- One of our goals at Modern Gardener is to make sure that we are giving information to you that makes gardening accessible to everyone.

We wanna make sure that if you are in an apartment or don't have very much land, money, time or resources available, that there are still ways for you to garden and enjoy your produce.

- Imagine, you know, the traditional garden where you have to lay it out flat, how much space that takes.

You roll that space up into a 360 degree micro garden and you really maximize a space you can grow food.

- We are here at the USANA Foundation where they have created a gardening tower for people to be able to grow in a vertical space.

Brian, I think it's incredible that we are in this industrial space.

There's a freeway right next to us, we're right here on this park strip and yet there is a massive garden growing here.

This is very innovative.

So tell me the genesis of your project, like, how did these towers originate and get started?

- Yeah, so we've been in the charitable business of really providing emergency food, immediate food right now for people in need.

But you can't... that's not sustainable, right?

So we've been looking for something that is a long term food source for people in need.

So we tested building a hundred Garden Towers.

- Wow, that's awesome.

- And I went to Kenya last year, very skeptical, is a bag of dirt really gonna grow?

But we saw a 97% success rate.

We went to these houses, it still gives me chills to even talk about it.

But we would go from home to home and see these giant bags of goodness I like to call them, growing in front of people's houses where they don't have really space for land.

They don't have the type of soil to grow gardens.

And so it was just fantastic to be able to see them growing their own food.

- Tell me then exactly how it works because, I mean, I was shocked by the material, how thin, how flexible.

Tell me how it works.

- It's basically like a polymer material that's like a plastic feel and it is a cylinder.

So it's not a bag, it doesn't have a bottom.

There's really no point to the bottom 'cause you're setting it on the ground and you basically fill it with soil and it has holes on the sides where you can plant.

This thing can contain 120 plants.

- Wow, that's incredible, Brian.

With that, making it simple, tell me how watering works.

- These Garden Towers take 30% less water right off the top, that's how good they are in water conservation.

I water them about 10 minutes a day.

Maybe I skip a day, but they're flourishing.

To be able to efficiently water and have all the roots take that up, it's just, it's magic almost.

- And what I love too, is this is not necessarily like you're having to get special soil or special amendments.

I mean, people are using the soil that's around them, using animal compost to help with it.

That you can amend the soil to make it what you need it to be in the area that you're in.

It's not needing extra special care.

- Right, this thing has to be simple and it can't require a lot of extra care to work 'cause we're deploying these all over the world in different areas that have different needs.

- I love all the international work you guys are doing.

I want you to tell me how me, as the Utah gardener, how am I gonna be able to access this?

- You know, there's a lot of people here in Utah that I've been talking to that are intimidated by gardening or they're worried about the drought, they're worried about the area and space they have to work with.

And so we wanted to create something that really lets everybody have access to growing their own vegetables.

And so it's turning people like me, who really are not gardeners, into gardeners.

And now I'm eating more greens, I'm eating healthier, my family's enjoying it.

It's just- - For sure, that's awesome.

- It's magic.

(upbeat music) - So, and it's not only you but your staff is doing this as well.

- But they've been very excited about working in these gardens.

- And I love that you're making this available for everyone.

That people in condos, in apartments, in small spaces are gonna be able to use this.

And that there's ways that they can water it without breaking the bank or adding to our drought issues here.

So that's awesome.

- So this is- - I like this one.

- A little bit easier to contend with than the- - The mini - Yeah, we call it the mini, the micro, and the nano.

- The nano?

- I don't know, that's kind of a silly thing, but yeah it's something that you could fit right on your patio.

It doesn't take a lot of water, it doesn't take a lot of time, but yet you could still grow quite a bit of vegetables in this size of a container.

And then if you really have a small space like a balcony that's where you can go to a little bit smaller size and obviously grow some herbs on your window sill there, you know, so, or some onions.

- Small size, which is great, that's what you need.

- It's exciting for us to take something we've been working so hard internationally and around the world to bring it locally and really help those here get the gardening bug and do something to make healthy food.

- Okay, so now I've seen this, but do you want I really wanna see, is what you guys are doing over the Neighborhood House.

- Okay.

(upbeat music) - Jennifer, I have not been to the Neighborhood House in such a long time.

You guys have done some amazing work here.

It's like we're in this urban setting but you're in this garden oasis.

- Oasis, right in the middle of...

It's so true.

- Incredible, will you tell me a little bit more about the mission of the Neighborhood House?

- Yeah, Neighborhood House has been serving low income, hardworking families for 128 years and we provide daycare and support services for children and adults.

We get the kids kindergarten ready and then we do school age support also because we need before and aftercare for those parents who are at work as well as full day summer.

And then on the other end of the spectrum, we provide the same service, daycare service, for aging and disabled adults.

So it's affordable, it's accessible, and then we provide those wraparound services to families because we know they're experiencing a lot of different hardships.

So we're a connector to other organizations in the community such as USANA and partnerships that can help them with their additional needs such as food security.

- Tell me a little bit more about your partnership and what you guys are doing with USANA Foundation.

- Well USANA has been an amazing partner for a long time, before the Garden Towers.

They provide our kids eat bags so that we feed our kids here every day, right?

And our adults, so they get breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack.

We know how important that is for families that they have a nutritious meal.

But when they go home on weekends, they might not have access to that food.

So USANA has helped us with the kids' eat bags that they can take backpacks home with food.

And then when they came to us with this these, I was just so excited because this is how we can help our families be able to address that food insecurity, to be able to grow their own food in a very compact, efficient way.

- In a very small space, right?

- Small space.

So the majority of our clients, of course, are hardworking, they work multiple jobs but a lot of them are still renting.

You know, they're still working up that economic ladder.

And to be able to have the space in an apartment or when you don't have much ground to be able to actually grow enough food for your family is an amazing gift.

And so we're excited to partner with USANA to help address the food insecurity that's in our community.

We love to get our clients out in nature, enjoying that.

You know, we serve an urban population so they don't often get that opportunity and a lot of them don't have gardens and don't have even the ability to see where something grows.

And then you bring that into the kitchen.

And we're able to do that here.

Between the children and the adults, they're able to go out and garden together.

They can grow food.

They can also just grow beautiful plants and use sensory techniques to be able to regulate their emotions and be able to have this experience of connecting to nature, which is so important.

- Oh my gosh, the kids have taken over.

The Neighborhood House is in full force.

I hope you guys enjoyed watching these Garden Towers from the USANA Foundation, it's incredible.

We wanna hear from you.

Are you growing on your patio?

Do you do vertical gardening?

Would you be interested in a garden bag?

We want to hear?

Please comment below.

(upbeat music)