How Growing POUNDS of Food on a Deck Actually Works| Garden Tour of 150 Crops

You know what you've got to get over? It's thinking that you need acres of land so that you can start growing your own groceries and reduce your reliance on the grocery store and source better ingredients. And I say this as someone who lives in a townhome and doesn't own a single blade of grass. But that didn't stop me from turning my deck into a food forest. I'd say you can do a whole lot with just a little. Take a look. Pretty impressive, right? And by impressive, I mean the amount of food you can grow with just meh gardening skills because at best I'm an intermediate beginner gardener. So spoiler alert, the way I talk about gardening is not technical. So in this video, I'm going to show you how I regularly grow my own groceries and harvest real food every week that only takes between 15 to 60 days to grow, how I overwinter my planters and have maintained the same potting mix for six years without a plan to change it out, how I make essentially free and continuously generating fertilizer and a full spring tour of the over 150 crops I've got growing on my deck. I'm even giving you a free spring planting guide with my recommendations on what to plant where. That link is below. So let's start with my spring garden tour, and then I'll walk you through how I get these results season after season after season. Let me give you a full view of my deck. To the left-hand side, I've got two grain stock planters, one I've completely dedicated to herbs and the other two leafy greens and root veggies. And then the right-hand side has three additional planters, all at various stages of growth so that I always have something to harvest. All right, back to the left side. I've got an eclectic mix of food in here, but as you can see, things are growing nicely. So let's take a closer look. These beauties are Texas Lantana, a beautiful perennial that keeps its bloom from spring to the fall. And yes, as early as May, I have cherry tomatoes that will give continuous production through the early fall. Pints of cherry tomatoes at the store are $2 even in season or $1.49 for the large. So purchasing this plant for $10 at my local nursery was really a deal. I frequently disperse flowers at the top of my planter. So I got this beautiful wax begonia and a pocket full of dahlias that will soon bloom again. Moving to the second tier, I've got a mix of carrots and Swiss chard growing. I'm telling you, having plants growing vertically away from the ground and the non-flying soil-dwelling pests sure does keep your crops in far better condition. I succession plant, so I've got produce at different sizes in here. So you may notice some gaps in my pockets because we regularly harvest from our planters. So just keep that in mind. Swiss chard are one of my favorite greens because they grow well in the spring and summer heat and have mild flavor that pairs well with almost anything. I always plant marigolds, one of my Nana's favorites. And this brazen orange against the chocolate brown of my green stalk is just striking, right? Next, I've got field mustards. And that yellow flower is cook's comb. And I've got tons of that across multiple tiers. My spring nursery order always includes a few tomatoes, pepper, and flower starts because mostly everything else I start from seed. But for the same reason as the tomatoes, I grab two pepper plants and place them right in my planter pockets. And I'll show you how I do this in a bit. And I've got about 20 jalapeno peppers hanging off this plant right now. All right, we're going to go ahead and move on to what looks like more carrots. Oh, at the start of the season, I will buy a few scallions from the grocery store. Use them, but then save the ends because they come with the root. So you can regrow these endlessly until the frost hits. Your eyes aren't tricking you. Yes, that's a head of broccoli. And might I add that homegrown broccoli is actually sweet. Like, you'll bite into it raw, and that's the first taste that you'll notice. It's late spring, so we're down to our last. But I've got a few more sprinkled throughout the garden. This year, I've added a citronella plant to each green stalk because our outdoor table is nearby. And it'll help keep the mosquitoes away. Plus, you can use the leaves to make your own citronella oil. On the bottom tier, I like to keep a mix of salad greens. And these greens are shaded by the other plant, so they'll help keep cool as the temperatures start to warm. I love cooking with celery, so I've even got stalks of celery that I have really appreciated planting on the bottom tier so that I have celery even throughout the summer. Now let's move to my herb planter. I've got so much packed in here, and most of this actually comes back every year. I like to call the tops of my planters the crown, which I adorn with flowers. Here's a beautiful African daisy. And I've got pink Texas lantana and some coleus, which I just love her pattern. And she's a hearty little flower. I've even got dwarf roses, which are very quick to re-bloom and give me all the satisfaction of having fresh-cut roses without the high maintenance of a full rose bush. Moving to the second tier, I've got my lemon balm, which grows back