Austin Garden: 🌿 the Ease of Earthbox Gardening 🌿 spring plant sales 🌿. flower arranging tips

NURSERY NOTES: Drop by Zilker this weekend (March 23/24) for the Austin Herb Society's Spring Plant Sale. Apart from plentiful amounts of organic plants, enjoy browsing through a 'Green Elephant Sale' of new and gently used gardening tools and books. Plant Sale 🌿 Also at Zilker, the Austin Cactus and Succulent Society holds its plant show and sale March 30/3. ACSS 🌿 Tomorrow (Sat.) visit the Herb Bar at 10 a.m. to hear Figbeard's talk about "Fruit Trees in Myth & Mysticism." ($10) ❦

SEVEN TIPS FOR ARRANGEMENTS: similar flowers should be grouped together, mix the size and scale of blooms, use complimentary colors — and other helpful ideas from party-planner/author Lauren Conrad. ❦

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CHEROKEE CONNECTION: Doug Martin and Rachel J. Caldwell, from the Central Texas Cherokee Township gave a fascinating talk about "the 3 Sisters" to Austin Organic Gardeners earlier this month. Doug and Rachel shared myth-stories about corn, beans and squash, offered helpful gardening advice, and demonstrated a Cherokee blow pipe, "For success with corn, it's all about nitrogen, nitrogen, nitrogen," said Doug. ❦

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BUILD YOUR OWN COOP: "This new and improved incarnation of the portable chicken coop is designed for three to four chickens, and anybody can build it," say the folks at Mother Earth News ❦

THE AUSTIN GARDEN relies entirely on support from its readers. Please consider making a donation of $10 - $15 a year to support this bi-monthly publication. At the moment only 5% of readers are supporting this publication. Many thanks in advance! PayPal link ❦

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CENTRAL TEXAS GARDENER: Imagination, creative reuse, and spirited fun turned an empty backyard into a sensory voyage in Jeffrey Harris and Kevin George’s San Antonio garden. CTG ❦

The Ease of Earthbox Gardening

by Nathan Speck-Ewer

My work has taken me to different parts of the country — Connecticut, California, Florida, and now Texas. And with each move I’ve enjoyed gardening.

For the first couple of moves, I did a traditional, in-ground garden such as I grew up doing with my parents.

But since each place has its own terroir–soil, weather, weeds, bugs–I decided after a couple of moves to skip a couple of steps in the process and try container gardening.

Now, I’m no paid spokesperson for this company, but I’ve come to think the best container garden system is made by Earthbox. (Check out www.earthbox.com to see these nifty container gardening systems).

The standard, Original Earthbox, is a sturdy plastic box shaped like a shoebox, measuring 29" L x 13.5" W x 11" H. It holds 3 gallons of water in a reservoir at the bottom of the box, and has a plastic mesh screen that sits over the reservoir that supports 2 cubic feet (60 dry quarts) of growing media.

(Click here for Earthbox diagram)

Earthboxes feature a fill tube that sticks up through the soil for watering purposes. It’s a simple process: water through the fill tube and the soil wicks up the water from the bottom reservoir.

The author with some of his Earthboxes at school

A drainage hole prevents overfilling the reservoir and thus overwatering the plants. Fertilizer can be applied to the soil and/or the water via the fill tube.

Plastic covers then can be placed on top of the soil to prevent rain water from washing through the soil. Accessories like wheels make the box portable, too, if helpful. The boxes are made of UV protected and food safe plastic.

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I came across Earthboxes in Florida where they were developed about 30 years ago by tomato grower Blake Whisenant.

Mr. Whisenant was trying to mitigate soil and fertilizer loss on his 2,000 acre farm due to heavy rains associated with hurricane season. Over the years, the product line has grown and improved, and has been sold to a manufacturer in Pennsylvania.

To me there’s little downside to container gardening in Earthboxes except the initial purchase cost. Initially, they do cost more than other container garden methods such as growbags. But over time, I’ve found them to be cheaper (more durable, and more efficient with respect to water, soil, and fertilizer) than other container garden systems.

Recently, for a gardening club that I co-lead at my school, I’ve seen how practical they are for our middle school students, most of whom are beginning gardeners.

Discouragement can really kill a new hobby, and what we wanted to do is make gardening as easy as possible for our students so they could break into the hobby and enjoy it, without too many of the downsides that can lead to discouragement.

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The Earthboxes have done just that: the students add great soil, add water, add fertilizer, plant their plants, put covers on the containers to prevent rainwater wash through and weeds, and then add water to the reservoirs periodically for growing success. It’s that simple.

The results come in due time: great flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Earthboxes eliminate some of the variables that discourage beginning gardeners such as local soil quality and amending, inconsistent watering, and inconsistent fertilizing.

The watering reservoirs water the plants the right way (from the bottom), are very forgiving if the students don’t water them consistently, and are designed to prevent overwatering, too.

It’s great seeing our students enjoy gardening, without my having to nag them to water, weed, and fertilize each week. Plus, the earthboxes are portable even when fully loaded with soil, so that as the seasons change here in Central Texas, the students can load them onto a dolly and move them around to take advantage of the campus’s microclimates.

I also like that it encourages students to take responsibility for their Earthbox — or they can split the responsibility of caring for one with a friend.

Ten years ago I thought I’d probably get this brand of container garden, or something like it, and then move on to raised bed gardening or in ground gardening as I got more space and time.

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But here I am now ten years later, with a lot more space (though not time), and still enjoying gardening this way. If I want to, I can fine-tune the soil pH and nutrient levels in each box, according to the plants that I want to grow. Earthboxes make things so easy and efficient that I don’t see why I’d give them up at this point. Indeed, over the past few years I’ve been adding a few more to my collection.

Don’t get me wrong: pulling weeds can be very meditative and satisfying! But without weeding to do (and Earthboxes virtually eliminate it) I’ve found my bliss elsewhere, tending my plants and the results.

(By the way, I’ve tried making my own Earthboxes, but in my personal trade-off of time vs. money, I’ve found it easier just to buy them rather than make my own version. But if you want to explore the route of making something like them yourself, check out YouTube for lots of videos of enterprising and crafty home-gardeners doing so.)

Especially for beginning gardeners, and really, for any gardeners who want to be able to take their gardens with them should they ever move, or don’t have a lot of space to garden, I think Earthboxes are a great way to go.

Through the years I’ve also come to see that other experienced gardeners continue to garden this way, too, and trade tips and tricks on social media platforms like Facebook Groups or Reddit, to name a couple. Regardless of how you like to garden, Happy Gardening! ❦