It's been a couple of busy days digging out heavy clay and planting. I bought this new earth box and got it planted with an eggplant and some peppers. These boxes got good reviews but for some reason it's not drawing the water up from the well at the base. When I add water in the tube it's coming out the bottom, which is a sign that there's enough water there but it doesn't seem to be wicking up into the plants. Hmmm???? Anyone have one of these and having the same problem?
George the handyman called Monday to tell us that he was going to grace us with his presence Tuesday. And joy of joys, he actually showed. He got a few shelves up but didn't bring the right sized boards or enough of them. Somehow he thought he would get two 11'4" boards out of one 20' board. So he promises to come back Thursday with the wood to finish the shelving. I had the brackets on hand, and he got those all up, so the shelving should go fast when he returns. When that will be is anyone's guess. :-)
We moved my small Olympic kiln outdoors and Jim and got it covered with a tarp and secured with some bungee cords. And he removed an existing shelf and cabinet and re-installed them elsewhere since they were blocking the spot where my ware cart is going to sit.
The electrician had to cancel but promises to come after work today.
The past couple of days have been spent gardening and some unpacking and even managing a little bit of time for some play.
I even found time this week to bake some bread, so I guess we're really settling in.
Today Jim decided I needed a day off since my back and hip were raging with pain even two days after several hours of heavy digging through heavy clay and planting, as well as too much time on my feet on the garage/studio concrete floor, so we took a lovely drive up to Fish Lake in the mountains and had lunch among the pines, a couple of stops home on the way to pick up a couple more tomato stakes and more screws to install shelves tomorrow (that is, if George shows).
The potted plants have had their second watering, dinner is done and I'm just waiting for the electrician to arrive and go over the "to do" list and get him started.
June.. just a quick note. I have two Earthboxes and love them. As long as you followed the instructions and packed the potting mix down in the wicking area properly you should be fine. One thing I see that I might have done differently is to pack the potting mix all the way up to the rim of the box and mound it up from there. There shouldn't be any place for water to gather on top of the cover. That being said, there is a forum over at Earthbox.com that you can ask questions and folks are really helpful. Probably they aren't needing a lot of water right now as the plants are pretty small yet and the cover prevents evaporation from the mix. Things will change as the plants grow.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I found is that sometimes as the season progresses there can be a mosquito problem due to the water in the reservoir. I got some mosquito dunks and broke one up into smaller pieces and put a piece down each fill tube. Then I used a vitamin bottle cap to cover the tube when I wasn't filling it. That seemed to solve the problem.
Lookin' good! Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.
ps. I've made faux Earthboxes from self watering pots that I got at the WalMarket. The only difference is no fill tube and a slightly smaller reservoir. But they worked great. Let me know if you want more info about that.