Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

From the Hoodathunkit Dept: This just in…

To the stunned surprise of many–myself included–my vegetable plants are thriving in their Earthboxes.

When I first assembled the boxes, I plunked in the starts and thought, Damn, they’re small. And they were. From their 4″ pots I took them, each only a couple inches high at most, and put them in the big containers. The zucchini and tomatoes looked especially puny, and I despaired of any measurable success.

Now, it’s been two full weeks. Our weather has been pleasant, but not hot [oh, er, I mean…ahem…it rains here every day, yes…don’t come to Seattle, it’s awful, you’ll hate it] and that little slice of yard gets good sun [yeah, like the sun ever comes out…] for late morning and all afternoon. The sun doesn’t set until after 9PM, here at summer’s solstice, so it’s a good long blast of sunshine.

As for water, naturally the little starts didn’t take up much moisture. It took a couple of days for the soil to really hydrate, but after that, a half-gallon every third day was about all it took to refill the 3-gallon reservoir at the bottom of each box.

Now, of course, they’re taking up a bit more. The mulch-covers reduce loss from the soil, so the plants are responsible for taking up about a gallon every other day, per box.

And it shows.

The herbs may not look like they’ve grown much, but realize that I’ve been nibbling at them, barely giving them time to put on height (especially the basil). All are strong and healthy, especially the cilantro, which has put on robust canes. Note: I put some of the extra herb starts in the ground nearby, as sort of a control, and the control plants (which get watered every time the boxes get water) are faring much less well. Bugs, primarily, are their problem (except for the oregano, which is doing pretty well in both places).

The strawberries have been concentrating on new leaves. New clusters of leaves are sprouting from the center, but no flowers as yet.

The cucumbers and the vining cantaloupe have doubled in size, but at this point, that’s the low end of the performance scale. I suspect they’re concentrating on roots.

The chili peppers have more than doubled their size, and flowers have appeared on the jalapeno.

The tomatoes are now over a foot tall (yes, I’m one of the few people who still has a wooden yardstick) and have several sets of flowers. Once the flowers start to set fruit, I may thin them. Five tomatoes on a stem–especially with the brandywine heirlooms–seems like it’ll be too much. I checked with our neighbor (a master gardener) and he concurred. Three is probably a better number.

The zucchini is the winner, though, both for robustness and for sheer increase in size. In a fortnight, it’s gone from a 3″ tall, four-leaf plant, to the large, healthy, deep green moose-of-a-plant you see below, with dinner-plate-sized leaves and vines already reaching over the edge of the box.

This is by far the most progress I’ve ever made with vegetables. I realize that the Earthboxes have advantages over an in-ground garden, and I’ll have to compensate for that if I decide to go large-scale, next year. So far, the advantages are primarily in water management and pest control. My neighbor, from the Cheap Seat Eats blog, who introduced me to Earthboxes, is having trouble with slugs, but my little patch seems to have missed their notice, so far.

k