Big Raised Bed

Finally, I've filled the new raised bed with a mixture of dirt from the yard, compost from the dump, and also compost from my own compost bin.

Also, I transplanted the melon plants into this big planter today.


Here is a picture of one of the many earth worms I found in my own compost. The compost from the dump does not have these guys.

Good Weather

Finally getting some real gardening weather. Here's a picture of my first ripe strawberry from the Earth Box.






I transplanted 3 of the tomato seedlings outside. The two shown are the Cherry and Roma tomato. I also transplanted a Brandywine tomato into the planter box on the West side of the house.

The red things around my tomatoes are called Automator Tomato & Pepper Trays from Burpee. They are supposed to protect the plant and increase yield. I don't know if they do much though (I used them last year), but I don't think they hurt either.

Bigger Pots

Weather was pretty crummy this weekend. Didn't make much progress on filling my new raised bed. But I did transplant my seedlings into larger containers.

They all had tons of roots. I probably left them in the seed start flats about a week too long.

The pink container contains all the tomato plants. The left two are cherry tomato, the middle two are roma tomato, and the right two are brandywine heirloom tomatoes.

The white container contains all my melon plants: three honeydew, two crenshaw and one cantaloupe.

The blue cup contains watermelon. They rarely do well for me, but I keep trying. The green container in the back is butternut squash.



I was out of potting mix, and was too much in a hurry to go to Yamagami's. The closest place for me is Osh Hardware. They have plants, but they aren't big into organic stuff. The only small bag of potting mix I could find, which said organic, was this one by MiracleGro. I'm sorry, but I kindof doubt anything by MiracleGro is organic.

Progress in the Cold

My gimpy artichoke plant seems to be looking good this year. I planted it from seed one or two years ago, and it never looked very good. Here it is thriving.









My direct-sowed snow peas (right side), radish and baby bok choi are growing pretty well. Strangely, the two I planted in the center didn't sprout, but that's ok. The bugs are chewing up the bok choi pretty good. Hope it makes it.

The white rings around the seedlings are large PVC connectors with copper tape around them to keep away slugs).




Last, but not least, I went to the dump to get some free compost for the new raised bed. I have a long way to go before filling it up. I've also been mixing in dirt from other parts of the yard this weekend.

Sprouts

Spouts came up from my seed flats earlier this week. The foreground are the melon type plants.

I'm getting lots of flowers on the strawberry plants I transplanted into the earth box last week.

Pictures are better this week because Horace took them.

eBox v2

This is the 2nd year I've used my Earth Box. This is significant because the 1st year, you get to use all the included fertilizer, soil, and dolomite included and pre-measured with the new Earth box kit. Now I have to come up with my own ingredients for subsequent years.

I went to Yamagami's because they always have an Earth Box expert there. I was surprised they recommended I use organic Potting SOIL instead of potting MIX. The Earth Box instructions tell you (about 10 times over) that you must use potting MIX! Then, instead of giving me the 10-10-10 fertilizer recommended by the Earth Box Instructions, they gave me 5-7-3. A Dr Earth fertilizer rep was there, and told me how their fertilizer was 100% organic. This confused me because I thought that only compost was considered organic. Anyway ... the 3rd thing they told me is that I don't need to add any Dolomite to this potting soil, because it already has it I guess. Hmm. Well, since I've broken all the Earth Box rules, this will be an interesting experiment.

Here is how the 2 cups of fertilizer are placed on top of the full earth box for a 6 or 8 plant setup.
You don't mix fertilizer into the soil. It is supposed to lay on top, and it leaches down into the soil slowly over time. Also, you cannot let the fertilizer touch the plants. That is why it's concentrated into a strip. The plants will sit on either side of the strip. If you have a different number of plants, the fertilizer strip may be in a different place.

Finally, you cover the earth box with the bonnet and plant your seedlings. These are a 6 pack of strawberries I bought from Yamagami's. I have tried growing strawberries from seed before, and it is extremely difficult to do. I think buying these as seedlings is a good idea.

New Raised Bed

I have been using an 8x4ft raised bed made out of treated wood for the last couple of years. Finally, I replaced it with a new untreated cedar bed from Natural Yards. I had good luck with these before (my smaller raised beds).

I really like the way I don't have to use any tools to put them together. They fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and you just put a pin into the pre-drilled holes to hold them together.

I was careful to put new black tarp under the rocks around the perimeter, and also leveled them out with some sand. This wasn't really necessary, but I really enjoy not having weeds growing around the raised beds.

Now all I need is dirt!