each season. I just love the taste of hot and cold lemon balm tea, which I am continuously drinking because this mint variety grows so fast. And oh, the intoxicating smell. It is the best. Here's some rosemary, great for seasoning chicken and fish. It's sharing a pocket with chamomile, which is another herb that I love for tea and homemade body care products. At least weekly, I'm cutting down spearmint to dehydrate and stock my apothecary with, which I truly don't buy drinking teas from the store because I have this much at home. And here's some parsley, which is great for pasta and chicken salads. And beside that, I've got an echinacea plant, which is great for cold and flu remedies. And over here is more rosemary, which I often keep several pockets of herbs I like. I'm even growing sugar. Well, the plant kind, stevia, which is pricey in stores. You just dehydrate it and blend it into a powder. I repeat that process all season long and get a few pints of stevia just off of two plants. Here's one of my favorite cooking herbs, basil. Isn't she beautiful? She's tucked aside some apple mint, which is also delicious. Moving to the lower tiers, I've got some sage and more peppermint. And then behind the peppermint is actually something that's called creeping rosemary. It's regular culinary rosemary. And it's called that because it's low growing and drapes. She is excellent for containers. And then I've got some more sage over here. Coming back to the middle-ish of this planter, I've got the first of a few oregano plants. And oregano comes back every year or two. And here's more basil. This variety is called boxwood basil. It has compact growth and big flavor that's even more concentrated than the standard basil. Lower down, I've got some lavender. And then further up, I've actually got more lavender that's sharing a pocket with some green onions. And then I've also got some more parsley. And might I add that fresh herbs at the store are incredibly expensive for the amount that you get. So growing them yourself and still getting that unbeatable flavor for herbs that are cut and come again really takes your cooking and at-home herbal medicine making an affordable win-win. I even have a tree on my deck, a fig tree to be exact, which does wonderfully. I've had her for five years now and fresh autumn figs are the best. I'm just trying to move a few branches to show you a few that I've got coming in. This raised bed is also my potting bench station. I have a terracotta planter with a rosemary plant that I bring indoors during the winter. And it comes back every year. Now, I don't buy fertilizers because every overpriced commercial item you can buy can also be sourced from your kitchen scraps, yard waste, or just by keeping a worm bin. I store most of my most reach for supplies here. I'll also link a video that gives you the recipes that I use to make eight store replacement fertilizers like bone meal, an all-purpose NPK fertilizer, and more. Anyways, right now I've just stuffed this planter full of celery because I love adding celery to soups, chicken salad, summer salad, sauteing it as a side or stuffing it, you name it. I also have some onion bulbs and Brussels sprouts that are in here. All right, let's get to what I have growing in the three planters that are on this side of my deck. And as you can tell, this planter is just as full as the others. But this spot is particularly sunny. Now, I've got more jalapeno peppers, which are doing exceptionally well. I really love combining my cherry tomatoes and hot peppers with a bit of broth and heavy cream to make a garden-fresh pasta sauce or salad dressing. You can see that I've got more roses that I actually need to deadhead. And then I've also got another coxcomb. And this just has a beautiful coral reef shape. I cannot get enough of her. She's just so textured. It's like velvet. And she's just so eye-catching. On the tier below, we've got collards. I've actually harvested these today because the cool season of spring is nearly finished. And daily temperatures are now starting to get closer to the 80s. But you can see that the stalks are sturdy and strong. On the third tier from the top, I've got a combination of spinach and mustards, which have supplied all of our salad and sandwich topping needs. You know, one thing I don't miss about buying fresh greens isn't just how expensive they've become, but I also no longer have the pressure of needing to guess how much to purchase each week before they go bad in the fridge because outdoor refrigeration means that my produce stays fresh indefinitely. And I only harvest what I need at that moment. My next planter is keeping me pretty busy too. And I can't tell you how much I love crowning my green stalks with flowers. Every time I'm inside the house and look out the windows, I love how the combination of colors grabs your gaze. And a lot of the flowers that I grow are cutting flowers, so I actually am able to make a weekly fresh bouquet for the table. All right, we've got more cherry tomatoes. There are actually two on this planter. And y'all, I'm even growing red onions in a planter pocket. And here are more marigolds. I'll be getting more blooms any day now. Below them, I've got a 45-day cabbage variety. And this has tasted