Earth Box or Garden Patch

Joy, The self contained garden you referred to looks nice and should work great. I will definitely put it on my wish list, especially the 3' x 6' size.

Here is where I am at now (see picture). The inside dimension is 2'x6'x8". There are two 40 lb. bags of composted manure covering 2" of the bottom ($2.92). Next is 1/3 cu. yd. organic rose mix purchased in bulk that I hauled in my P/U ($11.85). There are 14 cinder blocks at a cost of $20.61. The total cost of this unit is $35.39. I purchased the material the day before yesterday and built the bed yesterday.

As you can see putting these together goes pretty quick. The hardest part of the job is the excavation of the old soil which I had hauled in about 20 years ago.

The reason I want to get away from the old row & furrow method is that it is too hard on my back any more to rebuild the rows ever year after tilling.

I am also trying the wheat straw bales this year - picking up 10 bales tomorrow morning @ $5.25 ea for new crop. The seller said he may have some left over from last year at a lower price.

The Earth Box concept is very attractive to me and I also have it on my wish list.

I enjoy reading what others are doing on this web site and look forward reading more about everyones adventures into gardening.

Joy- Compared to my fertilizer, yours doesn't seem to have calcium or magnesium. You probably could add those with Espoma's Organic Garden Lime that T-Plant adds to his Earthboxes. Not sure about the epsom salt. For some reason it is used in addtioin with my fertilizer.

BocaBob

Bob: What I'm wanting to do this Spring and Summer I think, is experiment a little. I have 6 garden patch boxes, 5 earth boxes, 2 of the square footers from garden supply, 2 topsy turvys and 4 revolutionary planters from garden supply and I'm going to use different mix types in all I think, and then see which I find fits my style of gardening the best. I have some of garden supply's self watering container mix, will get some of the coconut coir you have, and will get some more Jungle Growth and probably try and find some Pro Mix. I will use up the fertilizer I have and then decide from there; by comparing pics on this site as to who is using what and decide from there. I also think that adding coconut coir to my flower beds wouldn't hurt as maybe the water would get to the roots of my flowers better? I do have a tendency to overwater and that is why I feel the coconut coir, the self-watering containers and such are better for me than a regular garden.
joy112854

If you have such a problem with drowning your plants then water every third day and that's it!

TPlant: Thanks, I'll try to remember that and train my hands by clinching them behind my back when I think they look thirsty. LOL Every third day, got it.
joy112854

Better yet spend eight dollars for a moisture meter at Lowes and stick it in your mix and it will tell you if you need water.

Tplant, I followed your instructions and purchased one. It's the greatest thing since peanut butter! LOL

I read today that a good method to test your soil's moisture is to stick a screwdriver in and see if it goes in easily--If not, water.
But I prefer my moisture-meter. It's amazing how much more accurate it is than my eyes or my fore-finger. I have two: one has a relatively short probe (about 3 1/2 inches) for container plants, and one is longer, for checking the soil in my beds outside.

ok guys, don't fall down laughing too hard over this one; but, I'm puzzled here. Usually, when you have plants outside they like lots of water right? Well, because winter is coming I brought in my two citronella plants, my 2 geraniums and my 2 shamrocks. Well, I watered them all (Joyce and her watering can right)? That was two weeks ago, I bought these aqua globes and they finally arrived. All seem to be flourishing fine, except the big citronella plant. I mean that one I actually heard the glug, glug, glug and the aqua bulb was empty. It just can't seem to get enough water. It's been getting watered every day now. I'm tempted to pull it out of the pot and look at the roots and see if there are gold fish attatched to it or something. What's up with that, as usually when plants are indoors they need less water right?
joy112854

Will you please go buy a meter and find out? You can not make a mistake with it by overwatering.

Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate. There is magnesium carbonate in dolomitic limestone as well as in many limestones that aren't labeled "dolomitic".

Those limestone adds both the magnesium and calcium plants need.

I may be missing something but the only reason I can see for Epsom salts is when you don't want to raise the pH by adding limestone or on clay soils (magnesium sulfate as well as calcium sulfate, gypsum, are used to condition clay soils).

Too much magnesium can block calcium uptake. If putting epsom salt and dolomitic limestone in an EB would result in that situation I don't know but it seems it could.

I almost bought 10 EBs online, but the $69 shipping is HOLDING ME BACK! I will probably buy 10 GPs before the evening ends.

=)

Annapet

moonglow . . .lol...I bought five EBs last winter and went through a debate with myself too. It is a chunk of change.

15 more minutes....

hubby says i should find out first how much bonus i'm getting. lol.

Amortize the cost for him ^_^

You'll have them for a long time.



This message was edited Nov 16, 2008 3:06 AM

David_Paul I called HGI to get a definitive answer why add Epsom salt to their fertilizer. They recommend adding it to all their blends. Unfortunately I got the receptionist and she could not give me a good answer I could share especially with joy who is determined to use Epsom salt on everything. LOL I will call Monday and try to talk to the owner.

BocaBob

Boca Bob. I would be very curious to know. For self-watering containers why not a limestone which provides both magnesium and calcium instead?

I'm pretty sure I know the answer but I've written to the Epsom Salt Industry Council and asked why it advocates using magnesium sulfate on a regular basis to feed lawns, trees, shrubs, tomatoes, roses, etc when some soils have more than enough or even too much magnesium in them.

So far, no answer.

The Council sees magnesium sulfate as a beneficial to almost everything except sage:

http://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/garden_usage_tips.htm

I don't know if tossing Epsom Salts on soils which already have enough magnesium has, beyond the possibility of blocking calcium uptake and wasting money, any ill effects. I suppose if it had the negative effects too much phosphorus , for instance, can do to the environment, we would have heard about it.

From what I've read epsom salts strengthens the stalks of the plants. Not just veggie growers use it. Flower growers use it too. I not only grow veggies; but grow canna lilies too, and the epsom salts added just a bit to the canna beds, makes the stalks stronger. It does work, as I've tried it. Maybe that is part of why Boca Bob's plants are so healthy also? I don't know much being a beginner; but, have been told by people that grow cannas that adding epsom salts to the beds of cannas make the stalks thicker and it does, believe me, I got about 80 cannas round the beds at my house. Brrr, it's getting cold here right now. Remember I'm in zone 8 B and in NW Florida, we aint' growing much of anything, except inside or in green houses. My cannas will take the cold as they do every year; but no veggies right now and my cannas and daffodils will go down for the winter. Time for me to fly south, so Mike can teach me more about gardening. He has some coconut coir bags awaiting for me and startings I started up here.
joy112854

Good discussion here. Come spring I will have enough tomatoes to experiment on, and i will have a control group and experimental group with Epsom salt added.

David_Paul, I survived the night without buying the EBs yet. Perhaps Santa will bring me some.

Moonglow: Maybe they will give free shipping over the holidays, I suspect there will be lots of that going on everywhere with our economy. Since I haven't used the EB's yet; I couldn't tell whether you'd like the EBs better or the GPs. I'll know which one I like better after this Spring/Summer. I noticed that if you order in quantity the price goes down. With the EBs if you order 10 it's $334, if you order 10 GP's it's $299.50 which is a $35.50 savings, is that what you are coming up with? If not, I got the coupon codes you can use? Of course the earth box code is from 2005, the GP from 2008. Can you believe I found one of those ads in a book my dad had? Makes me wonder if he had thought about using them too. He didn't need to he was quite the gardener I only dream of being one day. I can still remember the size of the tomatoes he used to grow up in Ohio when I was just a little girl, his beefsteaks were as big as grapefruits and juicy. They taste different down here in Florida for some reason.
joy112854

Joy --- When you start to grow your own heirlooms only, you will discover what a tomato really tastes like. Try Sudduth Brandywine, OTV Brandywine, Delicious, Black Cherry, Marvel Stripe, Hillbilly and many others. I've never tasted an heirloom that I didn't truly enjoy.
The reason why I am an EB fan is because of its many qualities such as the available covers, the staking system which is great especially if growing on concrete as a flimsy cage just won't hold up an heirloom plus the casters which make them easy to move around and an available self watering system. All these things add up especially if you have to go away for a week or two or more that is with the self-watering system.

TPlant: Have you tried the new red mulch covers yet that EB is offering? I'm curious, as you will have time to use them before I will and would like to see if there is any difference, for some reason red makes tomatoes grow better.
joy112854

Carolyn once explained that it is advertised to produce 10% or more tomatos by using red mulch covers. This may be well for professional farmers but not the hobbyist as we are at DG. For example a plant will produce twenty tomatos X 10% = 2 more tomatos so you tell me is it worth the extra cost as we always have more tomatos than we can eat anyway and usually give away the excess besides it has never been proven, at least, to my knowledge?

