There are many DIY designs floating around the web and this forum has some of the better ones and their author's posting here.

Still, my advice to a 'newbie' is order 1 or more (as your budget allows) commercial earthboxes and use them for a season.

After that go into the DIY route if you wish. That first season will teach you a lot about how they work that 10,000 words can't.

I really do agree with the posts above about getting a real earthbox and then make your own if you want to go that route. I make some of my own for fun but have 8 real ones.

Despite what may seem like an initially higher cost EB last much longer than totes.

Linked below is a good basic plan. Ray N. also has one with a support system permanently attached but that is more complicated. Look for his posts.

Here is a link that might be useful: josho's SW plan

Thanks for the response. weirdtrev I really appreciate your detailed reply.
Now, can anyone give me idea where to buy these. I heard that they are pretty expensive. Is there any place where I could get them for a reasonable price. I live in North Jersey. Even online is okay.

A

earthbox.com :)

Garden Patch Grow Box - $29.99 + s&h

http://www.agardenpatch.com

Thanks guys, I bought 3 EB from a local nursery. Do I have to strictly follow the seedling chart--like just two tomatoes plants in one EB? Can I break the rules? Plant couple of others like peppers or something else along with tomatoes?
Also, agardenpatch has a way better deal than EB. Although it is late, which is better? $49.99 or $29.99?
Please help with these too.

EBs and Garden patch boxes are the same price (when I looked this early spring). The $49.99 is for a 'complete' kit which includes fertilizer and potting mix (neither are anything special, but get the job done).

$29.99 is the price of a 'bare bones' Earth Box (all you need and all I ever buy) from earthbox.com.

I have never used a Garden patch box so I can't compare, but I have used many SWC and consider the earth box to be the pinnacle of SWC design. In some climates the water reservoir may be a tad on the small side (3 gallons), but other than that it just amazes me how bad most of the SWC I see on the market are given that EB started the trend a long time ago with a proven design.

Heck, when one talks about SWC it's common to just say 'earth box' which is, of course, a trade mark. It's due to how good/popular they are.

My personal advice: Get the bare bones EB for $29 plus shipping. Get whatever else you wish at the same time and compare over a growing season. If you find a lower cost alternative you prefer get that (and let me know too ;)

I have tested many self-watering containers.

Gardenpatch boxes are two pieces--the bottom water reservoir is a separate unit that snaps onto the top piece. That means when it is put all together with mix, water, and plant I found you could not move it as the pieces would separate. I just prefer the single main box of the Earthbox as I can drag it if necessary. It also is of studier material.

Thanks for that, Farkee. I just ordered a Garden Patch box so I could actually know what it was all about. That it is in 2 pieces seems really stupid.

Then again compared to EBs every SWC I have ever seen is really stupid in some way. I was hoping the GP would be different.

Not a huge deal, I do like that it has no fill tube for my dogs to pull out and chew up. Will give it a try and see what I think at the end of the season.

I garden entirely in SWC ("self-watering containers"), and there is a rather expensive initial outlay, then very little. I even reuse the soil year after year, as long as I am able to rotate my crops from one box to the next--no tomatoes where I grew tomatoes last year, etc.

However, I did some research before my outlay for 23 boxes, and found some discouraging information about EarthBoxes and their customer service. I did a little more research, and found Garden Patch Grow Boxes, which are a similar in size to the EarthBox. I LOVE THEM! I also like the design of the top better; it allows for some rainwater to get in (always a beneficial--it's like an elixir for my plants), but not too much, and the replacement nutrient patches can either be purchased from the company, or if you're cheap like me (hey, I did put out a lot of money initially!), you can find an appropriate fertilizer and do a strip on the top (ala EarthBox instructions), and cut to fit a piece of 4-mil plastic--you can get an entire roll of either black (good if you're in cooler climates to warm the soil, or have particular cultivars that like the soil hot) or clear for 4 bucks at Walmart, and use the same plastic pegs to stake it down. I have typically had great experiences with their customer service, too; except when I order online, they can't review the order for 24 hours (but email a confirmation and will respond if you reply to that one with a question in less than 24 hours). ALSO, they will soon be offering their boxes with a "Tomato Trigger" nutrient patch that is red. Evidently, there is some research that indicates tomatoes grow better, bigger, faster and even sweeter with a red "mulch." I typically will mulch over the plastic patch anyway, just because I think it looks better (I use baby bark pieces), but I'm going to try it without this year for my tomatoes with the red patch on them.