so sweet. Y'all, it's true. You cannot buy homegrown flavor at the store. Look at all of these beautiful leaves and the heads. Oh, and all of this is edible. My cabbage actually grows larger and better in the fall going into the cooler months. So these heads are actually pretty small. But it still proves the point that you can grow anything in a green stalk. In a bit, I'm going to show you how strong the stalk is. And I really like to show this because you can see how healthy your plants will be in your vertical planters. All right, here's some more broccoli that I need to harvest. We want to grow way more broccoli in the fall. Do you see how vigorous these plants are growing? Summer Thames gave spring an abrupt ending this year. But I planted a combination of 15 broccoli and cabbage plants alone on this planter. And surprise, surprise. Here's more celery that I've been succession planting for the coming summer. I think before the celery was here that I had spinach. All right, we've reached the final green stalk. Another beautiful bouquet adorns the top of the planter. And additional pounds of produce are bursting through every pocket. By now, you have a good idea of the production you'll get from your green stalks. And why I say that my balcony garden competes with in-ground or raised garden beds, often with healthier looking produce. We regularly grab greens for smoothies and omelets in the morning, or harvest herbs and more greens for lunch soup and salads, and then come back out to the garden in the evening for a fresh side salad. You can truly create your own food forest that still allows you to enjoy your small outdoor space. So while our homestead is still a few more years away, you'll certainly see how that hasn't stopped me from gardening to my heart's content. If this is our first time meeting, hi, I'm Cassandra from the blog becomingafarmgirl.com. I'm here to help you start living a farm fresh life without land or livestock. And show you that vertical gardening in small spaces easily rivals the per square foot production of in-the-ground gardens. You'll also get significantly less pest pressure, spend less time on maintenance like weeding and watering, and harvesting is a breeze. And show you that vertical gardening in small spaces easily rivals the per square footage food production of in-the-ground gardens. Hands down, when it comes to growing the most amount of food in small spaces, vertical planters can't be beat. And I say this because I initially resisted getting these planters. So for the first few seasons on my deck, I was planting in a combination of five gallon buckets and pots. I had about 60 different containers out here. But in doing that, I was losing valuable floor space. Individually watering that many pots was extremely time consuming. I couldn't easily move my pots to catch the sun or shade like I can with my green stalk planters because they're on wheels. And so container gardening just became a nightmare. I even have proof of how bad it was. My townhouse neighbors are witnesses to my garden before I went 100% green stalk and they remember when. All right, y'all. So I am so excited to build Stan and Sheila's green stalk. Truth be told, Stan knows where all the bodies are buried when it comes to me being a gardener because I'm completely self-taught. When I first moved over here, you saw the garden that had like 60 different containers cluttered on my deck. You remember when I had an actual full size water trough on my deck? That was also disastrous. And so I've tried so many things. And the win has been the green stalk gardens, for sure. First it's been one and then two. And then I just found this rhythm. And now I look like a pro compared to what I was eight years ago. Oh, well, thank you. I like to transparently share the why behind how I moved away from containers to vertical gardening systems. Because if your space is limited like mine, growing vertical is absolutely your best option. Plus green stalk is the most affordable vertical planter on the market. Green stalks make gardening accessible for any experience level, age and space and are assembled without tools or too much time. And yes, they are absolutely addictive. With that being said, start a garden with what you have and can afford. But as you consider expanding, a green stalk vertical garden will give you the highest production in the smallest space. All right, so you've seen some of the amazing results that you'll get with your green stalk. But now I want to back up and show you how to take your green stalk planters from winter into spring. And with simple care, you'll have your planters up and running in no time. We've gone back in time to late February. Now from fall to winter, I keep my potting mix and planters outside and stacked and cover the soil with mulch, which acts as a natural insulator, providing a protective barrier for the soil against extreme temperature fluctuations. Mulching prevents rapid freezing and thawing that can damage your plant roots during the winter. And you want to keep the roots of perennials so that they'll come back every year. Here's an example of a Brussels sprout stalk and more cabbage that we still had growing. So for the Brussels sprouts, I would just come out and cut the