I'm up front so let me tell you what this video will and won't be it won't be a technical Garden mumbo jumbo chat because honey I am not a Master Gardener shamelessly I'm an impatient guard that wants to grow as much as I can as fast as possible in the simplest way and in a small space and no that is not too much to ask I mean have you seen the results I get every year this video will be about what you should stop and start doing if you want to grow tons of food fast if you have reservations I get it because I thought initially maintaining a garden on a deck wasn't even going to be worth my time or meaningfully contribute to my family's food source but I was wrong I'm now sourcing my family's salads 100 of our herbs and reducing other fruits and veggies that I buy at the store because I stopped growing in buckets and pots and growing more fruits and vegetables than I ever have because I made the switch to a green stock vertical planter this planter eliminates nearly all the obstacles that you'll face as a gardener take a look with the green stock vertical planter you can plant over 30 small and large vegetables herbs flowers and root crops in just under two square feet better yet it's easy to rotate and move your planter to easily access all of your plants foreign I'm limited to growing on a townhouse deck so my outdoor space is at a premium with four green stalks I have over 120 plants but I still have deck space to entertain family and friends I'd never be able to scale growing this much if I didn't take advantage of vertical gardening green stock is the most practical way to Garden in a small space nothing beats stepping outside each day and Gathering the tastiest parts of lunch or dinner a few steps from your kitchen the high density feature of growing in a green stock has allowed me to supplant 100 of my leafy green grocery store purchases from just my deck growing vertically means my produce experiences minimal pest pressure or disease compared to in ground growing which also makes harvesting easier even better I've completely eliminated packages of salads spoiling in the fridge because I only Harvest right before I eat it the potency of fresh herbs truly adds that Pizzazz to basic meals but you'll pay a premium for a poultry amount at the store the most herbs are cut and come again which means that they are an inexpensive and indispensable part of my meal prep even in a small space you can grow a lot your green stock provides access to fresh in-seasoned fruits and vegetables you and your family can enjoy without land and let me tell you the Independence that comes with having a way to grow even a portion of your own food and decrease Reliance on the grocery store is empowering you won't find an easier way to start or maintain a beginner-friendly garden using food as medicine is one of the best things you can do for your health now that I have an abundance of fresh herbs steps away from my kitchen it constantly excites me to try new herb combinations to season meals or prepare home brewed hot or iced tea sweetened with stevia I've grown y'all I even make my own natural cleaners and Home Products I'm now certain that starting a kitchen Garden is the most practical hobby you can pursue don't let anything hold you back from enjoying a garden this Tennessee owned small business always thoughtfully packages your order and proudly shows the staff member that prepared your order includes free goodies like high quality stickers and organic seeds a thank you card from the family and a large colorful print brochure with simple step-by-step directions maybe that's my favorite thing about a grain stalk you don't need tools or much time to put one together in just three simple steps let's start with the wheelbase you'll get a total of six wheels three locking and three non-locking and a 12 inch pre-cut drainage tube to redirect excess water just pop every other non-locking wheel into the base and that's it once you're finished add the drainage tube and you're done [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] to assemble your green stock planter first you'll fill each planter to the top with potting mix and plant each pocket with starter plants or seeds second you'll place a gray disc on top of each tier stack each tier making sure the Planter's feet interlock with the planter below you'll hear it click lastly lightly wet each pocket down with a gentle Mist to initially hydrate your soil then fill the top water reservoir until water comes out of the bottom asking someone to water your garden when you're out of town for a few days has never been easier and they won't feel intimidated to do so my dad loves watery migraine stalks if you're considering getting a green stock you can use my coupon code be a farm girl to take ten dollars off your order alright so we've already established that if you're small on space but big on gardening you've got to make the most of what you've got by growing vertically and when you pair that with selecting the best container varieties of your favorite fruits vegetables and herbs you'll quickly see how even a small space can still provide a huge yield now let me be clear you can grow nearly any full-size crop in a green stock and y'all have seen me scratch that itch because I had the same curiosity in previous garden tours right here on the channel after that my garden goals switched to Growing for production