Frequestly Asked Questions and Contact Us

Over 90 percent of all questions we receive are answered here, so odds are yours will be too.

Growing the plants...

What can you grow in the various systems?

Each is different. The vertical garden and lettuce garden are both restricted to crops with small root bases; primarily lettuce, herbs, strawberries, and things like that. Corn, tomatoes, etc, will not grow in them.

The barrel garden is more flexible, allowing root crops like Potatoes, carrots, beets, as well as lettuce, herbs, spinach, strawberries, and so on; and it even allows for one larger root crop such as a tomato or pepper on top of the barrel.

The container garden is the most flexible of all; virtually any plant can be grown in there. A few things we grow in ours include Tomatoes, Peppers, Corn, Okra, Melons, Sweet Potatoes, Cucumbers, Onions and basically everything else we can think of. For person with some space planning to grow a lot of produce, this is by far the most efficient system.

Can you grow in a basement?

Yes, I have several customers who do it, but you will have to be careful of leaks - things like that inevitably happen - and you'll have to provide pollenation if the plant needs it (lettuce doesn't, tomatoes do). Also, you'll have to provide light, which leads me to...

Can I grow with lights?

Yes, and if you grow indoors you probably must. However, since I have no personal experience with grow lights, I can't offer any specific information about that. I do know that most lights are set up on a timer (most plants need darkness too) to run 16 hours a day. Also you have to use full-spectrum lighting, or special grow lights. Your typical flourescent won't do the job since it lacks certain parts of the light the plant needs to grow.

Do I have to grow in a greenhouse?

No, certainly not. All of these systems work outside just fine. Obviously, if it gets too cold, the plants will die, so you may need a greenhouse for that reason - but they are not hurt by rain or the lack of shelter. In very, very bright, hot, dry areas like Arizona or Texas you may need to have a shadecloth to give them a bit of a break from the heat, but that is easily set up without a greenhouse.

Payment and Cost

What is the average cost of building each system?

It is only possible to estimate roughly considering that prices differ; also many people might have some of the materials on hand, like buckets and so on. But generally, for the...

Lettuce Garden: The size in the video is 4'x10', and it costs about $200. That grows about 125 plants. Much of that is initial expense in the pump, so you can probably quadruple the size of the bed for about double the cost.

Vertical Garden: Like the Lettuce Garden, most of the investment is in the pump; the cost of the 4' wide bed is also about $200. It grows 36 plants. Again, it can be made larger without as much additional cost. You could triple the size for about double the cost.

Barrel Garden: Each 55-gallon barrel grows 72 plants, plus some on top. You can expect to pay $5-$20 for them depending on where you get them and how many you buy. That's about all the cost there is for a manual-watering barrel, except soil.

For an automatically watering setup, it's another $50, the bulk of which is in the timer; so you could make 10 auto-watering barrel gardens for about $300, plus soil.

Container Garden: The setup in the video includes ten buckets; assuming you have to buy everything and can find used buckets, you're looking at approximately $50 for the set of ten. Again, much of that is in the master control pot, so adding more containers is very cheap.

Can I pay by check/money order?

The simplest way is to check out on this website; just go to the "catalog" link in the top left corner of this screen, add the items you want to your cart, then click "check out", and after following the prompts to fill in your information, you'll be given an option to select payment method; select "check/money order".

That will send you to a screen that will give you the order total including tax or shipping if applicable, and the mailing address to send the letter. Also, this enters it into our records and helps us get your order processed.

Others

Does this tell me how to mix soil/fertilizers, plant the seeds, make everything I need?

Yes, these DVDs and plans sets are comprehensive; everything you need to grow a successful garden is included, from planting, picking, maintaining, watering, it's all included.

Do the barrel gardens need to be rotated to allow all sides to get sunshine?

It depends on your latitude; where I live in Texas, the sun gets close enough to vertical that I never have a problem. Farther north where the sun is at a lower angle, it's a good idea to either have the barrel on a dolly that can be rotated or to build a reflector behind it out of aluminum foil to give the north side some heat and light..

Do you ship internationally?

Yes, there is no additional charge for shipping any plans/DVD sets internationally. If you purchase any other items, such as floats, there may be a small additional charge. If there is, we will let you know after you've checked out.

Will the dvd work in any region/zone?

Yes, they will work on any DVD player or DVD-capable computer anywhere in the world.

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