A lazy farmer dream of garden tool : self-watering container.
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(This is not a paid post.) Yesterday when I was in the book shop, I saw this book about incredible vegetable with self-watering container :
Picture source : here.
I thought WOW, this is my kind of gardening.
I have been bombarded left right center by friends who are doing their own gardening recently. Some of them are those whom I met in the cyber space and some are those from my town.
I have been seriously thinking about doing my own garden but then again I wonder if that is a wise investment in term of time and money ? Should I be using the time to do some other forms of investment which I have a better knowledge and use that money I earn to buy vegetables that I need ? [ No, I am not into pro-green movement. But, I believe in self-sufficient.]
I was impressed with one of the articles that was written by Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity about his project $29 Kick-off Garden Project. But then again, I thought what if I I commit the same thing that I did before, ie did not water my plants and they gone ‘kaput’ in a few days ?
Well, I was blown away after I read about self-watering container. I think there is a hope for lazy farmer like me or for people who live in urban areas who do not have a lot of space !.
When I read this group of resourceful enterprising Chicagoans, I was sold by the self-watering container concept. If you do not believe, just check out the antifa173’s informative rooftop gardening Flickr site.. They not only let you see their beautifully designed self-watering container system, but they tell you how to do it with detailed instructions!
These are the self made self-watering containers.
Photo by antifa123
And look at the result ! Incredible !
Photo by antifa123
Bruce , the creator of this garden keep a diary about the process of his experience in growing vegetables on city rooftops, here.
In fact, Bruce has provided an extensive resources about the pro of this self-water container or EarthBox in his flickr site, for e.g :
The commercial EarthBox web site claims that :
Our maintenance-free, award-winning, high-tech growing system controls soil conditions, eliminates guesswork and more than doubles the yield of a conventional garden-with less fertilizer, less water and virtually no effort.
And a STATISTIC back up this claim in this link.
However, when you think about the cost of this EarthBox which is $52.95 for a complete kit on EarthBox web site and about $31 at Amazon.com, you wonder if it is worth that kind of money ?
Well, if you are handy, Bruce has provided a link in his flickr site about a site on step by step of Making a self watering container or Earthbox™
And if you are a visual person like me, you would definitely enjoy this video.
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If you read carefully on Bruce Flickr site, he has a few links to EarthBox forum on the pros and cons of commercial make and self-make. So, read carefully before you jump the gun.
According to one of my friends who has her own farm told me that we can grow tomato all year round in Florida. Well, with the news about the outbreak of Salmonella on tomato, it really gives me another reason to do my own gardening utilizing a EarthBox. I think it might worth it if I can get this kind of results all year long with only 1 time set up cost and effort, and let the container take care of itself (except adding water now and then when the water in the reservoir goes low).
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Picture courtesy of earthbox.com
And EarthBox even takes it into commercial planting : EarthBox Commercial Applications
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What is your opinion on this subject ? Home grown vegetable, will it be a good long term investment, in term of $ and health ? Is EarthBox a worth while investment, I love to hear from you !
I don’t think it is worth the investment for the money IF you can make it yourself. IF you have no way of making this and the containers are reuseable THEN it would be a good investment. IF you don’t normally enjoy growing things this would be good. You can really save a lot of money by growing your own vegetables. YET, if the yeilds are as good as they say, then you would be eating a lot of tomatoes. You could give or sell the exccess or just can/freeze them. I THINK if you want to spend the money on it HAVE A LONG TERM INVESTMENT IDEA, like how many tomatoes you are going to get and eat…have a plan of what you are going to do with all the vegetables BEFORE you purchase.
In fact, I don’t like to work under the sun and also do not like to bend down a lot cos of my back.
If I have lots of harvest , I can do a few things :
1. Canning
2. Sell it in the farmer market just down the road from where I live.
If I want to plant, I would plant vintage, gourmand kind of veg. cos for the same amount of work, you get more for your money.
eg. this kind of organic carrot : http://blog.americanfeast.com/images/Organic%20Carrots.jpg
Thank you for your input.
Jamy
good thinking about only planting things that will bring a better price at the market. we do have a farmers market in our town, i think i have to wait for the baby to be a little bigger. i have so many ideas, but get caught up in the day to day routine. like you have said so many times before, ‘you have to treat it like you are going to work.’ that is what i need to do. it is a job that i can not call in sick too.