Add it all up, what do you get? Time to hang the planters. Boy are they heavy! Try lifting 5 gallons of wet dirt over your head while trying to maneuver a safety snap clip with the other hand and guide the handle into the clip with the third hand and protecting the tomato plant in the top and the one in the bottom with your 4th and 5th hands. Almost forgot, these are hanging over a bed of onions and squash plants, to I had to reach out full extension. Wa, wa, wa, I know, whatever, just doing a little venting. I feel better now.

Then I took some peeks around the yard and UI see my Okra in one of the upsidedown Pepper planters is sprouting. Got to love it. There are 7 holes and 3 or 4 seeds in eacj=h hole. About half appear to be sprouted. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but look close.

I looked at the other planter but no sprouts. My experience is that the germination time of pepper plants is fairly long. I have some pepper plants in a planter in the porch and it's taken over a week for them to pop up.

That's enough for today. I need to work on something else before bed. I have more pictures from the last couple of days so I'll blog them out in a day or two. Please check out My Facebook Page on this subject for some more interactive talk about the subject. Let me know what you think about what I should be doing. I really want to hear from you. http://www.facebook.com/UpsidedownTomatoWorld

Until next time, Enjoy your Garden.

Since I have 4 planters and 5 plants, I put the Roma and the 100 in the same hole, and all the others get their own slot. Then I got 4 plants from a friend called Big Boy, so for lack of space anywhere else, they will be going into the tops of the planters after the upside down ones root for a few days. Then I'll plant come peas and beans around in the top and those will be gone before the tomatoes take over completely. Sounds like a plan, we'll see how it works.

One other wild card I noticed when I put the plants in. There is a colony of small ants in one of the planters. The planters sat on the ground all of last year un-planted, so I guess some ants moved in. I didn't really know how to deal with them, so I didn't. If they leave me alone, I promise to do the same. Think I should worry? What should I do to get rid of them without tainting the tomatoes?

Now, the people out there paying attention to this blog may ask, what about those seeds you planted, why don't you put those in your planter? Well, as I predicted when I planted them, they aren't going to make it. Just no way. The little tiny things are, well, tiny...

f you have any opinions about my Ants un the hanging planter, shoot me a comment or an email. I'd like to hear from you.

Until next time, Enjoy your Garden.

Details at 10! (or whenever just before the worlds ends. That's not until the end of the year...)

Just want to let you know I loaded the Upsidedown planters with some new dirt. I'm using about 25% Schultz Moisture Control and 25% Schultz tree and shrub soil because it looked like it was coarser and a bit lighter. Also 25% Schultz Flower and Veggie mix which is blacker and has more organic matter which is going on the top to help grow the beans and peas headed there soon after hanging. Lastly (As Paradise City starts booming) there is 25% whatever was in there when it was last used and a handful of leaves and rotted wood I have on the compost pile. I also added 2 of those Jobe's spikes to each pail. So to tie in the to the title, the Guns (Upsidedown Planters) are loaded for Roses (Tomatoes)...

I got the notice. The feeling that now's the time, so this weekend I am getting plants, 2 per planter, and they are going in. Plan is to get 2 Celebrity, 2 Cherry Tomatoes, 2 more pair of something else, Heirlooms or Early Girl or whatever strikes my fancy (or my Wifes, I ask her to get them from the Waukesha Farmers Market Saturday. We have a booth there but I will be in Brookfield at a different sale selling.

It must be time to stop talking and go to bed. They are talking to the Red Hot Chili Peppers who swear way too much and the music just wierds me out. Don't want bad dreams..., so until next time, Enjoy your Garden.

The fertilizer components are definitely not organic sounding either. The content is supposed to be 6% Nitrogen made up from 4.4% Ammoniacal Nitrogen, 1.4% Water Insoluble Nitrogen, and 0.2% Urea Nitrogen (That's urine extract, right?) Available Phosphate (This is the extract from animal bones, shin, and slaughterhouse waste I think) is 18%. Soluble Potash (I think from cola burning power plant waste) is 6%. Wow, definitely not organic sounding. Thank-you sir, may I have some more?

Supposed to do 2 spikes per plant 8 inches from the stem so I will need to load them in the top after I hang them or put it in the dirt as I fill them. Whatever, can't hurt, right? And for a dollar I get enough for 5 tomato plants. For $3 I have enough for 10 years probably. Watch me loose them before I get them in the planters this year. That would be about my speed lately.

So for $2.00 I have 2 Upsidedown Topsy Turvy Hot Pepper Planters. Soooo Cool!.

Here's what's in the package:

I also snapped some pictures of the paperwork that comes with it. I didn't want to retype everything, but if someone really wants it, I can scan the papers for a close-up that is more readable and put that up for you. I'm not going to bother if noone wants to see it however.

Now lets figure out what to plant in these. Each has 7 holes in the sides. It is geared towards growing hot peppers, so the instructions say 2 pepper plants per hole. I do not need 28 pepper plants, so I'll have to think about this. Maybe okra, I've been wanting that. Pole beans, green peppers, who knows. Any suggestions?

At my first harvest, I will plant another spot. Then I heard plant some every week and you will have salad forever. I am in the middle of a diet so I want to grow it, not buy it all.

I also made room to put my Tomato seedlings in a sunnier spot. They are looking happy and green. The Celebrity seedlings are not going to amount to anything, but the cherry and the striped ones look like winners!

I'll be going to the store one of these days looking for some potting soil, manure, and who knows what else.

I also saw this link on the Wisconsin Vegetable Gardeners Facebook page for a guy that made some cheap vermipost bins from a couple of Rubbermaid containers. I've got have to try that. I've been wanting to do this for some time now but was too cheap to buy the bins from the vendors.