A Happy Accident Story with a Garden Tower

An Unexpected Phone Call

“Hello Happy Leaf folks, this is the local health department calling.” I think to myself, “Why is the health department calling Happy Leaf?” In my friendliest customer service voice I respond, “Yes! What can I do for you?”

As it turns out, the story becomes one of what we could do together. Their story started with some extremely unfortunate hydroponic garden towers and eventually grew into an amazing community development project.

(Caveat: We, in no way, want to imply that the authentic product Tower Garden is not a good product. But, as with all products that make an impact in the market, the existence of copycat and knock-off versions is an inevitable consequence of success.)

Lucky Ducks

Let’s be clear. The chances that any local health department in any rural Illinois county would find a local small company that does a lot of education on indoor gardening are pretty low. But as the story progresses, we all feel like there was definitely some luck involved. Serendipity!

Luck? Yes. But this is also the story of a very energetic grant coordinator at the local health department writing her very first grant. She was able to secure a grant from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) to work on a community health issue for a 3 – 5-year period. Turns out, this grant was only awarded to fewer than 6 locations across the United States, and our county representing the only rural area. Our local health department chose food insecurity as the issue they wanted to address in their grant proposal. Some people in the department already had some experience growing food outside and also with growing some lettuces in indoor garden towers. (The grant coordinator, however, said she did not have a green thumb.) With the grant, the local health department hoped to start teaching local residents more about growing their own food, along with other initiatives such a 24/7 food pantry.

Making Lemonade

So, they bought 4 garden tower units and that’s when things grew hairy. These were not inexpensive, and yet they were made in China and ultimately made a good show on a website, but the reality of their quality and the absence of customer service quickly sprouted into something of a nightmare for the people at the health department. The version of garden towers they purchased were, to put it mildly, garbage. Just picture a sprinkler with flimsy plastic sheets wrapped around it. When we visited the office, we found the garden towers sitting in plastic kid’s pools due to excessive leaking.

The purchased garden towers included some lighting. We had a feeling that the lighting quality was going to match the overall quality of the product, and we were right. A quick PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) reading showed these lights were typical white LED grow lights that meet only the very minimum standard of less than 200 micromoles per square meter per second. Essentially, the grow lights weren’t going to impress anyone. Growing tomatoes was out of the question.

We tried to put some lipstick on the pig and say they could salvage the lights to possibly grow microgreens, but we also knew that even that would garner disappointing results.

This is the juncture of the story where we are all happy to say we were able to make some lemonade from the lemons. We chatted and suggested some options they could explore with indoor gardening. Ultimately, we set up a few baker’s racks where they are now successfully growing multiple varieties of lettuces and microgreens, as well as a happy tomato plant. They quickly got into a rhythm to do the relatively minor level of maintenance needed to maintain the plants and harvest them on a regular basis. We plan to report in more detail what they have learned along the way, so please be sure you are subscribed to our email list for an update. Turns out, the grant coordinator discovered she really does have a green thumb.

A Happy Place

The indoor garden at the health department is already generating buzz and interest, and it’s only just getting started. There are plans to teach community classes on indoor gardening and promote the availability of the fresh and nutritious harvests at the food pantries.

As for the leaky garden towers, well, they couldn’t be salvaged. It’s not ideal to have to let go of items such as these, but honestly, this is a relatively small sacrifice for something with potential to impact many people for the better.