Okra Earthbox..... Here I come!

Until this past year, I never imagined I would ever have any interest in gardening.  I mean, gardening is for women and maybe old geezers, too.....  Right?  OK, that was very narrow minded of me.

Several family members of mine have been diagnosed with cancer in the past couple of years.  Obviously, you begin pondering the mortality of your loved ones (and yourself) when you receive that kind of news.  After being reminded that I, too, am mortal, I finally started giving consideration to nutrition and health for the first time in my life.  Yes, you are indeed what you eat.  And of course, yucky exercise and sufficient sleep are things I have neglected for years.

I'm the type of person that tends to spend a lot of time and focus on new areas of interest.  One topic that almost became an obsession for me is "Juicing."  Yes, there is a lot to learn about juicing machines and techniques, and about fruits and vegetables and their many nutritional benefits.  I ended up paying $360 on my second juicer, the Omega VRT 350HD, to give you an idea of how serious I am about this -- And I love it!  After maintaining a regular fruit and vegetable juice dietary supplement, combined with a bicycling regimen, for only a couple of months, I literally felt better than I have in more than a decade.

So I could write many blog posts on juicing (which I suspect I might do over time), but now I'm digressing....  The point is that my new interest in nutrition has now piqued my interest in the idea of growing my own organic food.  As I learn more about gardening, and the particulars of each plant, fruit, or vegetable, I'm further intrigued by God's design of each individual species.

Today, one of my coworkers introduced me to the concept of an Earthbox, a self-watering patio container garden.  As I understand it, there is a company who has registered this term specifically, but the generic term for this type of contraption is Sub-Irrigated Planter (SIP).  My coworker shared a link to this PDF which describes several designs and instructions for creating your own -- Sweet!  Am I the only sheltered individual who has never heard of this method of home gardening?  This other website lists the advantages of using SIPs over conventional in-ground gardening:

• The SIP's water reservoir and wicking chambers use capillary action to automate watering for several days, reducing the frequency required for watering.
• Portability allows easy set up and removal when necessary.  
• The host does not need to have a yard. Space in the sun is all that is required. 
• There is no need for a toxic metals soil test since the SIPs are self-contained and provide a safe and hygienic environment separated from any contaminated soil. 
• There is no digging or disturbing of the host property or the host. 
• Incremental design makes it easy to increase or decrease the size of the garden at will. Start with one, two, or three SIPs to allow the host to experience having the garden. Think of it as a beta test before full implementation.

OK, I'm in.  Let's do an earthbox.  I can put it on my backyard patio by the pool.  My thumb is turning green as we speak.  Now to figure out what to plant?  I'd like to do something that's healthy, easy to maintain, resilient, with a long growing season, that grows fast, and produces a high yield for the investment.  Here is a helpful website with an abundance of useful information.  After only a little research this evening, I came across the perfect veggie.....

OKRA!!  I love it; my wife loves it; even the kids love it!  So we have a winner.  I'm told okra grows very fast, has a lengthy growing season (especially in warm Florida), and must be harvested at least every other day.  EVERY OTHER DAY?  Wow, that's a lot of okra.  One guy posted online that he planted two okra trees and had more okra the first season than he new what to do with.  That's exciting to me, since I've loved okra ever since I was a wee-little-guy.

Well, I'll keep you posted.  Since I don't have loads of free time, it may take a while for me to construct my earthbox and acquire my seeds, but I also want to try to get the kids involved in this, so I'm not really in a rush -- except for my excitement.  I can't wait until my orka trees look like this: