Organic Garden'ing'

June 5th 2011
We've got our Earth Boxes, & fabric pots, the beginnings of our organic garden. Wahooo my husband must surely love me to do all this for the family. This is way more than I was expecting to start out with. We're growing fruits, vegetables, and herbs. I'm gonna try to chronicle our gardening adventure.

This is a pano picture of our back yard viewed from our back patio.

Click on picture to see a larger view.

 We set up the garden to the far left up against our shared fence with the neighbor. We chose that spot because it is the sunniest area in our backyard. We did start out with two Topsy Turvy planters that are seen hanging from one of the rafters of our patio.

Earth Box info can be found here: Earthbox.com
We purchased our boxes, along with many of the plants and all the dirt from Pike's Nursery.

Fabric Pots are a store generic brand and info can be found here: Atlantis Hydroponics

Daddy showing the kids how to work.

What we planted...
One Zucchini, and two different kind of Cucumber plants. In an Earth Box.

Zucchini, Burpless Cucumber, Bush Pickle Cucumber

One tomato and three peppers in the Earthbox.

Mountain Pride (indeterminate) Tomato, a Sweet Banana Pepper, Karma Bell Pepper, and Gypsy Pepper

 Started from seed, two asian eggplants.

Two Asian Eggplant in the Earth Box.

Started from seed, sweet corn.

This has 8 Sweet Corn seedlings in the Earth Box.

We have green beans in the large poly pot with the cascading trellis.

Kentucky Pole Beans

These are the collapsible fabric & poly bags. We are growing red potatoes, fingerling potatoes, and carrots in these pots.

 For the time being we have 6 Strawberry plants in a strawberry poly pot.

Ozark Beauty Strawberries

Cateloupe in a fabric pot.

Hale's Best Jumbo Muskmelon

This garden is a stretch for me out of my comfort zone. I'm not much of an outdoor kind of gal who likes to commune with nature. I really hate bugs. Despite those reasons there is just something about growing food that is connecting me to my roots. My grandparents farmed in the Philippines & back home in Hawaii there was always something growing in the yard that was edible, literally the entire island was an edible wonderland. My mother cultivated edible weeds. My grandmother landscaped with peanut plants under the mailbox. There was always those staple plants of Kalamansi, Marunguy, Pias in many of our yards.

Gardening is in my blood. I believe one of my uncles still manages the farm in the Philippines. Since migrating to the U.S. we’ve become very suburban. I don't think as a young girl I thought...when I grow up I will garden, as an adult I hope to connect to my ancestors & Hawaii in this way.  It is very exciting to me. What's not exciting are the pests. I hate bugs, all of them good or bad, but I've decided I am going to work through my fear one bug at a time.  

There are a lot of benefits to having a garden that I am hoping will outweigh my fears, the expense & the work.  Eating healthy, teaching my kids where food comes from, lessening our carbon footprint, and enjoying a new hobby as a family.

So here we go.