Gardener, Gardener...a poem about gardening...

*My son said that I should put a disclaimer on the name of our "company". Since you can not literally garden "anywhere", I thought I'd expand on this concept. What we mean by gardening anywhere is that you are not limited to tilling a big garden spot each year, planting your seeds, watching them wash away in a big spring rain, planting again and having your plants burn up in the (too) hot sun or lose the battle to the weeds.

What you can do is have greater control over your gardening area. You can grow on an apartment patio or balcony, on your back deck or  from a wheel chair. I think that you could even garden in an RV or a boat as long as you had access to fresh water. You can garden anywhere that you can fit a container or two. I am reminded of the Dr. Seuss book, "Green Eggs and Ham." I'd like to eventually write this as a book with illustrations to include with the Grow Boxes and watering system.

Gardener, gardener
Help me please.
I'm really craving carrots and peas,
and broccoli and brussel sprouts.
My body needs this. There's no doubt.
But the cost keeps going higher.
I need to be my own supplier.
There’s just one problem that I see.
Gardening is not for me.
I do not like to dig and rake.
I do not like my back to ache.
I do not like to pull the weeds.
I do not like to lose my seeds.
Gardening, gardening, this can't be.
Grow my own veggies? Please help me.
Would you garden in a box?
Would you garden in your socks?
Would you garden in the sky?
Would you garden way up high?
Would you garden in a chair?
Would you garden anywhere?
I could not garden in a box.
I could not garden in my socks.
I could not garden in the sky.
I could not garden way up high.
I could not garden in a chair.
I could not garden anywhere.
I really don't think that I could.
I have no room and that's no good.
But you can garden in a box.
And you can garden in your socks.
You can garden in the sky.
You can garden way up high.
You can garden in a chair.
You can garden anywhere.
If it was easy, then would you?
If it was easy, I'd grow two.
You can do it.
I'll show you how.
Show me, show me,
Show me how.
Show me, show me,
Show me now.

Our Humble Beginnings

Here are a few pictures of Larry's "Grow Boxes" and some of the veggies that we have grown. This first picture is one of the first boxes that Larry made. He used blue 18 gallon storage tubs. He designed them to hold water in a resevior. This saves time and water. You just fill the resevoir as needed. No wasted water in the garden. No watering weeds, either. The black plastic keeps heat in and weeds out. You can't see it, but there is also a strip of fertilizer across the top of the potting mix that feeds the plant(s) all summer. To the right is a box of cucumbers. I love growing cucumbers in a Grow Box. It is so much easier to find the cucumbers. When I used to grow them in the garden, I would usually discover a few that had turned into "Yellow Submarines" along the way. The picture below is one box of kale that we grew. I had about six boxes total.

Look at the picture at the top of the page. See the white tube with a black hose inside? This was Larry's original watering system. I found some tubing at Walmart that he used to hook up to each box. All we had to do was turn on the hose and all of the boxes would be watered at once. (Me=Lazy Gardener, remember) He's developed an even easier watering system if you can believe it.

"Garden Anywhere", by a lazy gardener

I am starting this blog to share with you an idea that my husband has been perfecting to make gardening easier. I’m all for that since I’m rather a “lazy gardener”. A few years ago, I talked him into buying some “Earth Boxes” so that I might have a small garden that would not get washed away in a rain or overrun with weeds. Here is a picture of one of our first attempts at growing cherry tomatoes.

After observing the design of the box he said, “I can make one of those”. Indeed he did. He made a lot of them. He made his own design out of a Rubbermaid tub and some tubing and called it a “Grow Box”. The boxes worked brilliantly. We had a bumper crop. Over time, he’s tweaked his design to make it more efficient. He has designed a watering system to add to the “Grow Boxes. This is an amazing invention which he hopes to market and make millions so that we can move to Carmel and he can play golf at Pebble Beach…a girl can dream, can’t she…

He is calling his company, “Garden Anywhere”. With a box or two or three…or more…you can grow a bumper crop of tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, squash, or whatever you want. We’ve grown corn, okra, cantaloupe, sunflowers, cabbage, etc. in our boxes. There is no weeding and no washing away when it rains. The boxes also save on watering. There is a reservoir in the box that waters from the bottom. No more wasted water. Fill them once a day (twice if it’s hot). It just takes a few minutes. But that was not good enough for Larry. He saw a way to make improvements again.

With his watering system, you can have as many boxes as you want all hooked up through small tubes, a rain barrel to hold the water and a float system to tell when the water level is low. The watering is done automatically. Talk about lazy…I mean brilliant! This watering system is perfect for people who want a garden, but want to travel, or maybe have health problems that limit what they can do in a big garden or are just lazy like me. You can be gone for a week and still water your garden. You don’t have to dig in the dirt or pull weeds. Just get the boxes ready with potting mix and plant your seeds or plants. Add some fertilizer, water and cover the top with black plastic. You are good to go. Sit back and wait for your harvest. This watering system is great for pets, too. You can water your plants and include a watering dish at the end for Fido. Fresh water daily… My husband hopes that through this design, he can help people find or recapture a love of gardening and make it as painless as possible. In the world today, you don’t know what is in the food you eat. If you grow your own, you’ll know.
Here is another picture of the cherry tomato plant an excerpt of a previous post that I made a few years ago: It's been about two months since I planted my Earth Box Cherry Tomatoes. They are way taller now and need tomato cages to support their growth. My daughter just harvested the first tomato a couple of days ago. It really has been a breeze using the Earth Boxes. Next year I want to get started earlier and be able to harvest more. This year all I planted was tomatoes, beans and a watermelon plant. While the beans are doing great and the watermelon plant looks green and healthy, I don't know if I'll get any harvest from them. I planted pretty late in the season. The picture was taken two months ago. Look how they've grown.