High-rise city-centre gardening seemed impossible for years despite us having a thin balcony all around our flat with plenty of sunshine whole day. Until this purchase. Spurred by yet another bout of "I'll give it another shot" after coming from a garden-owning friends' house, we ordered this and bought some herbs, lettuce and such in late summer. Despite us starting late and being total gardening beginners (and nearly frying the poor things in the crazy summer heat waves), the planter did all the work for us and more. We now have amazing fresh herbs and lettuce behind our windows. Even the dimensions are perfect. We can still squeeze by it as needed and the height is perfect - I can literally harvest from my kitchen window now ?? We will see how the materials hold in (our non-freezing) winter - plan to keep mint and few other sturddier herbs there to see if they can make it through. If not, would take it apart and store until next spring (easy enough with the simple construction). But overall, it's PERFECT. The construction is light enough to let the strong high-rise winds go around and especially under. Whilst lifting the plants to the height they need to soak up all the sun they'd otherwise loose due to the concrete balcony edge. The cover is a little flimsy, and I attached it permanently to the poles just to be safe. But yet to show any sign of weakness even in the thunderstorm winds which is a feat (for context: 10th+ floor of our solitary high-rise, located on a small hill, that seems to be build to literally swirl a strong vortex around even in summer breeze). That means the plants are actually really nicely protected, soil isn't being parched, and the self watering system totally works. Even the more sensitive basil is literally thriving in there. Once we test it over the winter, and verify we can be disciplined enough to keep the plants alive. We are absolutely buying more and line up our balcony with it. Will be perfect for anything low/shallow such as herbs, leavy greens, strawberries, spring onions, and perhaps even some bushy tomatoes or peppers if we ever graduate to more finicky plants. It feels great to grow a little bit of our own food. As well as show our city-raised offspring where it actually comes from. For us, this was money well spent.
