Earthboxes, Earthboxes...

Today we drove and drove to visit the home of the Earthbox. What an amazing experience.

For those of you who have never heard of the Earthbox, be prepared to be amazed. While there is no perfect gardening experience, I think that these little gizmos (ok, well maybe not "little" at 30"x15"x12") can produce an amazing amount of veggies, herbs, and fruit.

I will soon be posting pictures of my new venture into gardening. But let me just say that this is about as exciting as Christmas for me. My little five year old son helped me layer in the soil, fertilizer, and top screen (to protect the plants). Then we poked into the rich dark dirt and his little fingers dropped in seeds. How fun for him and me to cover those tiny seeds with a rich blanket of dirt.

Every few minutes, as we moved on to the next Earthbox and the next, he'd run back to the first to see if they were growing yet! I kept having to explain the process of germination and that it'd be a few days at least before the seeds would peek through the dirt to say hello.

But what an experience! And I can finally say I'm following the admonition we're taught in the church--that of being self-reliant in ways such as growing a garden. Get a load of the following quote:

President Spencer W. Kimball said: “We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard. Even those residing in apartments or condominiums can generally grow a little food in pots and planters. Study the best methods of providing your own foods. Make your garden … neat and attractive as well as productive. If there are children in your home, involve them in the process with assigned responsibilities” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1976, 170–71; or Ensign, May 1976, 124).

And President Ezra Taft Benson said, quoting also a bit from Marion G. Romney: Unfortunately, there has been fostered in the minds of some an expectation that when we experience hard times, when we have been unwise and extravagant with our resources and have lived beyond our means, we should look to either the Church or government to bail us out. Forgotten by some of our members is an underlying principle of the Church welfare plan that “no true Latter-day Saint will, while physically able, voluntarily shift from himself the burden of his own support” (Marion G. Romney, in Conference Report, Oct. 1973, p. 106). (Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation,” Ensign, Nov. 1980, 32).

My family and I have much to go until we will able to completely provide produce for our cooking needs. But what an exciting journey and what a sense of contentment that we're at least getting started. There are as many ways to garden as there are people. But where we live, we have very little space. So we've selected Earthboxes as a way to do this. The yield from these is amazing, so for us, this is where we'll start!

For more information, here is the Earthbox website. And then click here to see some amazing pictures of the lushness of plants grown in Earthboxes. Someday these will be my pictures! :0)