Garlic & Onions: Good Health, Bad Breath
With most things in life, you have to learn to take the good with the bad. . .and gardening is no exception. While onions and garlic tend to have potent smells and can leave your mouth in need of a mint, their health benefits are undeniable. If you want to expand your garden and try some new plants, garlic and onions may be just the match for you (and can be grown in the NEW EarthBox® Root & Veg gardening system)!
"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food." - Hippocrates
Even though they have completely different tastes, garlic and onions are both part of the Allium family, a group of plants known to have a strong flavor but pack a punch in the health category.
Garlic is high on the nutrient index because even though it has few calories, it packs a wallop for manganese, vitamin B6 and C, and fiber. Studies have even found that taking a garlic supplement will reduce your chances of getting a cold AND can diminish cold symptoms if you end up catching one. Results of a study concerning colorectal cancer showed those who consumed the highest number of allium vegetables, including garlic, were 79% less likely to develop it.
Garlic is a perennial plant that can be planted before a hard frost. All you’ll need is a garlic bulb (you should purchase the bulb from a seed company or nursery, not plant one from the grocery store)! Keep the husk on the bulb, but separate the cloves a few days before planting. Plant your cloves about 2 inches deep with the pointy end facing upwards. Once warmer temperatures arrive, you’ll start seeing shoots! Make sure to water your garlic regularly during May and June.
Onions belong to the same family as garlic and also are a great addition to a garden. Packed with sulfur, which is good for your liver, onions also contain flavonoids that act as antioxidants. The main antioxidant is Quercetin, which acts as a natural blood thinner, combats diabetic symptoms, and helps to lower cholesterol.
There are many varieties of onions out there, so if you don’t like one type’s taste, don’t give up completely on these healthy gems! From sweet onions to more mild scallions, you can grow a complete onion garden in the EarthBox® container gardening system! Most onion varieties like full sun and need adequate spacing, depending on the type of onion you’re planting. Be sure to follow the instructions on the packaging.
Happy Gardening!
Tell us: How do you like to eat onions and garlic? Do you prefer them raw or cooked?
Share your favorite garlic or onion recipes below!
If I plant a blueberry bush in the Root and Veg Earthbox, what is the method and schedule to replenish fertilizer? What about replacing the plastic cap as it inevitably wears out? How would one do this without disturbing the plant too much or making a huge hole in the next plastic cap to fit down over the bush?
I’d love to also know the same for planting blackberry bushes in the EarthBox Original?
You'd follow our instructions for the initial set up, except do not add dolomite to the blueberry bush. When you have to replace the cover, the only way for these plants is to create a big hole in the cover and then tape it back up after you have it in place. We'd recommend adding another pound of our 7-7-7 fertilizer (or another equivalent, slow-release fertilizer) every 3-4 months. That generally lasts 1 growing season, which for the majority of crops grown in the EarthBox is no more than 120 days. Blueberries and blackberries are one of the few perennials that can be successfully grown in the EarthBox.
Which size is best for blueberries the orginal size? Or the deep root n veggie size?
Can nursery recommended acidic soil/ Azelia soil be used in earthboxes for blueberries?
You can grow blueberries in either of those EarthBox sizes, though we recommend the Root & Veg since its depth is more conducive to the plant. You can forgo using dolomite with blueberries, but ensure the pH is somewhere between 4.5-5.5. We still recommend following our growing media recommendations listed here: https://earthbox.com/learning-center/recommended-growing-media
I have my SEASCAPE Day-neutral strawberry seeds in hand. These will be planted indoors, in a grow tent, under LED quantum panels in the EarthBox. I have never planted strawberries of any kind, so Im eager to get this party started. Will provide updates. Too bad we can't attach pics.
~Kbore
NEWS FLASH from Kbore about Seascape seeds: Hybrid strawberry seeds are NOT true to the variety, if they sprout at all. I may have seascape seeds in hand (rip-off) but they will not produce the same plant as the seed donor. To grow the true variety, you must have live/ dormant plant starts from that variety.
On the subject of plant starts, it's too hot to ship live plants in the middle of July (in Zone 6A where I live), so don't expect to buy strawberry seedlings mail-order: It's not going to happen.
Looks like mid-September-ish for me. As the late Tom Petty wrote: " Waiting is the hardest part".
~Kbore