I have used the Self-Watering Tomato Kit from Gardeners Supply, which I believe are very similar to earthboxes. I have grown tomatoes and bell peppers in them with excellent results. I have had somewhat limited results with the bush varieties of cucumbers.

I've had a lot of success with growing vegetables in a homemade version of the earthbox. Many thanks to jmatl31 from the container garden forum .... His thread named "New improved homemade self watering container / Earthbox" has the details on how to make a relatively inexpensive container. I like them so much that I currently have 6 of them... tomatoes, cucumber, squash, zucchini, eggplant have all done well. I'm going to try them with some cool season veggies as soon as I can. The link to his thread is (hopefully) forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0501044214330.html

I love the Earth Boxes for those of us who are not so handy or don't have the time, the are fairly reasonable in price for what you get.

Here is a link that might be useful: Earth Box info

I have used the Gardeners Supply Tomato Kits too. I had great results with tomatoes (Better Bush and Bush Goliath were winners), peppers (better than in the ground), lettuce in the winter, and carrots in the winter. I tried cucumbers (limited success), squash (no success), and pole beans on a trellis. The beans grew well but didn't produce. I have since learned that I was probably planting them way too late and it was getting too hot for them.

The drawbacks are you MUST water EVERY day with NO exceptions. You must fertilize every other week to have fruit. And, it costs alot more than in-ground planting due to the cost of the pot and potting soil. Otherwise, it's easy. One year, I was still picking tomatoes at Thanksgiving.

I love EarthBox gardening. I have 25 EarthBoxes and several DIY selfwatering planters. Severe arthritis does not allow me to have in-ground garden anymore.

If you are not able to water every day you can buy the EarthBox Automatic Watering System but it is specific to the brand name EarthBox. Try reading the EarthBox forum - link below. If you do decide to get EB brand name planter - buy from the company as most garden centers charge $50-$60 dollars each and they only cost $29 from the company (plus shipping fee)

DL

Here is a link that might be useful: Earth Box Forum

I just went to the EarthBox company link you provided, there actually priced at $54.95 + $15.95 shipping, not sure where you got that price. Usually the manufactures sell their product a bit higher than than distributors as not to compete with their own distributors.

The other thing to note with the EarthBox is, you only need to fertilize once they provide a time released fertilizer that typically last until you harvest.

I had beautiful yellow squash and zucchini plants last spring--that is, until the vine borers got to them. I never got to taste even one squash. My husband bought me 3 earth boxes and I was planning on trying my squashes again. Do these boxes give added protection, or do I still need to take precautions against this evil little pests?