• It's awfully unattractive and industrial looking.

• The containers seem awfully small, which surely increases the need for care and reduces their stability as an environment?

I disagree with you about the boxes being too restrictive.  They are the result of a great deal of testing.  The official Earthbox site has a section geared toward commercial growers.  In it are several pdf's that document the reduced costs and improved yields that the box produces.  

Our boxes have roughly the same dimensions, but are put together with readily available components and cost much less.  There are some trade-offs as I've mentioned at the Flickr link.  Again, we're not selling anything, we're giving it away.

Copied from the official site, here are a few of the benefits of using their system -

"*  Organic growing requires no three-year transition period;
      the first crop can be certified with OMRI-approved products.
    * Spring crops are ready up to two weeks earlier than in ground.
    * Fall crops have superior production for top-end market.
    * No fumigants are required.
    * Eliminate clean soil cultivation.
    * Eliminate erosion.
    * Produce two crops per season, without rotation.
    * No nitrates are released into the soil.
    * Use 60% less water.
    * Minimal herbicide required.
    * Use 28% less fertilizer.
    * Use 10% less insecticide.
    * Leave stakes in the ground year after year.
    * Spend 26% less on production with the EarthBox."

Together with the University of Florida, the Earthbox company ran a large scale side by side test that you can see here (pdf).  I think it's important to question the validity of the study, who did it, what assumptions were made, etc.  But to dismiss it simply because "they're selling a product" seems like the easy way out.

Without numbers, it's harder to persuade some people.   What we do have is our experience.  We're happy with it, but would like to improve on it.

We used the earthbox idea as a basic platform for several reasons.

We wanted something that was human in scale, easy to explain to non-gardeners and still produced better results using fewer inputs than was possible on the ground.

Because we're on top of roofs, weight is an issue.  

We wanted to be able to reproduce our "concept" using commonly available materials.  If it was too difficult to make or to operate, we changed it.

We've only done this one year, though the earthbox was invented in the early 90's.  I don't know the history, but I'd guess that there are plenty of people who have more experience using better systems, it's just that we couldn't find them.

I don't think they've found a renewable source for peat, though if you've got one I trust that you'll pass it on.

Our roof isn't suitable but we're using plenty of the front yard (where we get the most sun) and planting gardens that are sort of funky, ideas we got from "Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots" such as a teepee garden (for climbing things), pizza garden (round with sections, growing ingredients for pizza) and a Japanese-style container garden which isn't from the same book.  I've been taking photos and will contribute to someone else's garden diary in the future when the fruits of our labors come in.  We planted an olive tree several years ago, which makes a nice addition to the pizza garden.

We're trying to get a trend going in our neighborhood.  I'll let you know how that works out, too.

Karen in Austin

Thence comes our true nobility by grace, It was not willed us with our rank and place. Chaucer