As if you need any more reason to go with the Grow Box from Garden Patch, the price is significantly less, and if you order 10 or more, the shipping is free. Again, you gotta be serious, because when you order that many, it's almost $300, but again, they last a long time, and the only thing that has to be replaced year after year is the cover and soil for some of the boxes, but not all.

If you do end up building your own, as justaguy and weirdtrev mentioned, you really should at least go to a garden center and check one out so you can see how it works--it's just too simple and yet complex to get your arms around until you've seen it in action.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Patch Grow Boxes

As if you need any more reason to go with the Grow Box from Garden Patch, the price is significantly less

I loved your review of the GP boxes. I ordered just one to try it out so I would have some frame of reference since I have tried so many and found them critically lacking compared to EBs.

I do want to mention though, that EBs are the same price, not cheaper or pricier. The shipping deals for the Garden Patch boxes do make them less expensive though.

I love that they have a 4 gal reservoir instead of EB's 3 gal reservoir and I also love they have no fill tube for my dogs to consider a chew toy.

Beyond that I have to wait until I get them and use them for a season to compare. I think their fertilizer filled cover is just silly. It may work OK, but what a waste of money when one compares the amount of fertilizer to a cheap bag of 10-10-10 or whatever is comparable to what they are using.

I considered making my own, but on justaguy2's suggestion bought one EarthBox to launch my adventure into outdoor self-watering containers for vegetables. His suggestion to start with a known model for comparison is great! I found that EarthBox has better support on Gardenweb, EarthBox forum, Facebook Groups, Growing Connection, and Urban Renewal websites.

After much staring and thinking at my first EarthBox, I realized that mine was an EarthBox and NOT a MagicBox. The EarthBox is like placing two window boxes side-by-side over a water reservoir. While many, many, vegetables will grow successfully in an EarthBox, the EarthBox will become marginally less effective with the biggest of vegetables or grouped plantings of large vegetables. Used within the scope of what others have successfully tried, I think the EarthBox in combination with an automatic watering system is a WONDERFUL INVENTION that takes its rightful place alongside other great ideas like raised beds, hydroponics, square foot gardening, vertical gardening, etc.

What I have seen with many homemade designs is their lifespan is shorter, final product is not attractive, and their frequently large size makes them difficult to move if needed. However, experimentation is the hotbed of invention. Hopefully, someone out there will develop the next great advance.

Well, I did no buy it online. As mentioned earlier I bought it from my local nursery. Reason--I wanted to physically seen "Earth Box" before buying or placing order online. Secondly, at local nursery the kit does not include of potting mix/soil and price is $49.99.
Where as earthboxes online, the kit includes potting mix/soil too but yet again I will be spending on shipping. So I decided to go with local nursery even though it is quite expensive.

This season I will experiment with this. May be next season I will consider garden patch.

Now, can any one tell me if I can break the rule of planting number of seedling? Can I plant couple more than recommended in one container along with the tomatoes?

Try the following website for mixed planting guidelines.

EarthBox Mixed Plantings

note: also try the earthbox.com forum

Just a note, I bought my EarthBox at a nursery for $49.99 without the potting mix because I did not want to wait. Found another nursery charging $69.99 for the basic kit. It is better to buy online for the basic EarthBox.

The thing is, once you start using them, you'll want so many that building your own becomes extremely economical.

