Growing vegetables on the deck has been part of the plan since we moved in to the new house a year ago. Last year, we did basil and rosemary in a couple of window boxes, and it was pretty successful. This year, things are ramping up.

On the recommendation of a friend, I got a couple of Earthboxes. They're probably a little overpriced, and it's probably something that can be made out of other components, but sometimes you just want things to be easy. Basically, Earthboxes are planters with a reservoir and a watering tube. You pack the dirt into a couple corners of the reservoir, fill in dirt on top of the reservoir, add a layer of fertilizer, then more dirt.

Once that's done, you just keep the reservoir full and the plants get the water they need. Which is the kind of occasional plant care a semi-suburban deck farmer with a lot of other hobbies needs.

I've also got a couple of window boxes going with herbs, and a couple of pots - one for the rosemary, which has outgrown the window boxes, and one for an heirloom tomato plant (Brandywine), because you're only supposed to put two tomato plants in one Earthbox, and I didn't want to use up my limited space on that.

So, in one Earthbox, I'm planting peppers. Five varieties of hot (poblano, anaheim, jalapeno, salsa, and tabasco) and one bell pepper (the purple ones). In the other Earthbox, I have onions. In the windowboxes, I have chives, a lime basil plant I'm not sure survived the planting, and two lettuce leaf basil plants with ginormous leaves. I hope the lime basil survives, because it smells amazing.

I have no idea how long things will take to be harvestable, so we'll see how things grow as the spring and summer goes on.