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Archive April 2011
Sunday 24 April 2011
We've been attempting to grow things we can eat with varying success for a while now, and recently I got an Earthbox since they seem well recommended - they're basically a planter with a reservoir in the bottom that wicks up through the soil, maintaining moist-but-not-wet topsoil and giving a sort of tiered effect, the deeper the wetter. So now, having experimented with it for a while, here's the results:



Exhibit A: a zucchini plant in a regular pot, watered every day and also nominally kept moist with some sort of a watering cone/spike thing.
Exhibit B: three zucchini plants close together, in an Earthbox.

Note also the giant basil behind zucchinis B. I've never seen a basil so big before. Also in both containers is a tomato plant - they're approximately the same size, but the tomato plant in the round container has been there for about three months longer. There's actually a basil in that other container too, that's been there as long as the tomato - it's never been more than about 6 inches tall with weak little leaves. It's in shot but you pretty much can't see it.

Conclusion: Earthboxes are pretty good.

I've also made a makeshift mini-earthbox for herbs, using a window box - it came with a sub-floor water tray already, so I just drilled some bigger holes through to the tray to make dirt-wicks possible, and a hole for a refilling pipe (the Earthbox's refill pipe is hidden under zucchini leaves), cut a piece of pipe to length and a side-hole in it at the bottom. It appears to work well - we got some "dying herbs, 50 cents" and a week later they're twice as tall, and the oregano's even growing flowers. So making your own Earthbox is certainly feasible, but I would recommend buying one to use as a model.

To be fair to the watering cone, which are also generally well recommended, the water our plants get hasn't gone through the filtering system and is full of iron - I think the cones get blocked pretty quickly with cruddy water. So it might not be their fault that the other zucchini plant is so pathetic. [11:33] [0 comments]


Saturday 2 April 2011
A quick Google-search reveals that I'm not the only one who is irked every time by the ad for some washing product that says "if soap can dry itself, imagine what it could do to your skin!" Delightful, an appeal to a false premise followed by an imaginary conclusion! Here's a better one:

If pigs can fly, imagine what a terrorist could do with pigs!

That's right, so stop washing yourself with pigs, use cows. They're more than 50% moisturizer. (Water moisturizes things. It also "dries itself"!) [17:10] [0 comments]