May 11, 2008
GROW YOUR OWN VEGIES AT HOME WITHOUT A GARDEN
~ written by jerry golden
Many are concerned about food prices and shortages, and rightly so; you may not be able to do something about all the problems but you can help yourself and family with the following information.
I found a web site www.earthbox.com if you live in the US or anywhere outside of Israel they will ship them to you, but I tried to get them to ship some of these boxes to Israel and they said they do not ship to Israel. So I decided to make my own and plant my own survival garden, and now I want to share this information with you. It is not perfect but it works very well. With this system you will use about one tenth the amount of water that a regular garden uses and the plants will really surprise you on how quickly they grow. And of course you can and should do it organic.
In Fact, since Joel and I took these pictures I have improved on the design and I will explain those improvements as we go through the pictures. This is not the same as the earthbox but I think just as good.
What you will need.
- 2 boxes the same size.
- Pond basket
- Tape & pipe
- Potting soil
- Seeds or plants to plant.
This is Joel with two Styrofoam boxes. For example with this size box you can plant four tomato plants.
Get what is called a pond basket or one you use to hold items in under your sink as long as it fits in the box. Draw a line to cut at the height of the box.
Cut like so.
It should look like this when you are finished with the cutting. Make a small notch in the rim to be used as an over flow whole so you can’t over water your plants.
Turn the top box over and mark around the pond box.
And then make a second mark inside that mark to be cut this will give the pond box the chance to add strength to the bottom of the upper box.
Then cut along the inner line like this.
It will look like this when cut.
Take a small drill ¼” or a screw driver and make holes around the hole you cut being sure not to weaken the bottom to much.
Tape the pond box in place just to hold it the weight of the dirt will hold it later on.
Make a hole the same size as the PVC or rubber pipe you are using for a water inlet. I use a 1 ½”.
Fill the top box with organic potting dirt, making sure to fill the pond gasket for that will act as your wick to draw the moisture up to your plants as they need it. The beauty of this system is you don’t waste water and you can’t over water.
A picture of our garden, the tomatoes were planted about one month ago, already there are many green tomatoes. The lettuce has grown so fast that it is hard to believe and taste very good.
I hope this helps, but once again if you don’t feel like shopping and can afford to buy from www.earthbox.com it would be much easier for you.
Shalom, jerry golden