Have you seen the Earth Box? You know, those big plastic tubs with the water reservoir in the bottom that you can use to grow vast quantities of tomatoes on your back porch? I've looked at those an wondered if they might be a good solution to growing things on my deck, where the sun and heat tend to bake potted plants to a crackly crunch, but I've always balked at the price.Well, now I see I can have my "Earthbox" and spare my wallet, too. Here are the plans for a Homemade "Earthbox" that can be constructed from a couple of Rubbermaid tubs, a small plastic basket, some PVC pipe, and some black plastic. It's
not as pretty, but it's entirely as functional.So I could spend money on the real Earthbox, or I could spend time on the homemade version. I don't have an abundance of either money or time, but I may have time enough to make a couple of these boxes and try them out. It may be just the place for the melons.
3 comments:
Great idea! Always better to do it yourself, than to buy it already made.
Excellent idea and terrific plans for the novice or serious gardner. I made my own containers last year for my tomatoes and they (my tomatoes) loved the boxes so well that I am still getting tomatoes NOW and today it is October 26, 2006. I also made some tomato containers out of old but serviceable 5 gallon containers...one inside the other with a hole cut in the bottom of the top bucket so that I could use about an 8" piece of pvc pipe with holes drilled into the side of the pipe...I cut the pvc pipe larger than the hole in the top bucket so that it would support the upper container and keep it out of the dirt...I also cut/drilled several holes around the pvc pipe to allow water to leach up into the roots and dirt. We had a LOT of really dry weather in Arkansas this summer but my tomatoes are still producing. This winter I'll make more of the storage container pots. I put three tomatoes in one and had 5 tomatoes in another one and didn't notice any difference in production..they all did just fine. I had 21 tomato plants and might have more this coming year. I'm going to start my own inside..mostly bush tomatoes this time..the ones that don't need so much support. I think that might make them a little easier to move in I need to do so. It sure is a lot easier for this old great-granny to handle than to use a shovel or a tiller.
Greetings, all,
I'm the author of the Homemade box plans linked to above, and I have some news.
I was contacted recently by the Earthbox people and sent a Cease-and-Desist letter. To comply with their wishes, I've deleted all references to Earthbox from my website and changed the address. The new address is:
http://josho.com/gardening.htm
Pass it around. I hate to have lost all my previous "satisfied customers," but I have neither the time nor the money to fight the Earthbox people.
Yours truly,
Josh Mandel
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