CONTAINER GARDENING 101

Last year was the first time in many years that we have had a vegetable garden.  When we lived in California it just seemed that all I had time for was a wonderful herb garden.  We then lived in two extreme climates one too hot, one very cold (resulting in a very short growing season) and now here in the Treasure Valley of Idaho - one just right!

 Do not be deceived by how small this looks. Six of these Grow Boxes will yield more than enough herbs, strawberries and vegetables for our use, some to can and some to share.  We have plenty of room on our almost 1/2 acre lot to plant a traditional garden but these boxes are wonderful, easy to care for and no bending over! This spot was chosen because the plants will receive the maximum number of hours of sunlight each day.

We learned a lot last year which was the first year that we had used these boxes. This was one lesson - do put the tomatoes on the ground.  We had so many tomatoes and they grew so tall that it will be easier to pick them if the container is not elevated.  Lets talk a little about the boxes themselves. These boxes (plus the ingenuity of my dear husband) will put your garden on auto-pilot). They grow fabulous plants, are self-watering, no weeding, no bending, you can put them anywhere and even for the novice gardener they are easy-peasy.  If you have bad soil, no problem these boxes use potting soil.  They set up very quickly and come with the nutrient patch that helps with fertilizing, keeps in the moisture and keeps out the weeds. Please note that they do not come with the cage for the tomatoes, we added the cage. Simple to do, this one modified from one purchased at a big box box store.

 Here you can clearly see the opening for the water and any nutrients that you may need.  You just fill the bottom with water and the plants wick up the water as needed.  You will notice emitters on the side of the box.  My dear husband gets 99% credit for the garden - my 1% being helping purchase the plants and making a decision as to what we would like to have in the garden. As wonderful as the garden was last year it has made it even better this year.  The emitter is connected to a float device and he has the garden on auto-pilot.  He figured out a way to set this up so if we decide to be gone for a week or so, we will not have to worry about the garden being watered. I will not go into detail here but if you are interested in this aspect send me an email and we will send you some information and setting up the auto-pilot watering.

A word about the trellis.  The trellis will be completed later today. The boxes do not come with the trellis, it is something we added.  Last year we had so many cukes and squash that we had to set the boxes on the ground. Clever man that he is, hubby added the wood trellis. He will add one more board on each side and then add string giving the plants plenty of places to grow and climb.

One last thing and then the garden should be on auto-pilot as planned.  We have sent for some bird netting that will go over the garden to keep out the birds and keep them from eating the berries, etc.

Notes: The manufacture says self-watering and this is true in that you put the water in the bottom of the container and no worries about have I watered too much or too little.  As stated previously the plants wick up the water as needed but you do have to keep putting water in the bottom part of the container.  We like to use Miracle Grow nutrient and you just add it to the water using the manufacture's instructions.  We learned to treat early for tomato blossom end rot, adding the treatment to the water too. This is our second year to use the Grow Boxes and we look forward to many more seasons of use. I also learned about the hardiness of some kitchen herbs - the sage is quite hardy and at Thanksgiving, under the snow, I had fresh sage!

Resource

Grow Boxes Link, TheGarden Patch
Shelves that contain the boxes, Home Depot storage racks

P.S.

 The trellis is complete! Something else I should mention is
that these boxes are great for water conservation as they take much less water than a normal garden and as I mentioned earlier there is no guessing about how much or how little to water as the plants take water as needed. Ideal for use in drought areas.

I am not associated with Garden Patch, I am not one of their minions, I just happen to LOVE their product.

Thank you for stopping by!