My Victory Garden

O.K., it’s been awhile since I wrote anything but I’m back and with a purpose. I’ve got tons of things to talk about from molecular gastronomy to sustainable eating to Mini Sirloin Burgers. But today I’m all gung ho about my upcoming bounty from Mother Nature. In the past, I’ve had mixed successes with my gardening endeavors. When I lived in a crack house (or so my friends called it), I had a huge harvest of tomatoes in my otherwise barren backyard. In my current, less crack-y house, I’ve had more misses than hits despite two raised beds full of expensive soil. One of the problems is that the backyard is on the north side of the house and surrounded by tall trees so it gets somewhat limited sun. But mostly, I would get lazy about watering because I don’t spend a lot of time in the backyard. I tried to do a drip system but it was pretty shoddy. As a result, my tomatoes tended to shrivel up and yield only a couple of tough skinned fruit. The only thing that flourishes is arugula in the spring because it’s basically a tasty weed. So this year, what with it being a drought year, I was hesitant to plant anything. But then my sisters gave me an Earthbox. I kind of dismissed it as a plasticky, faux-terracotta planter, but it’s actually a pretty clever hydroponic system. Basically, you have a reservoir of water at the bottom of a planter and two plugs of soil are dipped in it so it wicks up the water to the rest of the soil. It doesn’t waterlog the plant roots, you don’t need water it very often and the soil moistness stays at a pretty constant level. Plus it has a plastic covering on the top of the soil so you don’t get weeds or lose excess water from evaporation. I got totally excited about it so I bought two more boxes. The problem is that you can only grow two tomato plants per box and they cost $55 apiece, not including soil and seedlings. You can reuse them so it’ll probably pay off in the long run but it’s still pricey. Thus I did the logical thing and did a Google search for DIY Earthboxes. Turns out there are tons of designs out there from fellow nerds who have created whole urban rooftop farms based on this type of planter. Basically, you just take a plastic bin and rig up some sort of platform for the soil so you can maintain a water reservoir underneath. I found one design that looked pretty sturdy and clever involving using a plastic grid on some PVC tubes. I decided that bigger was better so I used two 30 gallon bins where I could plant three tomato plants per bin. I’m really happy with how they turned out but they’re a little too voluminous and it seems like the water is having trouble reaching the shorter roots. It shouldn’t be a problem as the tomato roots grow deeper, but I should have used a smaller bin. Plus, it was kind of a pain in the ass to make. Lots of power tools and sawing and flying shards of plastic. And the cost per box was about $20-25 per bin. I need them to be cheaper if I want to this on any sort of scale. But all in all I’m still really happy about the finished product. Please ignore the surrounding dirt and dead weeds. So I planted a dozen tomatoes, everything from Early Girl to Bigger Boy to Arkansas Traveler to Momotaro. Nothing crazy exotic; I just want big yields. But I still was thinking about more planting. So I went for a simpler design that involves fewer parts and easier assembly using 18-gallon bins. It works out to be about $10 per finished bin so it’s more economical. However, the build is kind of flimsy since all the parts don’t really fit together snugly. I think it’s still going to work but it’s just kinda inelegant. In those I planted squashes, melons and eggplants. I'm not what you would call "handy." But I did create a clog-free/mosquito-free overflow spout. We’ll see how this summer’s harvest goes. If all goes according to plan, next year I’m going to take out the raised beds and replace them with rows of plastic bins. Won’t be the prettiest solution but if it means having low-maintenance vegetables year round, then I don’t care. Eggplant in the back, zucchini in the front. Ooh, one more thing: I was listening to some woman on the radio talking about edible landscapes and so I pulled out the decorative plants in the front of my house and planted herbs instead: parsley, cilantro, two types of thyme, two types of sage, lemongrass, epazote and bunch of basil plants. Again, not very pretty but as long as they grow, I don’t give a crap. I will post updates as the summer goes on.