Happy Sleepy's Profile

There was no dirt streaming down the walls, and as for rust, this is why you have to paint the can or use stainless steel. Galvanized is not enough. The cans you see in the pictures were on their second year. In the third year, I did have to touch up some of the cans with rust paint in the spring. After that we moved and I had to recycle all the cans, so I don't know how long it would have lasted overall.

As for heat, it's true, I had mostly heat loving plants planted: geranium, verbena, thyme. But the petunias also did really well. This wall had a south-west exposure in Toronto - it gets quite hot in the summer. The biggest concern for plant death was actually just running out of water, because the containers are quite small (gallon sized). Many plants love hot conditions right down to their roots, so long as they have water when they need it.