Greenstalk Planter Review [Vertical Garden Planter]

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Vertical gardening is quickly becoming one of my favorite gardening hacks to not only grow more plants in small spaces, but also make gardening more accessible if you have chronic pain.

What is vertical gardening?

Vertical gardening is a way to grow plants in a vertical space, such as on a wall or fence. It can be used to grow a variety of plants, including vegetables, herbs, flowers, and even trees. Vertical gardens are a great way to save space, add beauty to your home, and grow your own food.

What are the benefits of vertical gardening?

Increased yield: Vertical gardens can produce more fruits, vegetables, and herbs in a smaller footprint.

Improved plant health: Vertical gardens can reduce the risk of pests and diseases by providing better airflow and drainage. They also minimize or eliminate weeding.

Reduced water usage: Vertical gardens can use up to 90% less water than traditional gardens.

Increased accessibility: Vertical gardens can be used by people with limited mobility or chronic pain.

Improved air quality: Vertical gardens can help to improve air quality by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen.

Are vertical gardens high maintenance?

No, most vertical gardens like the planter I use are very low maintenance. With the addition of automated timers for your grow lights and self watering trays you’ll really only have to maintain your garden once or twice a week.

How long do vertical gardens last?

My Greenstalk Planter is super durable - I’ve even heard stories of people having them fall off their decks and they were totally fine! My Greenstalk planter should last for many years, especially if they are properly cared for. You’ll be continually refreshing the plants in your garden as they reach the end of their lifecycle, which can be anywhere from a month for lettuce to six months for larger plants like squash.

How do you start a vertical garden?

To start a vertical garden, you will need to choose a location and purchase the necessary supplies. You can then choose the plants you want to grow and plant them in your vertical garden. The entire process is much faster than planting a traditional garden in the ground. I recommend choosing a spot that is easily accessible from your kitchen, so you can easily grab what you need before you start cooking dinner and have the freshest harvest possible. You’ll also want a spot in full sun if you’re using your vertical garden outdoors. I have this vertical garden outside on my deck to increase my available growing space and yield.

Greenstalk Planter Review

If you had told me I could grow 30 veggie plants, flowers and herbs in 2 square feet of space, I would have thought you were crazy. But the Greenstalk has grow pockets that are a full ten inches deep so my plants can grow as big as they want (and I can grow everything from carrots to peppers, tomatoes, herbs and squash!). It's by far the best way to maximize your garden space and make gardening more accessible if you have chronic pain like me.

The Greenstalk was a breeze to set up. I just filled each individual tier with soil and then my plant starts/seeds. The high-quality, food-grade, UV-resistant, BPA, BPS & PVC-free plastic tiers snap together with built in clips so there's no fiddling with tools or tiny parts trying to line everything up. I also got the spinner base with wheels which allows me to rotate the planter to get the most sun during the day and roll it around if it's ever in my way. Next I attached the self watering kit which is basically a long custom tube that clips to the side of the planter and connects directly to your hose to fill the top reservoir automatically. 

How does the Greenstalk planter work?

What makes this outdoor vertical garden unique is the patented top water reservoir for easier watering with 4 watering disks to easily distribute water. GreenStalk’s patented watering system delivers fresh water to every tier at the same time so you don’t have to water each pocket by hand. All you do is add water to the top tray up to the fill line and the Greenstalk does the rest utilizing a gravity-fed system to slowly and evenly drip irrigate your planter, which means no need to worry about thirsty plants OR root rot!

After using my Greenstalk all summer, fall AND winter with the optional frost cover, I can't imagine my garden without it. In fact, I'm trying to resist buying a bunch more! If I had a choice, all my garden beds would be at least three feet off the ground, but this setup combined with the self watering bluetooth timer in summer is a GAME CHANGER. Talk about hands off (and weed-free) gardening.

Does Greenstalk have a warranty?

Yes, they include a 5-year warranty on color and functionality of the planter. 

What can I grow in the GreenStalk Planter?

There are many different plants that can be grown in the Greenstalk planter, thanks to the super deep 10' pockets. I can grow peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, lettuce and other greens, herbs and even root crops like potatoes and carrots. strawberries are a really popular choice to grow in a Greenstalk planter as well. And of course I had to add some flowers like petunias, marigolds, and pansies. But these are just some of the many plants you can grow in your Greenstalk! Greenstalk  recommends growing larger plants in the GreenStalk Original and smaller plants in the GreenStalk Leaf.

Can I use the GreenStalk Planter indoors?

These Greenstalk planters are basically all-weather outdoor champs. Some folks get creative and bring them indoors, tweaking the lighting and drainage. But with the addition of a frost cover and some careful planning to grow cold loving crops you can continue the outdoor harvesting well into the winter months.