I wanted to use my green stocks as an outdoor Pantry where I could shop for ingredients on The Daily when I discovered that there are tons of fast-growing Quick Pick varieties that will take you from sea to harvest and 30 45 or 60 days it really honed in my focus as a small space grower traditional crops of the same varieties can take 60 to 90 or even 100 days to grow y'all what that meant for me is that even in a townhouse I'd be able to Source food from my garden several times a week and still have fresh herbs every night of the week and that's exactly what you see me doing these last few years so no you won't see me Harvest an eight pound spaghetti squash that took me 80 days to grow instead you'll see how eye succession plant six tiers of a green stock so that one night I can have a dinner of a few spaghetti squash the next night harvest the second tier that has six mini acorn squash and there's no fancy record keeping system here other than after dinner I just plant what we ate and I really like Garden running like this better because now I have a very active garden and we are continuously eating off of it on the daily throughout the seasons instead of waiting for some huge glut Harvest at the end honey we just hit gardening season and I already have a beautiful salad bar that I am harvesting over seven different types of greens from and I've got tomatoes growing that are going to be ready for me to start plucking next week and no I do not have an extended growing season I'm here in Maryland Zone 7ab and it's only the third week in April I'll take you on a tour in just a bit if this is our first time meeting hi I'm Cassandra from the blog becoming to farmgirl.com I'm here to help you start gardening and living a Farm Fresh Life in a small space and in your spare time so here are my seed recommendations for small space Growers and look I'm going to be honest if you saw last year's seed Hall I'm growing like 90 of the same stuff because of baby doll I got great results as thrilling as the process is of perusing through a Seed Catalog it can actually be quite overwhelming and expensive so I kept it simple last year and I let botanical interest vet the best varieties for container Growers and let me tell you the first thing that you're absolutely going to notice about Botanical interest is that they put thoughtfulness time and money into the layout and the quality of their products they provide you with large seed packets with easy to read planting instructions and diagrams that have great information pack your box with even more growing guidance like this packet that I wasn't even expecting and on the website you'll get even more detailed tips and tricks you'll get 10 varieties in the container garden collection I mean just look at this packaging y'all who doesn't want to get this in the mail I am definitely going to reuse this for something I really enjoyed growing these string beans last year and these are the bean Bush Contender why is this being called Contender because advice for the number one spot among beans and rightly as it should a stringless favorite since 1949 it produces only after 50 days from sewing and tolerates heat and powdery mildew where other varieties suffer alright so next up we have the carrot Tonda di parigi I have some of these growing in my green stalks right now I absolutely loved this variety small size but big on Flavor Tonda de peregie Italian for round of pears is deep orange sweet and tender and the round shape is a unique feature among carrots y'all harvesting just a few of these from the garden was perfect for a side Salad Topping tossed in my morning smoothie or in a crock pot meal these cucumbers are definitely for the win I really enjoyed growing them here's what it says on the back and why I love these cucumbers has your garden ever been overrun by cucumber plants yes space Master 80 is the solution it's two to three inch Vines y'all right it's not going to be a jumbled crazy mess but yes it's two to three uh inch Vines make it the ideal choice for small growing areas including containers it produces large numbers of flavorful full-size slicing cucumbers perfect for snacking salads and sandwiches and even for pickling when harvested small disease resistant y'all these were so good they're fast Growers they stay juicy even in the August heat and they were absolutely much more plump and full um than I expected I think I'm gonna throw in some footage to show you all what I mean but oh these are awesome and next up we have the kale dwarf blue curl dwarf blue curled from the 1800s is extremely hearty and will overwinter and all but the coldest climates like most greens it grows best in cool weather but will also withstand some heat leaves are rich in vitamins and minerals and low in calories the flavor of the leaves is sweetened after a light frost delicious and winter soup so next up we have the lettuce mini Romaine little gem organic little gem is an English heirloom that is a small variety of Romaine but has the succulent sweetness of a butter head the glossy leafed heads are a petite six inches tall and four inches wide the perfect size for an individual dinner salad yep that precisely describes this variety I especially enjoyed planning these weekly for a continued Harvest these Japanese scallions are long slender and Mild slicy sweet onions and juicy bluish green tops into salad soup stews and stir-fry dishes ideal for summer and fall Harvest heat tolerant plants can be blanched in the garden or in in a container for 16 to 18 inches long white leak stalks I especially enjoy growing these type of onions because I am the kind of cook that is onion and garlic heavy and so being able to have these just out of my back door is amazing for your cooking and since they're cut and come again I have these all throughout the season all right so next up we have the pepper sweet California wonder and all-time favorite since 1928 for good reason California wonders large uniform shape makes it ideal for stuffing delicious grilled they are perfect for shish kebabs Peppers left on the plant will turn a beautiful bright red and have more vitamin C than an orange good container variety and dependable performer even in short season climates absolutely love these peppers next up is spinach leviwa which is a rich green color on productive plants laviwa is an open pollinated variety that competes with hybrids for flavor heat tolerance and mildew resistance y'all I love the spinach because the spring season seems to get shorter and shorter each year it's winter one day and a taste of spring for a week and then bam summer heat settles in having spinach that retains Great Taste even when the climate warms up means that my summer salads are still being harvested from my garden I'll use a Shea cloth or companion plant with taller growing vegetables to protect my spinach from the Sun and summer heat summer squash Emerald Delight this squash delivers a manageable Harvest of high quality fluted fruits with complex flavor and firm texture the striped and molted skin stays tender even to 18 inches though in Italy they are picked at 45 inches with the blossom still attached large production of male blossoms for stuffing see inside Pica for more information some folks eat them all right we've also got some Tomatoes Cherry Falls is where Beauty and function meet compact plants are perfect for large hanging baskets where the vines to explain the Abundant clusters of one and a half inch bright red tomatoes are quite ornamental vigorous Vines produce an abundant crop throughout the growing season quick to enjoy you'll be enjoying this delicious cherry tomato in no time so this year I am trying a new collection from Botanical interest it's the Children's Garden because when I went through and looked at what it contains each one of these varieties is also perfect for container gardeners I'm gonna do it I'm gonna plant corn in my green stock and y'all this is how I'm gonna be able to do it look at this beautiful corn popcorn strawberry each strawberry corn stock produces two or more two to three inch ruby red strawberry shaped ears on compact four feet Stalks at Summers end harvest the kernels for popcorn kids will love to watch the ruby red kernels magically turn white when popped hey they just talk about kids I want to save a few of these Charming ears as well as the dried stalks for fall Decor the stalks are a nice backdrop to displays of pumpkin skords and dried cobs I'm super excited this year to grow the sunflower dwarf elves blend y'all look at these Beauties shell and eat these tasty seeds or hang with short heads for the birds to Feast on this may be a blend of shorter varieties but it's not short on selection large and small classic sunflowers and pom-poms will brighten your garden draw pollinators and make cherry bouquets embellish your indoor spaces fantastic first time flower for your little elves oops kids to grow sunflowers are edible with Bittersweet flavor the petals add a pretty pop of color on salads and desserts the young sunflower buds are edible with a flavor similar to artichoke hearts they can be grilled marinated or sauteed for an unusual appetizer or side dish alright so if your garden needs a boost of purple Power you have got to grow these bush beans rolled burgundies I have planted these for the past three years I cannot get enough of just how stunning they look in the garden now when you cook them they do turn green um the purple taste doesn't lend you know anything uh different but they're just they're just so gorgeous to grow Royal burgundy fresh from your garden has delicious purple pods that are easily found among the backdrop of the green foliage it grows better than other varieties in cool weather and is unlikely to be challenged by the bean Beetle a good container variety resistant to white mold and being common mosaic virus in addition to the other miniature carrots that I'm growing I also got curious about the carrot Littlefinger which I will plant in the fall did you know that grocery store baby carrots are actually cut from regular sized carrots once you try the sweet flavor and crisp bite of this three inch long true baby carrot you will never look back though it tastes great fresh from the garden little finger was developed in France for pickling and canning whole I'm also going to be growing pumpkins again y'all but this is a different variety that I haven't tried but I see these you know in stores it's called um the pumpkin jack be little decorate with paint or glitter for pretty accents or fill with your favorite stuffing casserole soup or custard for a fun appetizer these tiny delicious pumpkins are three to four inches across and two inches tall compact Vines three to five feet long grows six to ten fruits on each plant