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Posts Tagged ‘EarthBox’

Earthbox Update – Wk12

Posted in Gardening, Seattle, tagged , , , , , , on 22 Aug 2013| 6 Comments »

Brandywine

Pink Brandywine Heirlooms

It’s official. This is the spideriest year in all of Seattle history.

On the way to the compost pile, I count anywhere from five to (last night’s high count) eight spider webs. The back stairs are a prime spot, always with a minimum of two webs between the banisters. Orb weavers dominate the gardens, stringing guy-wire silk that stretches up to fifteen feet. On garbage day, in between the time when the garbage trucks came and my neighbor came out to pull the can back into his garage, spiders had spun webs between the can and his mailbox. Their webs are in the trees, in the bushes, across the lawns, and in the window frames. They are everywhere.

And if I can help it, I leave all of them alone. They do good work. (more…)

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Earthbox Update -Wk 07

Posted in Gardening, tagged , , , on 14 Jul 2013| Leave a Comment »

Mahonia after rain

Damage report:

It was hot and windy over the weekend, and one of the zucchini plants–the one with leaves the size of spinnakers–was partially uprooted.

This is a danger of container gardening: the low square footage of growing space. The zucchini (Black Beauty) is not a vining type, so it doesn’t spread so much; instead, it creates a massive dome of leaves and all the fruits come out of the base. Planting it to the leeward side, however, was a mistake, in that half of it was completely unsupported. The plant still seems fine (I estimate only 20-25% of the roots were disturbed/damaged), but note to self:

Situate large plants on the windward side of the box.

Progress report: (more…)

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Earthbox Update – Wk06

Posted in Gardening, tagged , , , on 10 Jul 2013| 12 Comments »

Mahonia after rainWe’re six weeks into this experiment, and things are continuing well above expectations.

Due to our suddenly sunny summer, the plants are thriving. I’m astonished at how much water they take in, though. If I decide to take this large-scale and go in-ground instead of container, I think I’m definitely going to need some sort of drip irrigation system.

As it is, the larger plants are going through most of the 3-gallon reservoir every day. Soon (based on my neighbor’s results), they’re going to need watering morning and evening.

(more…)

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Earthbox Update – Wk02

Posted in Gardening, tagged , , , on 18 Jun 2013| 6 Comments »

Mahonia after rainFrom 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. (more…)

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EarthBox StartUp

Posted in Gardening, Seattle, tagged , , , , , , on 03 Jun 2013| 11 Comments »

EarthBoxesSeattle has rubbish weather for vegetable gardening. It’s grey, it rains frequently, and our sunshine quotient slacks off in spring and autumn. I’m doubly unlucky in that, despite the great feng shui of my house, our little plot of land is not suited to farming, urban or otherwise.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my back garden. Mature trees, deep shade, covered deck off the second level of the house, it’s like a treehouse for grownups. But it’s not suited for vegetable gardening. I’ve also finally put the front gardens into shape, and now that Three Trunks has been taken down, the roses, the lavender, and other flowers are loving the extra sunlight.

So, where to plant a vegetable garden?

I do have this little triangular slice of land on the house’s north side, but the soil is just plain awful. Our cul-de-sac is situated on what used to be a sloping hillside. The developers took all the topsoil from our side of the street and dumped it all on the opposite side of the street to create a wide, level space to build houses. Unfortunately, this left our front garden with no topsoil. Dig down two inches (literally, two inches) past the struggling sod, and you’ll find hard-pan: a compacted, nearly concretized layer of diatomaceous soil that takes no water and allows no roots.

Solution? Raised bed gardening. Sure, but that’s one hell of a lot of work, especially if either my talents or the bit of land prove unsuitable to the task.

Solution? EarthBoxes. (more…)

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