I hear griping from many people that would love to grow their own fresh organic produce at home, but just don’t have a place to raise a vegetable garden. Well today’s video is a review of the EarthBox, a handy device that could  be your best answer to the question of “how to grow a garden without a backyard!”

Earth Boxes are popular because they are specially designed to eliminate the guesswork and problems related to feeding and watering plants that are container grown. You can use the EarthBox to cultivate the same plants found growing in the typical backyard vegetable garden, and you can even use them to raise edible plants indoors.

Convenient Features and Advantages of Earth Boxes:

•    Built in reservoir guards against over or under watering
•    Mulching system eliminates the need for weeding
•    Casters make it easy to move your garden or track the sun
•    Optional trellis system supports all types of climbing veggies
•    Simple enclosed instructions make its setup and use a snap
•    Serves as a great self-watering planter for the deck or patio

I’m not going to compare the EarthBox to actually growing plants in the ground, but if you don’t have a backyard or space for growing a garden this is a great alternative for producing a limited quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables anywhere there is suitable light. Organic gardeners can easily substitute their favorite organic fertilizers.

Year-Round Production and Planting Guide for the EarthBox:

•    Spring: Sow loose leaf lettuce and leafy green vegetables such as kale, mustard, arugula, and spinach. Fast growing cool weather crops like radishes, kohl rabi, baby turnips, and Swiss Chard can also be included in this rotation.

•    Summer: When the early crops are finished it will be warm enough to transplant tomatoes, peppers, or even eggplants into your Earth Box. Other summer options include cucumbers, squash, melons, and a variety of edible flowers and herbs.

•    Fall: As the days grow cooler and shorter plant another round of fast growing leafy greens including collards, kale, escarole, spinach, and oriental greens. If you time it just right you could even grow a fall crop of broccoli, turnips, cauliflower, or cabbages in your Earth Box.

•    Winter: Rather than shut down the EarthBox for the winter, consider moving it inside to try your hand at growing a few indoor edibles such as herbs, pea shoots, sunflower greens, or mesclun lettuce mixes near a sunny window or under a grow light.

Get that organic garden started today with the incredible Earth Box available right here at the Veggie Gardening Tips storefront for your convenience and without risk as your satisfaction is guaranteed by the OpenSky Project.

There have been a number of mysterious plant capers making the rounds and being investigated here at Veggie Gardening Tips lately.

First there was the mix up between the look alike collard and cauliflower seedlings, then the case of the faux eggplants. Now there’s a new report of an unknown plant cropping up uninvited in a Northern Wisconsin gardener’s backyard!

The Latest Plant to Hit the Veggie Gardening Tips Most Wanted List

I don’t have a clue on this one, so Tamara and I are hoping that someone out there can shed a little light on the identity and culture of this rugged and vigorous looking plant. First a little background:

“I was on your website and saw that you were familiar with volunteer garden plants. Any idea what this plant is? I have ten of them growing in the garden.”

“I thought they were tomato plants since they showed up in a row spaced out where last year tomatoes were. I thought specifically maybe Thessolonikki. But they don’t smell at all like tomato plants.  Thanks in advance.” Continue Reading About “An Intriguing Mystery for the Plant Detectives” »

It’s back! After a rather lengthy absence the Gardening Secrets Newsletter is back in production and was delivered earlier this month to everyone that is on the current e-mail list.

If you didn’t receive your copy, or have changed your e-mail address since the last issue, head on over and sign up for your free newsletter subscription right now while the June 2009 issue is still available.

Now Appearing in this Month’s Organic Gardening Newsletter

This month the newsletter details all the changes taking place in the Veggie Gardening Tips plot this spring including; new growing beds, the search for a rabbit proof fence, a perennial vegetable bed, the latest mushroom logs being  inoculated, and a few ornamental edible fruits that were recently planted.

The feature article covers some interesting statistics related to the rapid rise in the popularity of organic vegetable gardening and offers a little inspiration to proceed with that favorite backyard DIY project that you’ve been procrastinating on for far too long! Continue Reading About “Gardening Secrets Newsletter June 2009″ »

Mushrooms have to be one of the biggest overlooked finds for the backyard vegetable garden. That’s a shame because they are so easy to cultivate and extremely productive considering the minimal effort required to start them growing.

You’ll find a number of articles right here at Veggie Gardening Tips related to growing both gourmet and medicinal edible mushrooms, and today I wanted to add a little video content to show just how easy it is to start your own crop of Shiitakes, Maitakes, Oysters, Lion’s Mane, Reishi, Chicken of the Woods, and other interesting and delicious mushroom species.

