Looks awesome, but it would require daily watering and careful plant choice with such small containers (for instance, tomatoes would be an unlikely crop).

There is some info and more pics here.

The plants never got very big, but I remember some of them flowering. I don't remember any food being produced. I don't really remember how long she maintained the garden though. The fences they were on were taken down to demolish the buildings behind them, although I don't remember when. She also may have cut the program off early because of that or she may have cut it off in the summer to go home.

Maybe someone interested in the idea can try it and tell us how it goes.

I was looking for ways to help my son's daycare class establish their own little garden, so we might try this out (but with bigger pots). By moving them to different heights, the teachers could regulate when they want the plants to be available to the kids, but each child can still have his/her own plant that won't be damaged by the rabble! If we manage to get it started, I'll let you know how it works.

this is also a good way for people to make some extra income with starter plants for the season. They can be transplanted into any garden or even a container. The bottles get another use and folks can grow whatever they want.

I love it and am going to blog it!

www.redesigndiva.com

Agree with lsteffen. Lettuces, leafy greens like mustard and turnip, and herbs are the best for this kind of garden, and with such small pots you can tinker with the soil to please the plant.

Dwarf varieties of flowers like marigolds, and ones that tolerate neglect, like nasturtiums, would be a nice addition. Radishes or baby turnips, one per container, would probably work too.

Starter plants for sale are possible but have to be ones that don't mind having their roots disturbed when they are transplanted.

@lsteffen, look for empty paint tins in your local DIY store, whack a couple of holes in the bottom for drainage and you're done. For a cheaper alternative, use old plastic milk bottles, leave the handle on so you can tie them up to a wall.

You can buy plug plants (starter plants) but why not let the kids start at the beginning with seeds? They're much cheaper and they can resow when needed.

I did this together with a couple of kids in my appartment, got them to decorate their milk bottles first, then sowed the seeds and they got so in to it when the first seeds started sprouting! We had different types of lettuce, herbs, bean sprouts (as a salad alternative - used store bought dried peas, dead cheap!), chickpeas, onions, baby carrots, beets, spinach, and loads of flowers as well - the nasturtiums were a big hit and kept the pests under control and of course are edible and gave us loads of seeds for the next year!

i grow an entire balcony garden in milk cans collected from friends' and my kitchen. Reuse and stuff are ok ...what troubles me is that we are unable to eliminate plastic totally from our lives