A couple weeks ago, I came across THIS website with an idea for upside down container gardening.  Since I have had a really difficult time getting a good tomato crop the last couple years, I decided to try this.  I had the perfect place to hang them that gets plenty of sun up on my deck.  Added bonus is that this way, I can control the amount of water that they get… Last year my tomatoes drowned with all the rain we had.  The problem with this idea though was those bright orange 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot.  I love Home Depot and all, but I didn’t relish the idea of hanging bright orange buckets on my deck.  Also, 5 gallon buckets seem… excessive to me.  Do tomato plants need that much dirt?  I could have also gone the way of the Topsy Turvy as we’ve all seen on TV… but really?  I mean, it’s a green plastic bag with holes in it.  And they’re like $10-15 each.  That’s unreasonable to me.

So, I started thinking of other alternatives.  I decided on using galvanized buckets… which I think are totally adorable.  So, I thought that I would provide instructions for what I did.

First, obviously you will need a bucket… or a few depending on how many plants you want to hang.  I hung 4.  I found my buckets at a farm and garden store, where they had a whole wall of different colored buckets in all sorts of sizes.  My husband laughed at my excitement over the whole wall of buckets when I told him about it.

Next, you will need to drill a hole in the bottom.  This is not as difficult as it seems.  The guy at Home Depot was worried about what sort of drill bits I would need that were intended to drill through metal.  He laughed when I said that if you push hard enough anything would go through metal.  But it’s true.  The metal isn’t that thick, nor that hard.  I drilled about a 3/4 inch hole, but would probably go a bit bigger next time.

Next, you want to take your tomato plant and put something over it that will protect it from the sharp edges of the bucket hole and keep all the dirt from falling out the hole.  I decided to use a plastic shopping bag, but if you go to that link above, there are several suggestions.  *I did not receive any compensation from Safeway to photograph their shopping bag.

Okay, so the most difficult part is getting your plant through that hole.  If there is a trick, it is to buy a small plant.  Gently put all the stems and leaves of your plant through the hole.  Try your best to not damage the leaves.  Tuck the bag (or whatever you’re using ) between the dirt and the bottom of the bucket.

From this point,  you’re going to need to have a place to hang your bucket so you don’t smash your plant.

Fill your bucket about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way with dirt.  You can use potting soil if you want.  I used dirt from my garden because I’m CHEAP.

If this is all you want, go ahead and just fill the bucket to the top with dirt.  If you want some added interest/color to your bucket (which you probably do if they’re also going to serve the purpose of decoration) you should put some plants at the top as well.  As the other website suggests, you could grow some herbs in the top if you wanted, or flowers.  Obviously, I opted for flowers.  I’m a sucker for flowers.  Plus, the red geraniums coordinate with my newly painted red front door.  So drop your flowers into the top and fill the rest of the way with dirt.  I left about 1 inch or so space at the top so that when I water it, it won’t spill dirt all over the side of my  house.

And there you have it.  Adorable.  Give it a good watering to get any air pockets out and so the water runs out the bottom.  I’ll keep you updated on how my plants do!  So far, two days after doing this, the tomato leaves are really perking up, so I think they are going to do fine!

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