This is my friend Jim Murray’s garden.

Jim lives in a condominium and has a limited amount of ground area to work with. Earth Box is the simplest method of growing vegetables that I know of, and I was happy to see it in action at Jim’s house. The farming principles are sound, and it’s what I will use to grow stuff for myself.

From the Earth Box website:

The patented EarthBox was developed by commercial farmers and proven in the lab and on the farm. Our maintenance-free, award-winning, high-tech growing system controls soil conditions, eliminates guesswork and more than doubles the yield of a conventional garden-with less fertilizer, less water and virtually no effort.

I see this method of gardening as useful to someone with a limited space to plant. It is also good for someone who has a full time job and not enough time. Another plus – you do not need machinery for ground preparation.

Certainly there are other systems of gardening that might be more appropriate for feeding larger groups of people. But this system works well for a small family.

This system is meant to lower maintenance time. The light film on top prevents weeds from growing by preventing light from hitting the soil. If the black side is up, it retains heat. If the silver side is up, it keeps the media cool. The silver side is probably best for Hawai‘i.

There is a pipe that one fills with water. Since there is a drain hole about two inches from bottom of the box, it self-drains. At the time of planting, low-release fertilizer is buried about an inch in the growing media. One application is enough for the life time of the plant.

To change the subject for just a moment – When we toured Taiwan many years ago we observed that their water table is extremely shallow. So shallow, in fact, that sometimes the plants grew on the top of the row of mounds while the walkways were under water. This observation led Dr. Bernie Kratky of the UH Manoa Extension, and others, to realize that the top part of the roots were taking in oxygen while the bottom part took in water and nutrients.

This is the basis of the theory of non-circulating hydroponics – that is, that plants need to have a portion of their roots exposed to air or they drown. The Earth Box takes care of this problem with holes in the bottom of the containers, so drainage is assured. And it uses soil, instead of water, because soil is more forgiving as a growing medium.

A roma tomato plant and a regular beef tomato.

Note that the container is elevated to discourage slugs and make it difficult for ants to carry aphids around. One could also put the chair legs in water to accomplish that. Rosemary, basil and other aromatic herbs are said to repel insects, too.

One can plant many different types of crops this way. Here are some strawberries and eggplants.

When my friend Jim told me how his system worked, I realized right then that it was sound practice. So much so, that I will use this method to grow plants for myself.