Earthbox Garden
If you want to try a small raised garden that will work about anywhere, including balconies and patios, take a look at the Earthbox Garden System. This is a self watering container garden that is a full fledged above the ground garden. It has a patented watering system that solves the biggest problem of most container gardens, the need to constantly be adding water to the container.
In the heat of the summer, for a regular container garden, you may have to water once a day or even more. With this system, there is a reservoir of water in the base of the container, and it’s filled with a tube from the top. Just add water until the reservoir overflow drain starts to drip water. You can’t overwater with this system. It includes a cover that helps with weed control and water retention, with cutouts for plant spacing.
At the bottom of the pages is a video of self watering planters that includes the Earthbox with a quick overview of it’s setup and features.
For large plants like tomatoes that could cause the system to tip over in high winds, there is a staking system sold separately that will provide the additional needed support. The system comes in white, terra cotta, or green.
Since you add the soil to these, it’s a great way to get going with organic gardening, as the soil won’t need to be detoxified. They can handle 2 tomato plants or other large plants like pepper or eggplant, and more as the size of the crops go down. The box holds about 2 cubic feet of soil, which supports 8 medium size plants like cabbage, broccoli, or peppers. Alternatively you can grow about 16 smaller plants like peas or beans.
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This video includes some other self watering planters, the Earthbox is about 1 minute into the video.