{Strawberries and calendula in last year’s GreenStalk planter. The calendula grew huge!}

Hi Garden Friends! What are you growing in your gardens this year?

The garden is a busy place around here right now. There has been a lot of planting, harvesting, weeding, and watering going on out there. I wanted to share some of what we’ve been up to.

Do you remember my blog post from last year writing about the planter we discovered that I called a vertical gardening game-changer? If you haven’t read it yet, you can check out the post here.

Since I wrote that original post about purchasing our first GreenStalk Vertical Garden Planter, our love for the GreenStalk planters has continued.

In our first GreenStalk planter, we started out by growing lettuce and strawberries. Last year I told you I wanted to experiment growing other things and would let you know how it went.

Today I wanted to share about some of our favorite things we’ve grown in our GreenStalk planters so far. It’s a continual journey because we keep experimenting- planting and trying new things!

We planted parsley in the GreenStalk planters last year and it did amazing. All summer long I harvested fresh parsley to put on our meals and salads. That was on our list to definitely plant again in the GreenStalk planters this year.

Sidenote: That first picture with the parsley shows the bottom base of the GreenStalk planter, before adding the other layers. We have filled and stacked all the layers with soil before planting the plants, and we have also planted the plants in the layers as we go. We’ve done both ways, and they both work just fine.

Not only did we experiment with growing different things in the GreenStalk planters, we also tried them in the greenhouse as well as outdoors. The pictures above show some of the lettuce we grew in the greenhouse last year. (It went nuts.) We grew basil and Tulsi basil in the Greenstalk planter in the greenhouse, and they thrived also.

One of the things that really blew us away that we grew in the Greenstalk in the greenhouse last year? Peppers! Wow! I didn’t get a good picture of them growing in the GreenStalk to be able to show you, but it was definitely a success. The pepper plants were huge, and so prolific. It was unreal how many peppers we were able to grow in such a small space.

{The cilantro has done really well too. The GreenStalks are great for growing herbs!}

I just thought I would mention that we grew the peppers in the Original size GreenStalk. We love the Leaf size GreenStalks for growing herbs, lettuce, and strawberries, but those can be grown in either. (All the things that grow well in the Leaf size do well in the Original size too.)

{Lettuce planted in the spring, at the beginning of the gardening season.}

I wrote a lot in that original post about why we love the GreenStalk planters so much. Here are a few of the reasons…

Why We Love GreenStalk Vertical Planters:

–Gardening Where You Are: The GreenStalk planters make it possible to grow an abundance of food in a small space. If you have a small deck or only a little space available, you can still enjoy growing a garden! The 5-Tier Original has 30 planting pockets, and the 7-Tier Leaf has 42 planting pockets. That’s a lot of plants in a small space!

–Saving SO Much Space! Even if you do have other garden space available, planting in the GreenStalk planters can free up room to make the most of what you have. Every year it’s a challenge for us to find the room for everything we want to grow in the garden, and the more we plant in the GreenStalk planters, the more space is freed up in our raised garden beds for growing other things.

–Simplifies Gardening. The GreenStalk planters are easy to plant, and easy to water. It also makes harvesting easy, and we’ve found the produce requires less washing at harvest time. Oh, and did I mention making weeding easier too?

–Saving Money! With the GreenStalk planters, we are able to grow more food in the space we have available. The savings are huge with the amount of food that we are able to grow in each planter. Adding up the total of what the produce would cost from the store, we’ve found that the GreenStalk planters quickly pay for themselves and then some!

–Delicious Food! We’ve been really pleased with the food we’ve grown in the GreenStalk planters. I’ve also noticed less damage from pests, and the birds don’t eat up all the strawberries like they do when we grow them on the ground.

{One of the GreenStalk planters full of strawberries in this year’s garden. The bamboo trellis in the background is for the raised bed behind the planter. We started with bare root strawberries, and they’ve been growing fast.}

[Edited to add: Check out this post about benefits of growing strawberries in GreenStalk planters and choosing kinds that will produce throughout the garden season!]

Overall, there are so many reasons why we love our GreenStalk planters! We have three GreenStalk planters currently, and we continue to add more planters to our garden each year. Everyone I’ve introduced these vertical planters to has ended up loving them too!

Right now GreenStalk Garden is having a 10 Year Anniversary Sale! Everything is on sale and they have some great deals. Get $10 off your first order when you use my link!

When you use my affiliate link it gives our family credit towards our next Greenstalk planter, which helps us grow more food in our backyard- thank you! It also supports my blogging efforts so I can devote more time to sharing inspiration in this space. I only promote products here that I truly believe in and companies I personally support, with the hope that they will be a blessing in your life as well!

May your gardens be abundant friends!