They only take about 20 minutes each to make a single box. Make a run of 10 or more and it's probably 1/2 that time each.

I built my 18 gallon rubbermaids for about $10 each. that plus labor is still far cheaper than the commercial ones.

But if it is your first time then buying a ready to go unit might be the better route for now. I jumped right in to my first greenhouse AND first self watering containers and i LOVE IT.

Hello all,

You can find the link to all of my Homemade SWC how To documents from this thread.

Thanks,
Joe

Here is a link that might be useful: SWC how to docs

If you want to go cheap and use 5 gallon buckets, cleaning them takes forever. What I'm trying with the white 5 gallon containers is to put colored electrical tape or large stickers on them.

As far as "ugly" containers go, if you look at someplace like Target throughout the year, you can get colors that are more attractive/appropriate for SWC's. They have orange/rust colored containers that look like clay color in the fall. And these *are* real rubbermaid roughneck containers.

As far as using containers year after year, if you are an urban apartment dweller who will probably move every 2-5 years, the durability is not as much of a factor. Then again, you don't have the economies of scale from building large numbers of containers. If the cost of your components is $20, and a real Earthbox is $30, how much is your time worth? You have to go out and buy materials, gather your tools and put them away afterwards, then your first time you spend some thought processes to figure out how it works.

Given a large supply of 5 gallon buckets, I could probably pump them out at 15-30 minutes apiece.

But I need to know where to buy funnels, tubing, cups of the right height for the wicking chambers, zip ties...

And if I were making the 2/3 height SWC's, using the lid instead of 2 buckets, I'd need screws, and a good knife and sturdy scissors.

I also need 4 or 5 different types of drill attachments.

And then there is the time spend decorating the darn things... They do look respectable at any distance over 5 feet. Where you can't see the stripes are crooked, or that I covered over the label with white duct tape.

And the colored electrical/duct tape cost a bit.

Alice

HI all,
Has anyone ever tried to do this with a window box?
I want to make a window box into an earth type box so i don't kill my flowers so fast.
I could make a platform and leave about 3' for the reservoir then make the soil floor with the pipe going in the back portion keeping it low as not to be so noticable. I can use plastic garbage bags to cover the top then plant the flowers and herbs. I think 3' will be enough,to keep them hydrated for a few days at least. What do you all think?

Should work, RoseMarie.

I wanted to give an update as the UPS guy just delivered the Grow Patch box. Overall I would say it's a sound design, but not as well made as the EarthBox.

The plastic is more flexible, possibly thinner.

The two piece design that has the upper snapping into the lower concerns me a bit as I felt like I had to be a little careful snapping them together. Even if the plastic broke it would still be serviceable though.

I do like the 4 gallon reservoir opposed to EBs 3 gal reservoir, but apparently it only holds 1.5 cubic feet of mix to the EB's 2 cubic feet so a little less growing area.

I do like the lack of any fill tube personally, but I suppose it's not all that important in the grand scheme of things.

Overall I still prefer the design of the EarthBoxes, but think the Grow Patch boxes are a decent product.

Good god, I am struggling with EB. As this is my first experience growing in any of these. While planting I either forget the exact measure of fertilizer or to keep the fill tube little inclined so that the black cover fits right or something else. I am not happy the way I have covered the black cover--it is all messed up. Should the fertilizer measure be exact? Is it ok to have very little soil showing up near the cover cuts?

The cover doesn't need to fit 100% exact and the amount of fertilizer used doesn't need to be 100% exact either.

Having some potting mix visible where you made the cuts is fine too.

Relax, you are doing fine ;)

I made 2 boxes using online instructions and sale priced 30 gal holiday bins. Cost: $16.00. My plants are bushy and very green - beautiful!! - in under 1 month. I did flood one box accidentally and it took a few hours to drain. Did I use up all the fertilizer??

for large gardens...this sounds like hugelkultur. I did this method in my raised beds and it is practically free if you have access to punky deciduous logs.