Steppin' The Deck Farm™
I have one of the homemade ErfBoxes (from now on the roll-my-own will just be called "ErfBox" while the store boughten ones will be called "EarthBoxes") complete. Looks like it'll work pretty well all things considered. The proof will be in the puttering. And the second is well on its way. I need to attach the pond basket and the 4" PVC support, drill out the drain hole in the side of the box and drill a slew of holes in the interior floor. But that's about it.
Oh, and I still haven't bought the potting soil but I'm going to try to hit Wally Mart today.
One other thing that looks intriguing is that I saved the outer rim of the tops which still "clip" onto the box. I should be able to use a sliced open contractor's garbage bag as the cover since I can clip it down all around. But I have real covers to spare so if it doesn't work, I'm (ha ha) "covered."

And speaking of slicing .... Do you know where the femoral artery is? Lucky for me my aim is not good. I was cutting down the interior floor this morning when the box cutter made a whoopsy-daisy and sank into my thigh. It's pretty impressive to see blood well up and flow out that fast. I'll take a snap of the pants and post it tomorrow (a slice hole and a blood stain - just for the record). Now I have to buy another pair of casual pants dammit.
In other news: Nature is about to blow a big-ole bubblegum bubble outside my front door as the cherry tree is blooming out. Again, I'll take pics and post them.