EarthBox 80101.01 Garden Kit, Dark Green

The media could not be loaded. This video will show you the difference in the boxes.This is my first year growing stuff.. i was skeptical because i can barely keep a bush alive but i blame it on my clay soil. :) I wasn't sure what would work better and be cost effective and so on so i got the 3 types i could find info about and here are the pluses and minuses...Growbox: my least favorite but works fine. This was the third box i received and initially i was a little put off because it didnt seem as well built as the earthbox and i couldnt get the two pieces snapped together forever..finally did (there was a little warping on the backside). I dont like that it doesnt have wheels since i will move my boxes when its stormy but its still doable. I dont like the patch thing on top of it that has the fertilizer because as you can see it curls up and can possibly blow away. I do like the fact you can see how much water is in it through the lip thing on the front and i mainly got it because the price was overall cheaper.. however i will not buy this again. note: things do grow fine in it so far and it does get the job done. approx: $30+$7 shipping (takes around 1.5CF potting mix)Earthbox: I have two of these so far and i will buy more. I like the shape of this and the growbox because when comparing to my homemade ones you have more space overall and more planting room. It comes with the fertilizer that is good for the whole season, dolomite, and several covers (2-3 depending on where u buy) This one is a little deeper than the growbox but takes 2 cubic feet of potting mix.. the stuff i bought was 16.99 a bag (happy frog organic potting mix) so after all of that on my porch we spent hundreds..but it was fun and you can reuse for like 4-5 years so i read. I love the wheels and the over all clean look of the box. Note: you can also buy this for like $30 plus shipping if you just want the box. Otherwise it is $49 on amazon, $56 locally for me, or 50-56 plus shipping online. My plants look great so far and im very impressed with the box over all.Home Made containers: I like these because they cost me about $6 each to make. These are great because they are deep and you should probably use them to plant deep rooted veggies like carrots, onion etc. I dont like the fact that they take alot of dirt and have such a small top area (5 gallon bucket size) They are cheap and a little labor intensive but you also have to buy fertilizer which i read is to be replaced every month whereas the earthbox and growbox is like each crop or something like that. So that can get spendy. They also dont have wheels and are not worth it to me to make any. they are semi easy to drag to move since they arent huge. As you can see my plants are flourishing in these.Overall im not sure how long the plastic will last with the homemade ones but i read the earthbox has lasted others since they became established 15 years ago.from now on i will just add to my collection with earthboxes. (they have a great forum too)Use neem oil to keep the bugs away! my spinach was infested with white fly and i was devastated but it got rid of them. the only problem i have is green worms on my broccoli and cauliflower and i just keep watch to pick them off.

I am a Zone 7 gardner with a day-job and other time-intensive hobbies that have conspired against my attempts and intentions to be a better farmer. There are several inevitabilities in my garden. First, the slugs will eat the basil, second, there won't be any edible produce until about a week before the first frost when suddenly I have more than I can handle and the slugs will devour it all while I sleep anyhow. Finally, the sad anemic-looking eggplant will have 1 little flower and then poop out when the fall rain starts.Not this year!This year, I bought 2 earth boxes when the family didn't come through on the birthday list. I paid what I thought were outrageous amounts of money for plastic planters, but have had friends raving about them so what the heck, why not! Summer around here did't start until approximately August, but I bucked the trend and planted in mid-June (for the record about 2 months late but it was very very soggy this spring). So, I wasn't expecting much of anything out of them this year. I have to admit that I planted the challenging plants in the earthbox. I always kill the basil, so I put 2 of them in there. To compensate, I put a sungold cherry tomato in with the basil. I also had a few sad, slug-munched eggplants that survived the great drowning of Mid-may but were looking pretty awful. So, I threw those in the other planter box with a pepper plant. The instructions say to use potting soil, but I used "garden" soil because it was cheaper and (as above) I didn't expect much. Other than that, I followed their (fairly well written/illustrated) instructions.Those 2 little earth boxes were worth every penny. My basil thrived, the eggplants revived, and (since I didn't have the staking system and forgot to cage it) the tomato proceeded to flop over and take over the walkway. I think next year, I'm going to get a couple more to do more herbs. I think the strength of the system is that (1) they warm up the soil more quickly and consistently than planting in the ground does. So, in cooler climates (not that we're bitter) heat-loving plants tend to do well in the boxes when otherwise they wouldn't survive. Unlike regular planters though, these are self-watering. This simply means that there is a resevoir at the bottom that you fill every day or every other day when it's warm out. So, for the more absent-minded of us this means that you can't drown or dehydrate your plants too easily.Using the plastic mulch cover thing also helped with pest (read, slug) control. The kit from Amazon came with an extra mulch cover that I could use if I were going to change the planting arrangement next year (since you have to cut through it to plant).My rotten neighbor with the green thumb (although not so rotten, since he shares!) has been able to grow greens in the winter -- I think I'm going to try that this year with my earthboxes and see how that goes.