This year I signed up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share and I am so excited to eat organic produce from local farmers. I split the share with my Grandma and we signed up for a half-share, where we pick our items up every other week. Since we didn’t know what to expect, we thought signing up for the lesser option would be best to start with. The way my CSA works is when you signed up, you indicated what you liked and didn’t like so your selections would be tailored to your preferences.

Here’s the first week share, which included 1 lb. rhubarb, 1.5 lbs. crimini mushrooms, mixed greens, herbs and fresh bread. The first share was small since we had a wet spring and that impacted some of the planting in the area. My grandma made a rbubarb crisp that was delish! I also enjoyed lots of salads and sandwiches.

I picked up the second share last Friday and it was more substantial. It included 1.6 lbs of strawberries, mixed greens, head of lettuce, radishes, green onions, head of lettuce and garlic scrapes. Needless to say, I will be eating a lot of salads this week. Perfect timing, since I feel like I’ve been slacking on the nutritious stuff. The strawberries were the some of the best I’ve ever had, Its amazing how different something can taste when its locally grown vs buying something from the grocery store.

Being the nerd I am, I’ve been weighing and writing down everything I’ve gotten because I want to compare prices with the grocery store and see what the price difference overall is. Its not just about the numbers for me, but I think it will be interesting to see how it all pans out. I’m also toying with doing this every week next year and want to make sure I’m eating most items.

And my EarthBoxes…sadly had to be relocated to my mom’s since Bambi kept coming onto my porch and eating my tomato plants. Since I was in the middle of studying for midterms, I did not have the time to rig up something to protect them and it was just way easier to have my stepdad pick them up.  I’m headed over there to tomorrow to see how they’re doing!

Are you part of a CSA or growing anything in your backyard? Any tips on spicing up my salads?

This summer, I’m trying my hand at container gardening with the help of EarthBoxes. These babies are not cheap, but given that I had no supplies to start with, I figured it was worth the extra money for self-watering containers. I wanted to chronicle my experience with the EarthBoxes on the blog as I did a lot of research on these before purchasing them and liked reading people’s experiences with them first hand. I hope this hopes someone else considering them in the near future and feel free to contact me if you have questions. First off, the planting process!

When you first get the EarthBox, it comes with an aeration Screen, fill tube, casters,  fertilizer, dolomite and germination covers. I purchased two cubic feet of potting soil and plants. I planted two tomatoes in one box and five peppers/rosemary in the other. The company has a handy planting guide online that details the planting configuration and how many plants should go in each box.

The first step is to add the aeration screen, fill tube, casters to the EarthBox. Next, you’ll want to take your growing media (make sure its a little moist) and pack it in the top corners.

Continue filling the box with the moist potting media until you have about two inches in the container remaining.

Then, you’ll want to take the dolomite and spread it evenly. The dolomite is lime that contains calcium and magnesium – it lowers the acidity of the soil and acts as a secondary fertilizer.

Then, cover the dolomite with growing media to the top of the box. Then create a trough for the fertilizer and add it in.

Then, top it all off and create a mound above the rim of the box.

Then, you can finally plant! Add the cover and cut holes where the plants will go. After the plants are in, add water to the reservoir via the fill tube. You’ll know when its full when the water comes out via the overflow hole at the bottom.

Planting two Earthboxes took much longer than expected, probably close to two hours once it was all said and done.

I’m a little concerned that they aren’t getting enough sun, but with the casters I’ve been able to wheel them around on my little porch. I planted them last week and so far they are doing good. My mom got two EarthBoxes as well with tomatoes and peppers. Hers are in a spot that gets lots of sun, so we’ll see if she does any better.

Are you growing anything this year? I’d love to hear if you have any container gardening tips to share.