The red mulch studies were done on field crops. Its doubtful if the small amount of red light reflected by an EB cover or red mulch around a few plants has any effect at all. In addition the field crop results were all over the place. Sometimes an increase in yield with red mulch was seen, sometimes there was no difference between red, black and reflective mulch. From the University of Vermont:

Oh, ok, I have seen these red plastic thingys that people have been using also that claim the same thing. Where I am, I would want white covers facing up like yours right? I need new covers for the garden patch boxes so thought I'd use the mulch covers sold by EB for them also.
joy112854

Will they fit?

TPlant: They should, the GP boxes are a tad bit bigger than the EB boxes, about 1" bigger but not much more than that, think I can tug it to fit that much bigger? I've even thought about ordering a few extras as I have two of the square footers and they don't have mulch covers, I could cut them to right size for them too. I like the EB covers better than the plastic that they use with the GP's, the EB covers totally cover the top, the plastic on the GP's don't and weeds still get in a bit.
joy112854

David_Paul - I talked to the owner Of HGI (where I get my fertilizer) and got a good explanation why to add Epsom salt to the fertilizer. Since he supplies mostly commercial greenhouse growers, they are not growing in the ground, they are growing soil less and vegetables need a healthy amount of magnesium to be very healthy. He doesn't add the Epsom salt to his formula because of a couple of reasons. Firstly, its cheap and readily available everywhere. Secondly it collects moisture so it would cake up the fertilizer. No need to cheapen his high quality formula. All sounds good to me. Comments? I also asked him why fertilizers like Miracle Gro don't have calcium or magnesium in it and he said they assume you are growing in the ground where both of those a available

BocaBob

I just came across this forum and am interested in purchasing 5-7. I see in one of the above posts it was mentioned that both are about the same price. I checked the website for EB and it is $55 and for GP $30, what I have overlooked?
I appreciate all the information. Any chance of a co-op?!!

Rockette, if you compare only the boxes, they are about the same price ... both around $30; the $55 for the Earthbox is the complete system, including the planting medium and fertilizer and lime.

An Earthbox is $29.95 if you don't buy the potting mix, fertilizer and casters.

That is how I bought mine.

Thanks for the information.

I think I would like to have the casters but can I purchase them in addition. I went on the web and am not finding how to purchase bits and pieces.

I am somewhat new to gardening and need to ask what kind of fertilizer would I purchase? Regular potting soil?

I now see on the side bar there is a caster kit. I best get back to window shopping! ^_^

Rockette: no, don't use garden soil, use a potting mix, like Jungle Growth for containers, that is what I use or a lot of people are using coconut coir, it is very light. You use either 3 cups of organic fertilizer or 2 cups of granular fertilizer, not time released and not liquid. You must also use 2 cups of dolomite lime, I think most people use Epsoma brand here.
joy112854

And the EBs include the casters in with the price!

Tplant:
Only if I buy the complete kit, correct? If I purchase only the earthbox it appears the casters are not included and I would need to purchase them separately for an extra $9.

Thank you to all for the information and help!

Yes, I just looked it up and it appears you are right? They used to offer the casters but probably had to stop because of the economy crunch. I imagine they lost a bundle in the market as a lot of us have. Order the EB w/casters if you really need them as they are a great asset on solid ground if they have to be moved. I don't use them as I grow on weed cloth.

Thanks Tplant:
Some of the boxes will be maintained on a patio or deck so I am thinking the casters will be helpful to keep it off the ground.
I appreciate all the information.

TPlant: I have two boxes of weed cloth myself, but, am probably going to use both in my canna lily beds. All I gotta get before Spring is the staples and that should be no problem. I was going to use huge black garbage bags torn apart to cover my pallots which are going to be sitting on top of cardboard, (also covered with trash bags), and then the pallots put on the cardboard and then the EBs set on top of that. I hope that will work.

My guys are coming out to finish removing the stumps in the front yard this weekend, so I can then plant an Empress tree and a Muskogee Crepe Myrtle on both sides of the front yard. I have Enchinacea seeds coming and Shasta Daisy seeds coming which I was going to plant up under the trees once the trees got healthy; but, now I'm getting a bit concerned as I hear the Enchinacea's draw slugs which draw moles and voles? Ever hear about that? My fear is they will destroy the trees, the Enchinaceas, the daisies and then make their way back to my back yard and EBs? Is that possible and should I be ordering some Sluggo before then?
joy112854

Can't say as I've never had that problem down here.