One of the sponsors that caught my attention at the Garden2Blog conference I attended early this month was The Garden Patch, inventors of a self-watering container garden system called Grow Box. The minds behind the product are no newbies in the industry – they are responsible for another similar product with a name known throughout the world.
When the nice folks at Garden Patch sent me a Grow Box of my own to try, I couldn’t wait to get started. As luck would have it, my package arrived yesterday just after I picked up 5 colorful sweet pepper plants at the local farmers market, so I decided that these beauties would be the perfect test case for my first season trial with the Grow Box.
In this photo you can see the prepared Grow Box snapped together and filled with a good quality soil. A small bag of granulated fertilizer is provided and can be seen in the center stripe. The mat that is folded back will act as mulch, both keeping moisture in and insects away.
Putting the box together isn’t complicated. It arrives in two pieces that will snap together fairly simply. One word of caution though: there are pieces that must be snapped away from the molded plastic and they can be sharp. Wear gloves and use caution. In addition, care must be used when snapping the pieces apart. There is a small “bridge” piece that should remain intact and hinged on one side. One of my pieces snapped completely off and had to be attended to.
The package contains guidelines for plant spacing based on what you want to grow. I am growing peppers and was surprised to see that they company suggests 8 pepper plants in this one container! Because I only bought 5, I planted five and spaced them evenly by cutting slots in the conveniently-numbered mat. No worries if you are concerned about getting the spacing just right – the instruction pamphlet tells you exactly where to plant! Think of it as paint-by-numbers for the garden!
From start to finish I was able to put the Grow Box together out of the box, fill it with soil and plant it in less than 30 minutes. All that’s left is placing it in a sunny spot and keeping the reservoir full of water.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Attendees at Garden2Blog 2012 including myself received transportation, accommodations and meals during the event. Event sponsors provided samples and product giveaways at no cost or obligation, including the Grow Box. All opinions are my own.
