From Black Thumb to Gardener? Earthbox to the Rescue

A few years ago, I was convinced that I had a black thumb, unable to grow anything. Fortunately, my friends, as always, have more faith in me than I have in myself, and Sandy offered to coach me on growing herbs so that I didn?t have to schlep to Central Market every time I wanted basil.

Sandy?s a great tutor and, after a trip to the Sunshine community garden plant sale, I was growing herbs. This effort was reinforced when, by chance, I won another set of herbs from a vendor at the Earth Day festival at the Downtown Austin Farmers market. And despite a crazy travel schedule for the last two and a half years, most of the herbs have survived my care (or neglect, depending on how you look at it) and are doing quite well.

Which brings us to this summer. All spring and summer I listened to my friends rave about their gardens and the beautiful vegetables they were eating. I was green with envy.

I want a garden. I want to pick my own vegetables. I want to understand what it feels like to grow something you can bite into. Problem: I live in an apartment.

Fortunately, my friend Carla Crownover of Austin Urban Gardens is determined and was undeterred by this obstacle. She explained that I could grow my own vegetables using an Earthbox, a delightful invention that allows even the worst plant parent (me) to successfully grow vegetables. Woo hoo!! Sign me up. And, Carla did just that.

Austin Urban Gardens very graciously gave me an Earthbox and a bag of soil to get me started. The Earthbox has a built in irrigation reservoir and comes with step-by-step, almost idiot-proof instructions (I only had to call Carla once during planting).

She also connected me with JJ Garcia at Shady Hollow Farms from whom I bought my starters ? lettuce, Swiss chard and spinach. I bought starters instead of seeds for the first round of plants as I knew it would be important to have some immediate sense of satisfaction and progress this time. In the spring, I?ll try seeds.

Oh, and I got more herbs ? some from JJ and some from my friend Darrell of Bella Verdi Farms. All the herbs are in pots and I now have 2 kinds of basil, sage, thyme, peppermint, spearmint, chives, lemon grass, oregano, and rosemary. I also have a bay tree (again thanks to Carla) and a Kaffir lime tree.

I?m having so much fun being able to walk out the door to my patio and cut off a sprig of rosemary or thyme when I need it. I cannot wait to snip chard or lettuce for my dinner!

After much instruction from my gardening coaches, Carla, Darrell and Cecilia Nasti (host of Growing Concerns on KUT), the starters are planted and watered, so now we wait. I?ll keep you posted on how it?s going.

In the meantime, is there something you?ve been aching to grow? There are a number of gardening services in Austin who will help you get started, so what are you waiting for?