Checking in on the Earthtainer

We had dinner with friends last night and mentioned the Earthtainer to them.  Of course, I had to show them pictures of our little container garden on my phone.  Which is about when I realized that I didn't have any current pictures of our garden!  Then, I realized that if I didn't have any recent pictures on my phone, I probably hadn't shared any pictures with you, either!  So, remember where we started?  Here is what we have now!

This is Container A.  Rutgers, our heirloom tomato, is definitely the primary plant in this container.  If you look closely, you can see a couple of small green tomatoes starting near the top of the plant.  We're pretty excited about those!  The brown square on the right side of the picture is where one of our Better Boys was located.  That one, which we nicknamed Poor Boy, just didn't make it, even after J gave it a rock friend.  The other lost cause in this container is the Cilantro which was in the front-center of the container.  It just never developed roots in its new home.  To the left of the cilantro-spot are our Chives.  They're doing great, and we've enjoyed them in all sorts of dishes.  To the right of the cilantro-spot is our Rosemary.  Rosie has given us pause, but she seems to have finally taken hold and started to grow for us.

Next up, Container B.

Our early frontrunner in this container was the Jalapeno Pepper.  I mentioned last week that we grilled the first two peppers off the Jalapeno plant and stuffed them with cream cheese and chives. Yum!  Unfortunately, we don't really have any more peppers yet.  There are a couple of little pepper-buds in the making, and lots of flowers, but no actual peppers yet.  The Poblano is kind of the same way--lots of flowers, no actual peppers.  In the center of the container are the Twins.  Big Boy, the largest of the Better Boys, is definitely the centerpiece of the container.  The other of the twins has the saddest looking stalk, but somehow seems to be thriving in his big brother's shadow.  Big Boy, like Rutgers, has a few small (one inch diameter or so) green tomatoes and tons of flowers.  Finally, on the left side of the container, we have the basil in the back (HUGE and much-used), parsely in the middle (meh.  It's there, but not the star of the herbs in this container), and Oregano in the front (doing fairly well, though not as amazingly as the basil).

I have to say, the herbs alone are paying for the garden system for us.  We've used a ton of fresh basil and chives, and a fair amount of parsley and oregano.  Of course, I'm still eager for some tomatoes and more peppers to really make all of the effort worthwhile!