can be grown in a large container and trellis to grow vertically next up we have some pea snap sugar snaps and All American selections Award winner sugar snap provides an extended Harvest of thick crunchy three inch pods filled with flavorful peas Vines tolerate some heat grow climbing six to eight feet on Vines poles or a trellis so all I do for the vines on these is that as they start to grow I just train them to grow around the plant supports that are like the attachable things that you can like hook onto your green stock and so I'm not worried about the length of the vines here because again the green Style Just figures all that out for you all right y'all so I also placed an order at Haas tools just because again I had excellent results with the hybrid varieties that I got there last year and I ordered a total of five seeds from them I have just enjoyed growing squash after it being so problematic for me before I started using my green stock I like things are just working out between the Green stock and the plant supports and I found this one ball squash that I'm really excited to grow one ball squash is a hybrid round zucchini with vigorous disease resistant plants and heavy yields of bright yellow fruits Bush growing habit fruits best picked at two to three inches in diameter 50 days to maturity and I also picked up some top chop Collard and if you didn't know top chop Collard is one of the best bolt resistant collards around they are extremely cold tolerant and work well in the overwinter slot top collared is a hybrid variety that displays great uniformity has an upright growing habit and large white leaves for a Bountiful Harvest plant in the fall and harvest collars continuously throughout the winter great for the home and Market Gartner top collards are a beautiful dark green and have smooth leaves up I got the lemon pixie dwarf the lemon pixie sunflower features loads of love and colored flowers this sunflower is a unique short variety habit that will only reach one to two feet tall creating a blanket of bright yellow in your garden use these to attract bees and other colorful insects to your garden a semi-double flower that holds its freshness unusually long great for containers I am very excited to try for the first time ever these Sunburst squash Sunburst squash is a hybrid Patty pan variety with a firm texture and excellent nutty flavor very productive into the summer bright yellow fruits with scalloped edges and green ring in the center last year I especially enjoyed growing the Haas bright light Swiss chard and what it says on the website is true bright light switch chart is a colorful blend of Swiss chard varieties resistant to early bolting absolutely it is I can touch to that and extremely resilient to insect pressure again I mean I was growing this stuff in the middle of summer summer heat I mean it just with nothing just exposed and it just looked gorgeous year round sorry I'm kind of like drifting but I love this Swiss chard and it only takes 55 days into maturity so I mean I'm gonna be planting this for months now y'all I have some news that is hot off the press so y'all know I don't rush into anything and when I originally got my green stalks about four years ago I started off with two and I stayed with those for two years years until I figured out wow I can really grow and pack a lot into these things let me go ahead and I think I took advantage of like a holiday sale that they had and I got two additional grain stocks and y'all the results that we are getting are just incredible and so here's what I was thinking so we have a charcoal grill out on the deck but honestly we are just weekend grillers and even then it's just like I mean it starts to ramp up mid-spring and then a couple of times throughout the summer and then we start to taper off through the fall and silently in my heart of hearts I've been thinking why can't we just move that darn girl down to the lower portion and I could add two more green stalks in its place now I've been married to my man for 10 years so I had my arguments ready but child he agreed to move the grill and said he had been thinking the same thing and that quote we use the green stalks every day but the girl not so much I wasted no time placing that order and you'll see me set up those Planters and my next Garden Tour and don't forget if you want to save 10 off your order you can use my code be a farm girl I also grabbed a few accessories since this year I will be showing you my green stocks year round I wanted to go ahead and just grab some of the frost covers and oh my goodness would you just look at the personalization of the packaging each of your Frost covers will come packaged in this gorgeous bow which is just a feature of green stalk I mean they always just provide such customization and details and then they always tell you specifically who within their small business has actually packaged uh their products and actually this one says here which is why I love green stock it is made in the USA and sewn by this person their initials are here oh my goodness and then you actually have here the instructions on how to use the product I always love that they do this because I save these in my gardening box so Frost covers extend your gardening season in the spring and fall when you're trying to protect your crops from freezing weather as it says here keep your plants cozy with the