The boxes raise the plants off of the soil (sand), allows for amending the good soil you put in and as a water reservoir that allows you to water them only every other day and they do well.

They also have a mulch cover that prevents most of the weeds! And we had very few squash bugs and we washed them off with dish soap and water in a sprayer attached to our hose.

Even in the deep heat of Texas they did well. This year we are covering them with a overhead shade cloth. Well that is mostly for me!

The web site is as follows: http://www.earthbox.com or click on the above image.

They are wonderful for those of us with no soil! We also have a compost pile made up mostly of kitchen debris, cut grass and spent flowers or veggie plants! We also put coffee grounds and filter in it. It will turn in to a good source of basic soil in a year or so.

The last thing I wanted to tell you about is the amendments we use. We use green sand, lava sand, bat guano, fish emulsion and other natural amendments - we use no chemical amendments or insect control. We have praying mantis, lady bugs, frogs and bats that all help to control bugs.

We buy beneficial nematodes at the garden center. You spray those into your yard, gardens etc. and they kill soil borne critters like ants (and yes fire ants), fleas, ticks and other loverly critters!