I made a planter out of an old butter container and I am very happy with it. I used Morning Glories I picked from the yard, they are everywhere, but you could do this with anything, even tomatoes?
Clean out a butter container and cut a small silver dollar sized hole in the bottom of it, you can adjust it later. Put several Morning Glory leaves through the hole, roots facing the open side of the butter container. Hold them in place this way, and put dirt over them. Hold the roots in about two inches and pour the dirt over that. Make sure the plant is pretty much anchored into the dirt by very SOFTLY pulling on it and seeing that it is secure. Put Moonflower seeds in the top of the container and they will grow out of the top of the planter. The Moonflowers will bloom at night and the Morning Glories will bloom in the morning.
I hung these with the long twisty ties, but I could have hung them with anything else I had around. I always use recycled materials. I made my planter hole too big so I criss-crossed masking tape up and down and then taped over it along the sides of the butter container. I like the bright colors. I use this tape on my walking sticks that I make out of pruned branches from our trees and I make the kids use them when they walk to help let traffic see them. Anyway, I wish I had used thinner more porous dirt, since the dirt I used is very thick and clay like. Everything is coming up alright in the top though! I chose to hang it on an already hanging decoration on the patio, so it is doing double duty as a planter and a decoration. Have fun!
By Robyn Fed from Hampton, TN
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Here is an update as of July 14, 2010
The morning glories are beginning to bloom, as they do each mid July, it takes them forever. The Moon flowers are growing nice, next time however I am going to recycle an old Easter basket maybe and use that soft stuff you can buy at the stores, it looks like twigs but I cant think of what it is, and then plant them in that. I think that would look cute. <3
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| Topsy Turvy Tomato Grower |
Here is my homemade version of the topsy turvy tomato grower!
By Misty from Wooster, Ohio
I have an empty shepherds hook and a spot in my garden so I think I will try this. I have never heard of a hanging garden and I will definitely be the first on my block to have one! Any other suggestions? How high off the ground does it need to be? (06/20/2008)
By Mary
I just potted some topsy turvy tomatoes yesterday and again today. I don't have a camera I can use to take a pic, but I will tell you what I did. I used a 2 liter cola bottle. First of course you rinse it out making sure it is clean. Then you get a pair of pliers and a heat gun, grab hold of the top part where the lid goes with the pliers, then turn on the heat gun aiming it right at the spot where the neck part rises up to meet the bottle, as you are doing this use the pliers to gently push the top down into the bottle.
Please use caution as it won't take long for the bottle to warm up enough to allow the neck to be repositioned and if you hold it too close or too long the heat gun will burn holes into the bottle. Now take something sharp and cut off the very bottom of the bottle. Then take the sharp tool and punch four holes into the top on the sides of the now cut off area. Tie four pieces of strings into the four holes and tie them together, or use small chains, this will be how you hang it up. As you can see the top is now the bottom and the bottom is now the top.
Very gently take your young tomato plant or cucumber etc...and push it up into the opening (where the lid use to go), I like to push it up past the bottom two leaves. While holding the tomato plant with one hand to keep it inside of the bottle making sure to sort of lean the root and stem over to the side of the bottle, add a few rocks using the larger opening, to keep the plant and dirt from washing out and fill with potting soil all the way to the top.
By NanaMimi
I wanted to buy some topsy turvy planters but none was available until 7/25; this was 5/20. Found a site that also used a two liter soda bottle(cut off the top, invert, attach using hot glue gun); I used duct tape to attach and then sealed from within with silicone caulk. I knotted two long pieces of soft cotton twine and taped this to the sides; covered the container with an inverted plastic flower pot for shade. I have two tomato and six pepper plants potted this way, only cost is tape, caulk and twine.
Mpo<Used plastic covered steel rods (three vertical, one horizontal)connected with steel ribbon hose clamps to suspend four pepper plants; beneath the pepper plants are four more tomato plants in the ground in a sunny spot about 3.5 x .5 feet. Used six hard wood stakes (two at each vertical) to stabilize the hanging contraption and provide support for the tomato plants.
<p class="art">Today is 6/30 and so far so good.
(06/30/2008)
Here's an updated photo. I will take another one again today or tomorrow and show you all what it looks like now.
:) (08/02/2008)
By Misty