sprouts and leave the stalk. But yeah, that's all I do, cover with mulch. Here's another planter that I'm removing some charred stalks from that I intentionally wanted to save to feed the worms in my worm bin. More on that in just a bit. But basically, as I notice anything that perhaps I haven't gotten to in time, it doesn't go to waste because I know that I can use the goodness of what I've grown to return to nutrients to my garden in the form of compost. Now, right before gardening season, I will take one to two of my older planters, unstack them, and then remove any of the remaining veg that I left behind. And that's fine to do because you never want bare soil. As I pull up these plants, I want you to see how healthy the root systems are. For most things, the wider the roots, the healthier the plant. And just look at what I've got, super long, straight growing roots, and just look at how the soil is clinging on. These are Brussels sprout plants, and I just love being able to see how well my plants do below the surface. And now, here's my last winter cabbage. Beautiful, right? Now, after seeing my garden tour and how easy it is to start and maintain a green stock garden is, and you're thinking that this style of gardening would also work for you, you can use my code BAFARMGIRL to take $10 off your order. So here's what the soil looks like below the mulch. Still super dark and moist and crumbles easily. I have yet to change the original potting mix that I've placed in my planters, a few of which are six years old. And since neither my soil or plants are giving me any indication that I need to, I don't. And let me clarify, you only want to use potting mix when you initially set up your planters, but I do, over the years and at the start of every season, like to add a little bit of aged manure, compost, and worm castings at the start of each season. But while I don't change the soil, I certainly do look after it. After all, soil is a living ecosystem, and after several seasons of supporting plant growth, your soil can be depleted of essential nutrients. That's why instead of buying new potting mix, yikes, that would be expensive. You should just refresh your existing soil by creating a worm bin. Setting up a worm bin is easy. All you need is two gallon totes, some red worms, and kitchen scraps. As the worms consume the organic matter, they produce castings, also known as vermicompost, which are rich in nutrients and beneficial microbes. These castings are like black gold for your garden. They contain a superior balance of nutrients compared to commercial fertilizers, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, along with microbes, which you can't buy at a store. And that's especially what helps your plants to take up nutrients more efficiently and in the amounts of what they need when they need it. I give the soil two months to worm bin, so to speak, and then I return the sifted mix sands, the worms, to my green stock. Your worms will take a bedding material like manure or coca-cola, which is what I have here, and turn it into rich, dark hummus like this in just weeks. What you see me doing here is taking worm castings from a small indoor worm bin and separating the worms from the finished castings. Worms are photophobic, meaning that they hate the light or the sun, so by creating mini molds outside, they burrow deeper and I can scoop off the castings. I then use the castings to make worm tea, which is a gardener's secret weapon known for its ability to boost microbial activity in the soil by adding bacteria, fungi, and protozoa to the soil. I inoculate this into the soil and then get to planting. What I love about green stock is its versatility. So when it comes to planting, you can plant directly from seed, like in your planters, or you can use transplants that you've already started or have purchased. And you might actually be surprised at what you can tuck into these planter pockets. The garden I showed you earlier started here, but I'll also include a link to a video showing you how I start my seeds and plan my garden. A simple maintenance routine that includes worm castings from several worm bins that I keep and repurposing garden and kitchen waste is really all I do. I'll link to a mini workshop I have on getting started with your worm bin. I also plant directly from seed in my planter pockets, being sure to leave my planters unstacked to catch the sun during this time. And then I will stack them once the true leaves emerge. So this is my seventh year planting in green stalks, and I've tried a lot of different variations. But I suspect that even after you watch this and my other garden tours, you still may be wondering, well, Cassandra, I have this plant, which tier or pocket do you think is best for plant X or Y? Good question. So if you click on the link below, I want to send you an illustrated guide to what plants ideally work best in an original planter. That's the planter with the full size pockets or the leaf planter, the one with the smaller pockets so that you can have something to reference as you plant or tweak your own green stalk garden. To get more small space gardening inspiration, click on the video on your screen. I'll see you in my kitchen or garden soon. Take care, friends.