University of Central Florida: Orlando, Fl
Tower Gardens at UCF: growing fresh food and inspiring healthier habits since 2014. 🌱
College life runs on busy schedules, late-night study sessions and, sometimes, one too many instant noodles. But at the University of Central Florida (UCF), fresh food has been growing right on campus!
Since 2014, UCF has used Tower Gardens® to help students connect with their food, discover how it grows and bring more fresh produce into their lives. Lettuce between lectures? Now that’s our kind of campus life. 🥬
Jump to a Section
Looking for something specific? Jump directly to the section you need.
Why Grow Up—Literally—with Tower Gardens? 🌱
UCF’s Wellness and Health Promotion Services FreshU program brings growing food into students’ everyday surroundings. Its mission is easy to get behind:
- Make fresh fruits and vegetables more accessible. Because adding greens to your plate is easier when you can actually get your hands on them!
- Help students learn where food comes from. Watching a tiny seedling turn into a harvest puts a whole new spin on the salad bowl.
- Encourage healthier eating and home growing. A little hands-on experience can turn “I could never grow anything” into “Look what I grew!”
On a busy university campus, growing space matters. Vertical aeroponic gardening makes room for leafy greens and herbs by growing upward, bringing food production into places students already visit.
From Three Towers to a Campus Growing Project 🚀
UCF’s project began with just three Tower Gardens. By the time of our original project feature, it had expanded to 17 towers, including eight commercial units standing approximately 11 feet tall, with 44 planting spaces each.
Other towers brought growing indoors under lights, giving students a chance to see fresh food developing as they went about their day. No sprawling field required!
These figures describe the project as originally featured here; tower numbers and locations can change as a campus program develops.
More Than a Harvest: What Are the Towers Used For? 🥬
Fresh lettuce is a pretty great reward, but the value of a campus Tower Garden reaches beyond what’s ready to pick.
- 💡 Hands-on education. Students can see how food grows and explore ways to produce it in spaces where a traditional garden might be difficult.
- 🥬 Access to fresh produce. UCF’s Tower Gardens are part of FreshU’s work to make fresh food available to students. UCF reports that leafy greens are harvested and shared for free through its FreshU Market.
- 🌱 Confidence to try growing. Seeing herbs and lettuce thriving on campus can make growing your own food feel a lot more approachable.
There’s something about seeing a tower full of lettuce that makes people stop and look. Wait… that’s growing without soil? And you can eat it? Suddenly, an ordinary walk across campus becomes a conversation about food!
Room to Keep Growing
In the original project story, further expansion depended on available space and funding. Grants, including support from the UCF Parent and Family Fund, helped make the initiative possible.
It’s a useful reminder for any school or university considering a Tower Farm: you can start with a manageable project and build on it as your team, space and resources allow.
Watch UCF’s Tower Gardens in Action 🎥
Ready for a closer look? Watch the video below to see the project in action.
Read More About the UCF Project 📖
- UCF’s Tower Gardens and FreshU program
- How Does Your Garden Grow? — UCF’s campus growing story
- UCF Tower Garden Workshop — earlier project coverage
- How UCF Provides Free Produce — 2014 project coverage
Want to Start Your Own Tower Farm? 🌿
Imagine students harvesting herbs for a cooking class, a campus team growing greens for a food pantry, or visitors stopping to ask how that tower full of lettuce works. A Tower Farm for your school, university or organization can bring fresh food and hands-on learning together.
Living Towers can help you explore a commercial Tower Farm that fits your space and goals. Start by thinking about what you want to grow, who will care for it and how the harvest will be used. Those answers help turn a great idea into a project your team can keep growing.
Not sure how many towers you’ll need? If you have a space in mind, we can help work out how many will fit. If you know your crop production target or budget, we can help you explore a suitable tower count and setup.
Visit our Tower Farm Planning Guide to work through the steps, or explore our Tower Farm systems.
Ready to talk towers? Contact Living Towers and tell us what you have in mind. Let’s get something growing! 🌱
Continue Learning
Explore planning advice, more Tower Farm stories and the growing basics that help keep a tower full of healthy plants.
📋 Plan Your Tower Farm
Work through your goals, customers, growing space, crops, budget and daily operations.
Read the Planning Guide →🌿 Explore Tower Farms
Learn about commercial growing systems for schools, communities, restaurants and farms.
Explore Tower Farms →🏫 More Tower Farm Stories
See how other organizations use Tower Gardens to bring fresh food and growing opportunities into their spaces.
Explore Tower Farm Stories →🌱 Seeds & Seedlings Guide
Learn how to choose, start and care for healthy seedlings before placing them into your Tower Garden.
Read the Seeds & Seedlings Guide →🔧 Cleaning & Maintenance Guide
Learn when to check the reservoir, clean the pump, refresh your water and thoroughly clean your tower.
Read the Maintenance Guide →💧 Tower Garden Water Guide
Learn how your water source, temperature and reservoir care affect plant health.
Read the Water Guide →