How to store a GreenStalk Planter during the winter months?

Greenstalk planters are made for all climates. They can stay outdoors all year long (yes, really!) or they can be cleaned, stacked, and stored away.  

How much does each tier weigh?

One Original Greenstalk with all its green glory and watering action hits the scale at around 30 lbs. If you're eyeing the Leaf Greenstalk, each tier throws down a weight of about 23 lbs.

How much soil do I need for the Greenstalk?

Each Original Tier holds 1 cubic foot of potting mix (about 8 gallons). Each Leaf Tier holds 0.75 cubic feet of potting mix (about 6 gallons).

Do I need special soil to use a GreenStalk?

Any high-quality, lightweight potting mix would work well. Avoid using topsoil, raised bed soil, or garden soil.

How often should I water my Greenstalk?

Watering is all about the season, weather, and the plants you've got growing. When you kick off the planter setup, my tip is to drench the soil using the water reservoir and each little pocket. If you're starting from seeds, give 'em a gentle mist until the plants are holding their own, so you don't go tossing those seeds around. And don't forget to sneak a peek and make sure the soil is staying moist below the top layer.

How long does the water sit in the reservoir?

GreenStalk's patented slow drip watering system allows water to drain through the system within approximately 5 minutes. If used correctly, there will be no sitting water anywhere in the system. The bottom of the GreenStalk includes little “feet” that allow water to drain out and away from the planter.

How do I fertilize my GreenStalk Garden?

You can add granular fertilizers, compost or worm castings when filling the tiers with soil, but the best hack is to add water soluble fertilizer as needed through the GreenStalk’s internal watering system when filling the top water reservoir.

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Want more vertical gardening ideas?

I love vertical gardening so much, I literally wrote a book on it. This ebook has everything you need to know to get started with indoor gardening, including DIY vertical gardens you can make, to-do lists so you don’t miss a thing and more. Just click here to grab your copy.

Click and Grow Smart Garden 27 Review: Does it work?

The Cottage Peach is reader-supported. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. All opinions are our own.

My gardening journey with chronic illness

When I was 20, I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis, an autoimmune disease that affects my joints, and causes major fatigue and chronic pain. The nature of autoimmune conditions is that they come and go, and over the winter I found myself experiencing the worst flare up of my symptoms I’d ever had.

Suddenly, my homesteading journey had hit a snag - bending, kneeling, and lifting (all essential tasks on a homestead) were difficult. I wasn’t sure what gardening was going to look like for me in the spring, if I could garden at all.

It’s easy to feel like you’ve lost a part of yourself when your body doesn’t allow you to do the activities that mean the most to you. For myself, these were dark days until I found enough energy to make a plan. I knew I was going to need to modify my normal gardening routine in order to continue growing our own food, so we added raised beds. Suddenly the benefits of vertical gardening were crystal clear to me. So much of what makes gardening so difficult is the crouching required to plant, weed and harvest. With the garden raised to a more natural standing height, I felt way less limited in what I could accomplish and grow. I started to wonder - with our long winter months, were there options that could extend our growing season AND provide a more accessible indoor gardening system that wouldn’t hurt my back?

Here in New England, the majority of the year it is too cold to grow most vegetables and fruits outdoors. We have a very short growing season and limited amount of time to harvest everything we need to put away for winter. I knew that if I could find a way to combine an accessible raised gardening system with indoor grow lights, we could continue growing food in the colder months and reduce our grocery bill at a time when produce prices continue to skyrocket. My love of vertical gardening continued to grow.

Vertical gardening systems

Vertical gardening is for everyone. Whether you’re interested in designing a vertical garden of your own due to physical limitations, space constraints, or you just enjoy experimenting with different gardening techniques, vertical gardening is an easy way to add a unique and functional element to your gardens and grow food more efficiently.

If bending, kneeling or lifting is something that is hard for you to do, vertical gardening allows you to reduce the amount of physical effort involved in your everyday garden tasks. There is usually little to no weeding involved, and watering systems can be set up to automatically keep your plants hydrated. Harvesting is a breeze because you won’t be digging through a tangle of branches or vines looking for produce - everything will be highly visible.

If you have little space to grow your own food or no yard at all - indoor gardening kits can help you bring fresh produce to your kitchen easily.

Why does it matter if your produce is fresh anyway?

