You can experiment with cayenne pepper and soapy water though. I’ve never tried it but I’ve heard it can help. I just watch for the white cabbage moths and when I see they’ve been spending time around the plants I just pick off the eggs and baby worms before they eat the leaves.

But I was actually asking about earthworms in the dirt. Worm castings are good for the soil, good for the plants and all that. I’m wondering if your boxes will thwart them?

I actually found my first worm-like thing this evening when I was removing some leaves/tree seeds and a couple little weedlings. It was lying on top of the soil at the edge of the box (not near a plant). It was the size of a caterpillar but it wasn’t fuzzy and it moved more vigorously than a caterpillar. I think it might have been a cabbage worm, I should have paid closer attention to its markings. Does that mean I have to spray? ugh!

- about a dozen tomatoes, mostly romas

- 8 or so sweet pepper plants

- 4 cayenne pepper

- 4 eggplant

- about a dozen broccolis

- piles of marigolds (and garlic and onions to come) in between, especially around the broccolis (have you read about companion planting for pest control? I’ve learned to do everything I can to keep up with the cabbage worms…)

- a patch of peas — about 30 plants, not yet up

- a patch of green beans — about 60 plants, not yet up

(I’ll be doing a second planting of peas and beans in about 2 weeks to keep the harvest continuous)

- about a dozen Kentucky runner beans, seeds soaking to be planted tomorrow

- calendula and nasturtiums galore for salad

- cucumbers will go in this weekend — about half a dozen

- lima beans — about 20 plants

- a patch of carrots

- and a pile o’ Jerusalem artichokes that will hopefully reach 10 feet tall

The flower gardens are mainly perennials, with lilies, irises, phlox, hostas, columbine, echinacea, and dahlias with a handful of annuals like morning glories, more nasturtiums, cosmos, snapdragons and four-o’clocks. I’ll put some more kentucky runner beans on the trellis in the front because they’re such excellent climbing vines and I don’t think the clematis I transplanted are going to make it.

It sure didn’t take me long to outgrow the space I prepared.

Oh and chocolate mint! My number-one-favourite herb. It’s on the edge of the grass and I’m hoping it will eventually take over the lawn. It’s low growing so needs less mowing, but when it does get cut it smells amazing.

I’ll be mulching around all the plants in the upcoming weeks because it helps keep the moisture in and the weeds down.

So Jeff, if you’ve made it through this long reply I have a question for you: have you seen any worms in your dirt yet? I’m curious to know if they’ll find their way through your box bottoms.

Wow – that’s a lot of tomato plants (we had 8 last year and I thought that was too much, though we didn’t can any).

I’ve never heard of ‘lasagna gardening’ – thanks for the tip. We’re doing square foot gardening (wooden boxes on top of existing soil with a weed barrier underneath to prevent weeds. Following his book, we are using “Mel’s Mix” which is equal parts peat moss, compost, and vermiculite. This results in a very rich soil. Apparently one of the benefits of SFG is the really easy weeding (since we’re starting with no weed seeds in the soil, any time I see a weed starting to sprout, just pull it out).

I think all the work that this year is costing me (the boxes, the vertical trellises, the cages, planting trees) is mostly a one-time cost, so I hope following years get easier. Yes, you can call me naïve

Again, congratulations on the baby – I know how that is – thankfully we’re over the hump and I’m sure you will be soon too.

My wife’s a big gardening freak, and over the years I’ve gotten more into it myself. Our garden’s usually focused on heirloom tomatos and peppers. For a while we were growing 50/60 tomato plants every year, though it’s only about 30 this year (less time available due to baby). Also have about 30 peppers right now.

Then there’s one onion, and a couple of basil plants. We usually do more, but…baby.

Our tomato cages are triangular things made ourselves out of 1/2″ PVC tubing. Was a lot of work when we started making them several years ago, but now at least now we have them for forever! We also have a couple of chicken wire trellises (trellii?) for viney things we grew in previous years.

Oh, and have you considered lasagna gardening? That’s what we do, takes a lot of the work out of weeding.