Boel's Garden Blog

Planting Earthboxes without covers

admin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 17:32:44 +0000

Here are a couple of Earthboxes that I am growing without the usual cover, the greens because they are grown densely, to be cut at a very young and tender age and then they regrow to be harvested over and over again.

I have grown onions in earthboxes before, 20 per box. This box has 64 onions planted, and I intend to thin them and harvest them as scallions, leaving the rest to grow to full size.

Update May 4, first harvest of young micro greens:

Micro Greens Before First Harvest

Micro Greens After First Harvest

Seed starting

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:20:43 +0000

Planting Guide from Mother Earth News

Click the link above for a great planting guide wherever you live in the US.

Combination Earth Boxes

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:05:20 +0000

Here is a great video from Earthbox about combination boxes.

I learned that you can grow sweet peppers and hot peppers together without worrying that your sweet peppers might turn hot. I have always taken great care with separating them, and it’s good to know I don’t have to worry about that.

Hot peppers and sweet peppers can indeed cross pollinate, but it will affect plants grown from those seeds. So don’t save seeds if you mix peppers. Otherwise go ahead and mix and match as you please.

Harvesting green peppers and hot peppers

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:34:11 +0000

It’s getting colder and colder, and I am realizing there will not be time for the sweet peppers to ripen. So I harvested many of them green tonight. Sad to not get to see them get ripe, but I’d rather have them green than not at all.

There is still more to harvest. The hot peppers are continuing to ripen, though they are also late, and we are getting quite a small harvest as compared to usual.

Hot peppers grown in Earth Boxes -- Mix of Rocotillo, Kung Pao, Sport, Big Bomb, Pepperoncini and somewhere a single Pimento de Padron.

Bell pepper from my Square Foot garden

Weighed in at 505 grams. (Almost 1 pound 2 ounces)

Harvest, ready for the grill

admin — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:11:07 +0000

Ready for the grill

Peppers: Jimmy Nardello and College, Eggplant: Amethyst
Potatoes: Bintje and unknown red variety grown from Trader Joe’s organic potatoes that started sprouting eyes Red onion: Red Crimson

Jimmy Nardello is one of my favorite sweet peppers, and College is one of my favorite anaheim type peppers.

This is the first year for me growing Amethyst, and they will certainly be on my “must grow” list for next year. Absolutely delicious, and cooks faster than many other eggplants.

Growing Squash in an Earthbox

admin — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 19:05:08 +0000

I have grown squash in earthboxes for a few years now, and I have not been entirely thrilled with the results. Using the earthbox quidelines of 4 per box, I always got anemic looking plants. They did produce squash, but not as much as I would hope for.

This year, I put one plant per box, right in the middle of the box.

What a difference that made!

As you’ll see in the picture, you can’t even see the box – you’ll have to trust me, there’s an Earthbox under that foliage.

Time to freeze eggplants

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:50:24 +0000

The eggplants are now coming on strong. Time to freeze! The way I do that is I cut them in slices, and layer them in single layers with parchment paper between each layer. Once they are frozen, I put them into freezer bags.

The same method works great for squash and bell peppers (or any other pepper you might want to freeze).

Black Beauty Eggplant

Right now, dinners from the garden are getting more and more tasty.

Yesterday’s dinner was:

Grilled Eggplant Salad and Feta Tomato Quinoa

Broccoli – lots of broccoli

admin — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:56:31 +0000

Broccoli has been thriving this cool and temperate summer. We have been eating lots of it. Now that the heads have all been harvested, the harvesting of side shoots continues, and hopefully those will keep coming for some time still.

Delicious!

Don’t forget to harvest your garlic scapes

admin — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:30:56 +0000

I have been harvesting garlic scapes for a few weeks now. Today was the largest harvest to date.

Two great reasons:

1: They are very delicious!

2: You will get larger bulbs of garlic come harvest time.

How to transplant tomato seedlings (no sound)

admin — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:11:08 +0000

The reason for cutting off most of the branches is that it allows a strong root system to develop, as roots will form all along the buried stem.

The reason for digging a long, shallow hole, and laying the seedling sideways is that the soil is warmer at the surface.

It might seem counter-intuitive to cut off most of the branches of the seedlings you have carefully raised and lovingly tended, but it really helps you grow a stronger tomato plant.

My tomato plants routinely grow to be 8 - 9 feet tall.