gardenkat's Profile

In the 70's, living in Hawaii, my mother made a pretty good living selling Tupperware to people trying to keep out the bugs. She said it was really popular when they were in Japan, as well, although she wasn't selling at that point. Her 30 year-old containers are still doing their job despite some pretty good pantry moth infestations she's had in recent years that affected practically everything in the kitchen except items in the Tupperware.

She had bought several of the same Container Store boxes and found, as others have already noted, that they are not bug proof (nor are the similar Ikea ones).

To keep bugs out - anything with a good seal works - If you are starting from scratch, click-ware has a great seal and stacks really well. I use canning jars with seals and bought Tupperware Modular Mates as soon as I could for those 5-10 pound bags of flour, sugar and rice. I don't like them as much as the older, round, style, but they do the job. Otherwise, good quality Rubbermaid (the models that 'burp' air when you close the container, some of them don't and if air can get in, so can the bugs).

Lee Valley Hardware (leevalley.com) has some great small-space options for balconies & fences that I've been dreaming of :
-> 'Adjustable Pot Rings' - take any pot and hang it from a balcony -- same thing can probably be done with regular zipties
-> Three-Arm Garden Hanger -- this can be planted in a deeper pot and ziptied to a railing for extra support
-> they also have a 'wall trellis kit' that is glue based but also removable

As for a trellis - this year, I made self-watering pots (very)loosely using these instructions.
http://hometown.aol.com/jmalt31/myhomepage/Earthbox.PDF

2 or 3 of these against a balcony wall would look lovely.
I used the largest (cheapest) square planters from Home Depot that I could find and sank metal trellises (also from Home Depot) into each planter. The final result was remarkably similar to my inspiration (Terrazzo planters from the Gardener's Supply catalog) but only ~$7/each (without the trellis)

I used fluorescent light 'eggcrate' grill covered with window screening to separate the water reservoir from the soil and, instead of PVC, I used cut down milk jugs & the 6inch pots the plants came in to support the grill.

my (out of pricerange) inspiration - since I wanted 8-10 to line the length of my driveway. http://www.gardeners.com/Self-Watering-Planters/default/StandardCatalog.PotsPlanters_SelfWateringPlanters.cat

I had a very late start planting and set up only the basics... tomatoes, peppers, basil, scarlet runner bean behind all plantings to wind up the trellises...which were also handy as tomato supports. Next year, I'll be expanding at least another 10 planters and adding more veggies and FLOWERS.