I am so stinkin’ excited to share what my garden has been doing for me. It’s seriously giving me quite the garden ego boost ;) I’m already planning on expanding it! Double the size means double the crops! And just wait until you see the pictures and see what I made… you’ll not only be making it yourself, but you might be re-thinking how you plan out your garden from now on!

Look at all the goodies in my garden!

Delicious Lettuce growing bigger and bigger!

I “thinned” out my carrots and took the picture after… don’t worry, they’re all nice and stickin’ straight up now!

Did you see this in the top right corner of the first picture?

Here’s a better view…

Just what is that?! you ask…

That… is my homemade “topsy turvy.” This one doesn’t hold tomatoes… it holds cucumbers! That’s right! I’m bringing cucumbers back to my garden! I should have taken step by step pictures of this because it took me all of 10-15 minutes to make and the results should be quite spectacular.

Want to know how to make your own? Here’s how:

Supplies:

Hand saw

Washed and dried 2 liter plastic bottle (or larger- mine was an old apple juice bottle)

Twine or rope

Sheperd’s hook (one that can be mounted – the one I used I bought for $6.97 at Lowes)

Dirt

Drill

Tomato, cucumber or pepper plant

Spray paint (optional)

Duct tape (I only had packing tape on hand)

 

1. Mount your shepherd’s hook where you would like your topsy turvy to be. Remember that you’ll be hanging something so you might want to place it a little high up.

2. Make sure your bottle is nice and clean and dried out. You only need to make sure that it’s dry if you plan on spray painting your bottle like I did. Cut the bottom off the bottle. I used a hand saw for this and it was pretty easy. Mark that, B used the saw… I probably wouldn’t have a thumb if I did it ;)

3. Using the tape, wrap and wrap and wrap around the bottom where you cut. You want to make a nice thick layer because this will act as a nice thick “wall” or “border” which will keep your bottle from tearing and stretching over time from the weight of the plant and the dirt.

4. Drill 4 holes in the bottle about 1 inch down from where you cut. You will want to drill one hole on the top, one on the bottom and one on each side. If this sounds confusing, look at the pictures again and notice where the holes are… I’m trying my best here to explain it!

5. Spray paint the outside of the bottle. I did several thin layers just like they tell you to. It turned out perfectly.

6. Cut two pieces of rope about 2.5-3 feet long. Depending on how thick your rope is, you may or may not want to double up on this for extra strength. I used hemp and tripled it just in case. If in doubt, double it… after all, you don’t want your rope to break and your plant to get crushed now do you!? Loop the rope through opposite holes and tie a knot at the top. Loop the other rope through the other two opposite holes and knot the top. 6

7. Now comes for the fun part! Remove your plant from its pot. Turn it upside down and put it in your bottle. Slowly and gently pull the leaves and stem through the hole. Being gentle yet again, pull the roots outward so that the root ball is now slightly spread out.

8. While still holding the bottle upside down, fill it two-thirds of the way full with dirt, gently packing as you fill.

9. Hang your new topsy turvy on your shepherd’s hook and water :) Water it just enough for the hole to be slightly dripping water out of it.

 

You’re done! How seriously easy was that! It may sound complicated but it’s not, trust me… if I can do it, you can too!

Isn’t the cool aqua color a fun touch to my garden?! Next year I plan on growing my tomatoes and peppers this way as well. It frees up so much room! This is a great tool for those gardeners out there who don’t have much room like me!

Plan on making it? Let me know! And take pictures!

 

Tags: gardening tools, homemade topsy turvy, the garden

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 and is filed under the garden, the tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.