Green Thumb

Back in May, my sweetheart & I decided we would plant our "garden" like the 'Topsy Turvy' hanging gizmos on TV -- only we wouldn't spend the $20 a piece for each one. We decided on 5 gallon buckets into which he cut 3 holes each. We planted two varieties of tomatoes and two kinds of peppers in the buckets.

We started out hanging the buckets from the front edge of my carport - but they were hard to reach to water, so he built a frame.

In addition to the tomatoes and peppers in the buckets, we experimented with one tomato plant coming out the side of a 2-liter soda bottle. That one has grown like gangbusters!



I also planted basil, oregano and cilantro, some watermelon and cantelope, and cucumbers. They're doing great too - I've already made salsa twice with my very own fresh cilantro!

We've moved the frame to try and get the most sunshine on it every day. I think we've lost two tomato plants and one pepper plant - whether from the shock of planting upside down, or something else - we don't know. The others are doing great.

So here, in true "Where's Waldo?" fashion, are our first two tomatoes. Can you find them?

They're not quite ready for eating, but I'm excited anyway. For our experimenting purposes, the first tomato came out on the plant in the soda bottle. Go figure!