Spring! The time for fresh vegetables, fruit, herbs! What's wrong with this picture? Oh yes, we live in an apartment and, unless our schedule permits a jaunt to the farmer's market, we find ourselves running into the grocery store for bagged salad and plastic trays of herbs more often than we'd like. Which means we're also the type of people who forget to water our plants until they're beyond hope. Bring a little produce into your life and a little spring into your home with some upside down planters.
Hung upside down, your window garden will water itself. All you have to do is pick and eat and water them whenever you think about it. For the full set of instructions, click on over to Instructables.
(Images: via Instructables)
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Comments (10)
the real question: can i hang this in my kitchen window (read: inside) which gets plenty of light? sadly, i don't have any outdoor space in my nyc apt.
I don't see why you couldn't, as long as you don't mind it blocking some of the light from the window. Some of the water might drip out of the hole where the plant comes out, but if it's over a sink or dish, it shouldn't be a problem. Some plants do need to be pollinated to produce fruit, though, so keep that in mind.
How would one prevent the water from then dripping down over the plant and its leaves? Rain is one thing, but water from the soil would cause tomato blight... wouldn't it?
You can play "bee" and pollinate plants yourself with a supersoft artist's paintbrush. Bee costume optional. =D
wouldn't the handles break. they don't look strong enough to hold all of that dirt and water.
I have seen a lot of people so it with a 5 gallon bucket (or even 3 gallon) and the handles are much stronger. You can paint cute decorations on with spray paint.
Those Garbino cans are very thick and sturdy. Won't break.
I've done tomatoes in containers (right side up) a few times, and my one comment is:
FERTILIZE
Tomatoes come out bitter and tough more often than not if they're not in the garden. Not enough nutrients, not enough water, not very tasty.
I set up self watering planters on my balcony - with our hot summers in DC, containers need to be watered twice a day. With self watering planter I was able to cut down watering to 1-2 times a week. For me, that is the difference between living and dead plants!! Quite simply, I love them.
They don't need to hang upside down thank goodness as I don't like the look and my balcony gets too much wind to hang anything. I converted a couple galvanized steel planters from Ikea into self-watering planters - they look just like regular planters but store well over a gallon of water.
You know those detestable styrofoam peanuts that shippers sometimes use? Mix 'em in with your potting soil (1/3 of the total volume, but I've gone as much as 3/5 styrofoam). They keep the soil from compacting, make the container much lighter and put a non degradable medium to good use. Beware: some packing peanuts are now made from soy. They'll just collapse and leave your planting full of holes that will collapse.
I use this technique (with all kinds of waste stryrofoam, from broken up electronics packing to egg cartons) in everything from 10 foot potted palms to veggies. You will be shocked at how much lighter your containers will be and how much you will save on expensive potting soil. The stuff doesn't break down, so I have no more worries about chemical throw off than I would from the plastic container you're using.
I appreciate the novelty & ingenuity of this contraption, but it looks pretty tacky. If you are forgetful/ too lazy to water your tomatoes, then you will probably be similarly neglectful and let your rotted fruit drop on your downstairs neighbor's balcony.