Planter-Box Gardening

One of the ways for retirees to cope with reduced income and an empty nest is to downsize. My family grew up on many acres of land devoted to orchards and my grandfather and father always allotted an acre or so to growing our own food, as well. So when my folks retired, they “sold the farm” and moved into a modular home. Not only was their house now much smaller; their land was also drastically reduced. In spite of that, my dad commenced to garden in the space available.

He now harvests fresh vegetables or greens almost every day of the year in a plot of land measuring a mere 18 feet by 22 feet. When he moved in, it was covered with plastic mulch and topped with large pea gravel: a pretty desolate place. He raked back the gravel, cut through the plastic and dug down to create several raised beds for vegetables and flowers, and even planted four dwarf citrus trees. In between these larger areas, he set up five EarthBoxes (earthbox.com)—a self-contained gardening system—that he had already found productive and efficient for selected vegetables.

With careful planning, he has been able to rotate edible crops through every month of the year. His preparation begins in September, when he harvests the last of the tomatoes and eggplants in the EarthBoxes. These self-contained planters then need a rejuvenation of the soil mix, which includes the addition of fresh composted manure and other soil mix to replace what has been lost through the removal of the spent plants and their roots. When the boxes are ready, he plants seedling cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage plants.