EarthBox Garden Kit in Terra Cotta Review

I grew up weeding a huge garden when I lived in Western North Carolina.  I logged about four hours a day weeding (listening to Eye of the Tiger of course!)  and I have to say I never thought I would be drawn back to starting a small garden of my own one day.  What can I say?!  Now 30 years later, I live in the city of Chicago and find myself missing the smells and tastes of a vegetable garden.  Problem is we have a 25 x 40 back yard that has lots of small animals running through and is pretty shady so it did not really seem like an option to plant a small test garden back there.

So, after reading one day about the Earth Box, I looked online at their web site and decided I would take the leap. That was about six weeks ago, so roughly early June.  I ordered four of them (ultimately from Amazon) in a set along with  a trellis for the tomatoes.  They sent the boxes and the fertilizer and dolmite and I purchased the 2 cubic feet of planting soil for each box.  We bought seedlings from Home Depot and a local garden store. 

So far, they Earh Boxes have worked wonders.  As you can see from the attached recent pictures, nearly everything is thriving.  The yellow squash has exploded and we have already picked and eaten four full size squash.  We are a day or two away from our first large tomatoes and 10+ smaller ones.  The herbs (basil, speramint, and parsley) are thriving and need to be trimmed back.   The corn is over 5 feet high and already has five cobs (?) growing.    We also planed red, yellow and green bell and Japanese peppers and probably have 15+ of those growing.  The strawberries are not doing as well but I have been told they don't really produce untl next year.

So bottom line is we are really happy with the Earth Box.  The kids love watering every day and last night when they picked a cucumber they called it a picking ceremony.  It brings me back to my days in the garden which is also really nice.  How can you beat it?  The kids love it, the vegetables taste great, and it is good for the environment.

The question I have for you gardeners out there is can I store the boxes outside during the winter and will any of these plants make it for another season?