When you buy and consume fresh grown fruits and vegetables, you are less likely to be ingesting harmful preservatives, chemicals, or dyes that have been added to your food to make them look more appealing. Produce actually loses its nutritional value over time, so the quicker it's eaten, the more nutrients that can be gained from it. Unfortunately even something like lettuce may be up to two weeks old by the time it reaches your local grocery store - and on average, our produce travels fifteen THOUSAND miles to reach us. That’s a lot of opportunity for lost nutrients.

Indoor Gardening Kit

There are lots of indoor gardening kits you can buy, but I decided to try the Click & Grow Smart Garden 27 vertical gardening system for a few reasons. This setup comes with three Smart Garden 9s (the 9 means each unit can grow 9 plants, so 27 in total) as well as a vertical plant stand in a modern white and wood finish. I really liked that the plant stand would fit into my existing home style, and allow me to stack the gardens so they would take up less space and be easy to access as needed. I also liked that the lights are included, and on an automatic timer so I wouldn’t have to fuss with anything or remember to turn it off and on every night.

The Smart Garden 27 isn’t a hydroponic garden - it uses a water reservoir that only needs to be filled about once a month, and Smart Soil blocks with nutrients and seeds already inside. The seeds and soil blocks are completely non-GMO and pesticide free, and use a patented nano-material that automatically releases nutrients, oxygen and water your plants need to thrive.

I also really liked the variety of plants offered by Click & Grow - they have over 75 different plants to choose from right now, including a seemingly endless array of swiss chard, arugula, sorrel, cress, mibuna, pak choi, and multiple varieties of kale and lettuce, bell peppers, strawberries, tomatoes, hot peppers and peas. Or you can start an indoor herb garden with rosemary, celery, mint, dill, parsley, lavender and many different kinds of basil. There’s flower seeds if you want to add some beauty and color. They also have seedless pods available so you can try your hand at growing anything you want.

How to Set Up the Vertical Vegetable Garden

The Click & Grow vertical vegetable garden is going to make winter gardening indoors so simple. Set up was easy - the included plant shelf comes together in less than fifteen minutes and has easy to follow instructions with no tools required. Next you just click together the light bar that attaches to the top of the unit with a few simple snaps and you’re ready to grow.

To plant the vertical garden planters, all I had to do was place each Smart Soil block into the pods that nest within the water tank. You cover each pod with a clear dome that is provided to create a moist environment that is then removed once your seed has germinated. I filled the water reservoir and plugged it in. That’s really it! I was kind of shocked by how simple it actually was. The water reservoir has a float on the back corner that will sink to let you know when it’s time to add more water. There’s even an app where you can track the progress of your gardens.

For my first planting, I’m growing lettuce, tomatoes, basil and dwarf peas as well as the Fruit & Veggie mix pack with strawberries, chili peppers and yellow tomatoes and the Asian Cuisine Mix with pak choi, red kale and mibuna. This will supply us with a continuous stream of fresh fruits and vegetables that are normally out of season during the winter months, allowing us to fuel up on fresh nutrient dense produce grown in our own home.

It takes about 3-4 weeks for your plants to reach maturity, depending on what you’ve planted. Then you can start harvesting continuously - each plant pod will live for about 3-4 months, again depending on the variety that you grow.

Now, if you’re thinking this is way too much vertical vegetable garden to fit in your own home stay with me because while I’ve gone all out here with the Smart Garden 27, there’s multiple ways you can configure this system to work for your space. First off, the Smart Garden 9 which is used on this plant shelf is available individually - so you can grab just one garden and pop it on your counter or table. If that’s still too large Click & Grow also has a Smart Garden 6 which is just a smaller version with only 6 plant pods. You could grab a couple Smart Garden 9’s and just sprinkle them throughout your house! Personally I love the shelf system because it means less bending and kneeling for me and it takes up less space in our kitchen. In terms of deciding where to place your indoor garden, the grow lights can be fairly bright so if that’s something you are sensitive to I’d recommend just choosing a location in your home that is a little out of the way.

Indoor gardening tips

So what tips should you know before starting your indoor gardening journey? Honestly, it’s so much easier than gardening outdoors in a lot of ways. With this system, it’s a good idea to periodically clean out the water tank before you plant a new round of seeds to prevent any mold from developing. Keep in mind that you’ll want a spot that you don’t mind having basically a bright lamp glowing on for 16 hours a day - those grow lights are for real! You shouldn’t have any problems with pests since you’re inside, and you won’t need to fertilize since the Smart Soil pods have everything your plants need to thrive. There’s no weeding to do and watering is only done about once a month. So long as you are mindful not to cut your plants back too hard when you harvest, you should enjoy a nice big continuous harvest from your indoor garden!

Ready to start your indoor gardening journey? Click here to learn more about the Click & Grow Smart Garden system!