Local invention offers garden in a box

ELLENTON - Mary Beth and Joe Mallo are newlyweds, so it made sense for them to take up a hobby they could do together.

"I'm a fairly middle-experienced gardener," Mary Beth said.

"I've never done it before," Joe said. "That's why it's so exciting. It's a learning curve for me. My wife is teaching me the ropes, so to speak."

This is their second harvest together.

"We have all different bell peppers: green, red, yellow orange, beans, zucchini, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers," she said.

They admit they've still got a lot to learn. And who better than Blake Whisenant to teach two lovebirds how to grow together?

"The bell's ringing now," said Whisenant as his class began. "It's time to teach."

At almost 80, he's keeping the crowd laughing. It's the first thing you notice in this class.

"I've never met a plant that committed suicide," he said. "There's always a reason for everything."

The class beamed. It's mostly retired folks in this Wednesday morning class. He does another Saturday mornings that yields a slightly younger crowd. The Mallos swear by his invention, the EarthBox.

"I've spent about 15, 16 years working on it," Whisenant said.

He runs the Whisenant Farms EarthBox Research Center in Ellenton. It's a container for gardening— a miracle container, some say.

>>EarthBox.com

Record breaking papaya, one cabbage grown last year by a Louisiana girl won a contest using an EarthBox. Her cabbage was as big as her arms were wide.

Whisenant has seen a big bloom lately.

"People are conscious of the environment now," Whisenant said. "And people want to eat healthy now. It's so much easier to do it with vegetables in your own garden."

"The economy of it is what got us," Mary Beth told FOX 13. "Oh, they're amazing. You can go to the store, and it's 50 cents a pepper. We could get a dozen peppers off of one plant."

With the EarthBox, you can't overwater it. The design makes it foolproof even if you've never gotten your hands dirty. And that's exactly what the Mallos are looking for, a foolproof plan that guarantees success in their garden and in their new lives together.

EarthBoxes are showing up commercially all over the world, in areas where it's harder to grow crops.

"We have them all over the Caribbean basin," Whisenant said. "We have a guy from Sarasota, Todd Bisham, brought 700 boxes into Nicaragua. We have them in Ghana, all over Africa, Haiti, South Africa. It's exciting."

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Gardening Tips from FloridaGardener.com:

Central Florida's climate is a bit more mild than that of North Florida. Frosts and freezes during the winter are not as common as further north and the seasons tend to be a bit more sub-tropical (hot summers, warm falls and springs and mild winters). Seasonal changes tend to be less noticeable here. In the middle and southern areas of Central Florida, citrus grows extremely well and produces abundant harvests.

Throughout the area avocados, carambolas, lemons, limes, pineapples, surinam cherries, papayas and tropical vegetables can be grown here if protected from occasional freezes. Apples, peaches, pears and temperate-zone vegetables can still be grown in most of this area if varieties designed to thrive here are planted.
Like most of the rest of Florida, the soils of Central Florida tend to be sandy, but there is also some peat and clay-based soil in this area.

A summary of the growing conditions in Florida:

• The soil is composed mostly of sand and amendments are required.
• The heat and humidity is relatively high during most of the year.
• Watering is essential during Florida's dry season.
• Plants should be chosen based on their zonal requirements.
• The plants you choose should be planted during the time of the season that they are the most comfortable with.