EarthBox Update — June 9, 2013. Now with marigolds! And pests!

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

Everything has been staked. The layout got spread out somewhat. Aphids (on the lettuces) and cabbage worms (brussels sprouts) made their first appearances and were rewarded with a dose of this organic solution. [pic of cabbage worm from itsnotworkitsgardening.com]

Marigolds are supposed to be a very beneficial companion plant, so twelve got spread around in the earthboxes. Scallions deter aphids, so some of those got pulled from the main bunch and distributed in with the lettuces. [wikipedia list of companion plants here. Companion plant theory is here.] In the early ’90’s I had read about companion planting in an old Mother Earth News Almanac (1973 edition, 1977 printing), I’ve been meaning to try it whenever I got around to planting vegetables. It only took me 20 years to put it into practice.

First picture, a view of the earthboxes on May 3:

June 9 view. The zucchini got a “throne” to lift it higher off of the ground. The little spots of color are marigolds. Note the new pvc supports for the tomato cages:

June 9 view from the back garage door looking toward the back yard:

Basil. It’s almost batches of pesto time:

The cucumbers. I think they actually *liked* getting staked, finally. The marigolds in the corners of the boxes are going to be trained to be outside of the staking systems:

Peppers:

One box of tomatoes (Stupice, and Sun Gold on the right):

Tomatillos. The one on the right is about chest high now. Each has about 15-20 flowers:

Peppers, scallions, lemongrass, shiso:

Final note. The tomatoes have now received two calcium nitrate “snacks”, as is recommended by many folks over at the earthbox forums. (1 tsp down the feed tube per week.) This is done because the new dolomite is not yet bioavailable. In theory it should help to prevent blossom end rot (BER).