Grow Your Own Edible Mushrooms Indoors or Out

There are many different techniques used to cultivate mushrooms commercially, but for the home gardener the best options are the convenient kits used to grow them indoors or hardwood log inoculation for cultivating mushrooms outdoors.

The great thing about using hardwood logs is that once they are inoculated and begin fruiting they will continue to produce pound after pound of gourmet mushrooms for years to come at no additional expense or labor requirement.

After watching the mushroom log inoculation video visit the following links to read previous articles here at Veggie Gardening Tips that are related to growing mushrooms in the home or backyard garden.

Links for Additional Mushroom Cultivation Information:

• Inoculating Hardwood Shiitake Mushroom Logs
• Cultivating Mushrooms Indoors with Growing Kits
• Growing Gourmet Edible Mushrooms Outdoors

A recent post described the difficulty that veggie gardeners encounter as they attempt to note the differences between closely related vegetable crops such as collard greens and cauliflowers.

Well judging by the following e-mail I just may add eggplants to the list of confused, though unrelated vegetable crops…

Growing a Rather Unusual Crop of Eggplants in Indonesia

“I am a very novice gardener, living in Bandung, Indonesia, which is one of the best places for growing veggies (cool nights, warm days, volcanic soil).”

“I had a go at growing some eggplant… The plants look fine, healthy. BIG plants and the stems are fine. But there is not a single flower or signs that any flowers are coming.”

“I am starting to question whether the seeds I planted were even eggplant, Ha! I have attached a picture… maybe you can make sense of it.”

“We are coming off the tail end of the rainy season and my seedlings did go in when it was pretty wet for a few months… Any ideas? Thanks in advance for your help and time. Regards, Bob.”

Continue Reading About “When is an Eggplant Really Not an Eggplant?” »

Thanks to everyone who participated in the recent Home Depot Garden Club promotion. I’d also like to thank Home Depot for making the contest possible.

The lucky winner of the $200 gift card is Brenda Brown of Shongaloo, Louisiana.

New Edibles and Ornamentals Coming to the Brown’s Landscape

Brenda’s name was selected at random and she has some great plans for the Home Depot gift card as described in the comment that she posted to enter the contest:

“I would like to have the $200.00 Home Depot gift card for the purpose of adding more edible plants to my landscape and split it with my husband who loves flowers and plants. We would like to fence our space also, so it would come in handy.”

“The state came through our living room, so we relocated and have a new home, we are working to get it landscaped and it takes time and money we don’t have, I would also like a water feature of some kind, Thanks and take care!” Continue Reading About “Congrats to Home Depot DIY Garden Project Winner” »

A quality digging fork has proven to be my favorite and most frequently used tool when working in the vegetable garden. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that it is the subject of my first product review and video here at Veggie Gardening Tips.

At times when most gardeners reach for a shovel, a digging fork could actually do a better job. I used the same digging fork for over twenty years, but it was recently retired when I discovered the new NRG PRO Series Digging Fork, manufactured by Radius Garden.

A digging fork is essential for the raised bed gardener and fills more roles than the typical shovel that many gardeners labor with. Digging forks are more efficient than shovels and also require less effort to loosen soil and dig down deeply into the earth.

The Radius NRG PRO Digging Fork incorporates a one piece stainless steel blade, an unbreakable resin encased steel shaft, and a comfortable, round shaped O-handle to create a practical garden tool that is both extremely durable and functional.

If you’re interested in the NRG PRO Digging Fork I hope that you will purchase it from the Veggie Gardening Tips: OpenSky Storefront. Your patronage will help to produce future videos of my favorite gardening tools and supplies, and also demonstrate innovative organic gardening techniques that are perfect for the backyard vegetable gardener.

Answer: The second that you decide not to label the growing seedlings! While I hate to stick labels and tags in my vegetable garden, sometimes it really is the easiest way to avoid confusion when the seedlings poke their heads up from the ground.

Jasmeen is finding this out the hard way as the following inquiry details…

“Hi Kenny, this is the first year I’m planting a vegetable garden. With no experience, I made a lot of mistakes. The big question I have right now is how do I identify cauliflowers and collard greens?”

“I planted kale, collards and cauliflowers in the same plot, didn’t label them thinking “oh, they’ll grow up to be different and I can separate them”. So far, the cauliflower doesn’t have its head or floret. And they all look the same. What should I look for to distinguish them?” – Jasmeen

It’s Times Like These When it Really Does Pay to Label Your Plants

There’s nothing more unnatural than a plastic plant labels protruding from the earth and many veteran gardeners take pride in their ability to identify their babies from the very first leaf, but that skill only comes through experience and close observation. Continue Reading About “When Can Collard Plants Pass as Cauliflowers?” »