing only those that aren’t cracked or otherwise broken.)

Pro tip: Net pots are top-rack dishwasher safe!

8. A (Spooky!) Frost Blanket

Quite seasonally relevant, this trick made Angeline’s Tower Garden look like a ghost! It also protected her plants from frost. (Covering your plants with a blanket or bed sheet when temperatures drop is an easy way to extend the growing season.)

9. Unconventional Crops

If you take a look at the official list of plants you can grow with Tower Garden, you may notice that crops typically grown for their roots (e.g., potatoes, beets, radishes, turnips, onions) aren’t present. Tower Garden’s unique design makes growing these plants challenging.

But some people try anyway.

I’ve successfully grown smaller varieties of turnips and radishes. Deris (accidentally) grew beets. And Jonathan grew corn — which isn’t a root crop, but it’s still pretty unconventional for Tower Gardeners!

Disclaimer: Tower Garden doesn’t recommend growing root crops in your growing system. Doing so may cause the net pot to get stuck as the root expands.

10. Grow Lights Frame

To support his growing lights, Erik built a custom frame. (If you don't feel like going DIY, the Tower Garden LED Grow Lights don't require a supporting structure.)

11. Buried Tower Garden

To fit Tower Garden more seamlessly into existing landscaping, a few growers bury the reservoir.

This trick has the added benefit of keeping nutrient solution temperature more consistent. (But a little reflective material can achieve this secondary effect as well.)

12. A Reflective Growing Room

When used in conjunction with grow lights, reflective material can help plants absorb more of the available light. (That’s why the Tower Garden Grow Lights Kit comes with reflectors.)

To give his plants the best shot of soaking in the light, Steven Dutton built a reflective growing room. Looks bright!

What’s your Tower Garden trick?

This is a handy list of tricks, certainly. But I know there are other innovative ideas out there.

Solar-powered Tower Gardens? Aeroponics to aquaponics conversions? Fully automated, “smart” systems?

Share your top tricks in the comments below!