green stock Frost Protection cover adds eight degrees of warmth and allows 68 of sunlight through awesome can also be used over shrubs and bushes so not just for your green stocks really any place in your garden and then made in the USA with a five year warranty on product integrity and function that's great yes I am so happy I have these now more so for the summer I also got the insect protection covers which look very similar to the frost protection covers you can tell just by feeling them the material is uh different but then also again just the thoughtfulness so this one was sewn by Kayla and you'll notice that the tag here is green for the insect protectors but and so is the gorgeous uh bow but then the labels are blue for the frost protection um so that'd be great because I will likely be storing all of these covers I have this little bench out on my deck it's a built-in you just open it up so I'll keep my covers in there um so this is a way that I can easily just you know grab and know which one I have like I said you can grow anything in a green stock but once you start growing your Vining fruits and vegetables you're going to need the plant supports so I went ahead and I got several of those and I mean y'all look these bags these cloth bags with the drawstrings I mean they are so nice at the end of the season I have a place like it's it's just so nice right it's not they're not coming in plastic or anything like that it's something that you can uh wash reuse again use it for something else but I mean it's just it's quality all around what I love about Grace dog is that they keep things simple you don't need tools or equipment to assemble any of this it all just snaps together and then as always they're including not only very simple directions y'all I mean it's a sentence or two because it is just that easy and then you also have the photographs to reinforce the steps all right so the person who packaged my box was Carl thank you Carl okay so you have gotta let me know if you've also ordered from Green stock because they just feature this I always even as I'm excited to like take out my products I'm like who packaged my box because they always just show like photographs of the employees which is just I mean no it's these special touches right that just oh I love it another thing I love about green stock is that they always include goodies y'all so I have two different boxes here and so let's see what we got in my first little package of goodies oh oh my goodness okay oh y'all we got some stickers and some seeds I love these oh look and these are like the high quality stickers y'all these are so nice what does this one say absolutely radishing that's fine and this one says Here We Grow I also got a free package of carrots all right as always you're gonna get a thank you card from the owners here's my second one oh look at these stickers y'all oh my goodness it's a mini green stalk I love this one oh and then I've got some peppers here and this looks like what some echinacea coneflower oh and I've got some organic mixed lettuce so if you didn't know this year greenstock released a magazine it's filled with stunning photography and recipes which you all know I love gardening stories from other greens dog gardeners like Kevin from epic gardening and me my feature is titled small space Oasis and talks about how I'm taking my Homestead dreams and making them a reality with a small backyard garden growing in green stocks gave me a green thumb and I cannot thank this family and their team enough for providing products that allow anyone and especially those of us in small spaces to realize our gardening goals even without land I also grabbed the green stall gardening Journal which sitting here I'm wondering why I waited so long to get it now that I have four and soon to be six Planters I really need to make sure that I'm organized but I don't want a tracking system that feels overwhelming or one that I can't easily maintain this journal is a reference guide and Record Keeper all in one it'll remind you of what to plant and how many plants you can fill per pocket it's not a data calendar so you can customize it each of the sections are color coded so you can easily flip to the section you need I'm especially going to enjoy using the planting maps to just label what I have growing this spread of the planting Maps gives you room to add comments and the planting dates there are also Pages for your plant log inventory and supplies to do endnotes I'm going to love having this journal as a quick reference from year to year I am definitely going to add this to my planter caddy what's my planter caddy glad you asked even if you have a small space you still need a planter caddy essentially it's a place where you tuck all your little gardening doodads I think I got this little container from Hobby Lobby so let me show you here in this little top section hold on can you see me I just have things like you know your pH testing tubes and then I just kept the little reference thing that comes with it I have a little bit of neem oil and a spray bottle here if I need that um I have a few of these little steaks that sometimes I use with my plants just when they're young or it's especially windy and then I actually have these little um what are these things they were on clearance and they're called plant and flower clips and one of the things that I do is