Porch Garden Updates

Largest zucchini yet
Yesterday we harvested the largest zucchini yet. 1 lb. 7.7 oz.! Usually we harvest them smaller but this one didn’t fit into the menu earlier and they grow so fast!

We also made a drastic change yesterday. The Earthbox with the Cocozella di Napoli and Early Prolific Straightneck squash was simply overgrown. Out of the box, across a huge section of the porch. It was cutting off our way out plus intruding onto the lawn. Not that the gardeners minded — they just plowed through anyway. We tried moving it back and that was fine but then sliding it forward was difficult to do because the leaves had gone down to the ground and would catch and break. Plus the squash were forming down on the concrete and were getting damaged if the box was moved. On top of that the first Napoli we planted had overgrown and smothered several of the other plants. That big zucchini came from the one Napoli that wasn’t squashed. 🙂

Short story: we took out most of the squash. The smaller Napoli that has been producing we kept but the rest came out. I’m going to try to see if we can get one more up and producing before the weather gets cool. The other produced so quickly that I think we might be able to have a second crop. As long as the remaining plant continues to do well I’ll keep it around.

The Emerald Evergreens have the same problem as the squash box. They were overgrowing out towards the lawn despite our efforts to tie them up. We really need a cage or more room to let them go. We always used cages when I was growing up. Maybe next year. We tried untying them and then retying the plants back up but I don’t know how well it’ll work. I’ll give them some more time to set tomatoes but I may have to give up on them this year.

The Thai continues to grow and spread but fortunately it’s growing around the post further onto the porch rather than out towards the lawn. Of course it’s growing right across the basil box but the basil hasn’t done that much anyway. And the Thai does have a bunch of tomatoes so we’ll give it some leeway.

Lessons

When we got the Earthboxes we followed the directions. The instructions were very clear “follow my instructions exactly and resist the temptation to second guess the system.”. We’d ordered the complete kit so we did just what they said. We followed the planting chart, set everything up as indicated. For the next go around this is what I’d do differently:

Switch to an organic fertilizer. That would have been our preference and will be in the future. Rather than a stripe down the middle of the box or one side the instructions say to mix organic fertilizers with the potting soil.

With the fertilizer stripe eliminated we’d plant towards the center of the box instead of the side so that the plants have more support.

Plant fewer large plants and more smaller plants. Six zucchini in the box is far too many unless you have a lot of room around the box and can let the squash spread out around the box. I think I’d do two, planted towards the middle so they have more support. With herbs the chart shows eight plants and you could probably do more with something like basil.

Fewer boxes. There isn’t really room out there for five boxes. Four is the most we can fit. Obviously if you had more room it would be different — but remember to allow for space the plants will take up if they expand past the confines of the box.

Cages for tomatoes. We’d grown a tomato in a regular pot before and it didn’t get very big at all. It even produced a few tomatoes which the squirrel got. The Earthbox-grown tomato plants have gotten huge. With better support they’d be far higher than my head.

I like the Earthboxes. They do work well. Now that we’ve seen how it works I feel more comfortable trying something different with them. I still hope to do some Fall/Winter gardening too and may convert the boxes over to organic when we start that project.