hold on so initially when I started guarding and I think everyone does this you always have like the labels with the little like Stakes of what you're you know planting but now I'm past that right I know exactly just even from the leaves what is what but I didn't just want that information to live with me I wanted people that were coming into my garden and especially my husband to kind of get familiarized with the different plants and herbs that we were growing as well so I no longer use those labels with my green stalks but there sometimes are like a couple of herbs that sometimes when I'll tell him strategically like hey babe can you run out to the garden and get me some you know Sage or lemon balm or you know thyme or like the variegated oregano or something like that and he's getting really good at it y'all but um I figured for some of the things that he's still a little um confused about that I could have like just a subtle little hint and I could take these little like clips and say like it's the one with the black you know ladybug on there um just in case you know he's harvesting something that I don't exactly need at the moment but these are just cute y'all they were a dollar I would not have paid any more for them than this but I just I'm using them strategically in that way um and then I have some Vine twists that I don't know why I have these I really don't have to use these you know what sorry sometimes when there's like an intermediary spot between like the length of the vine and getting it initially just to wrap around the green stock it's nice to have like something like this and then after you know it's long enough you can train it but that's what I have here on the top portion and then I just like to keep from year to year the Seed Catalog that I use so I got a lot of my seeds all my seeds from either Botanical interest or Hoss so I'll just keep them here um on this clipboard and then I just want to actually add my green stock Journal here so I'll take this out with me sometimes um in the garden what else do I have in here I just have things like a couple of the extra um the plugs for the green stock tubes I just keep them here so I know where they are I feel like I never need to close them up um and then um I have this little like water protector there was one time where I was watering um my garden and I had the hose on and I was walking from one side of the deck to the other oh yeah it was it was almost bad so I just have this um in case I don't have any like Pockets or I have an extra little phone case here on my arm to keep my cell phone in um let's see here I also have just a little gardening half apron I love my aprons but I try not to wear my if I'm really like working in my garden like adding new plants or harvesting or um like adding amendments and stuff like that I don't want to have my kitchen apron on um out back and then I have this little moisture pH meter thingamajig here and I also what I have here oh these are like okay these are the last two things oh my green stock instructions I like to keep those there just to have on hand um then I have this Clyde's Garden planter I don't really use this as much just based off of the seeds that I'm growing um and then I still really enjoy getting the Farmer's Almanac every single year um there's great stories just in here that otherwise maybe I wouldn't know um analyzing like the weather patterns is something that I'm really starting just to get into so I have not tried this but I am curious about it I got it at the end of last season so it's moon calendar gardening and so this is one that you can use there's something you have to get them every year but this little dial you can just use it according to the date so I told myself that this year this may be something that I want to try with a couple of my green stalks and then not with others just so I kind of have um you know want to control uh to kind of test it against but uh yeah we'll see but I thought I would just get this little moon calendar for this year let me know if you all do that this spring my green stalks are already boasting a number of lettuce varieties that will mature in 30 to 40 days but are enjoyed much earlier than that because they can be eaten at any size stick with growing Leaf lettuces which are cut and come again and avoid heads of lettuce that can be harvested only once kale collards and a compact tomato plant that'll yield bite-sized Tomatoes full of flavor all season long means that I've got an Eclectic Green Mix for fresh eating or cooking at the start of April I've also tucked in lots of celery in about six Pockets celery is also cut and come again and I love adding it to salad soups and casserole dishes here's my second original Green stock it's filled with my kale and collars at the top followed by a blend of micro Greens in the lower Pockets see I told y'all microgreens can easily be grown Outdoors [Music] here's a look at my leaf herb planter sprinkled with colorful marigolds and snapdragons and a number of perennial herbs that come back each year like lemon balm margarine oregano and Thyme I've also added other culinary favorites like Stevia Dill onions and medicinal herbs like chamomile and calendula more Garden inspiration on ways to create a small space Garden Oasis in your backyard click the video on your screen I'll see you in my kitchen or garden soon take care friends [Music]