50 Projects: 52 Weeks (16. Hanging Tomato Planter and 17. Scrap Garden Ladder)

That's right. You know what those Topsy Turvy things are; you see them in every middle-class suburb. There's that one small ranch house that a lady named Mabel lives in; her yard is riddled with garden gnomes, kissing bunnies, hand-painted Welcome signs, a Buick, and about eighteen Topsy Turvy, green plastic hanging tomato planters.

Not I.

16. Hanging Tomato Planter

This week's project is simple - I wanted to surprise Steve by "finishing" (more like starting!) our patio garden. We've had bits and pieces lying around but I discovered a how-to blog (which you can find here) that inspired me to create my own tomato and herb hanging planter! It cost about $10 but looks infinitely cooler than the Topsy Turvy.

I first started with a 12" pot which I bought at the Thrift Store in Old Town for $1.99. Because I don't have a drill, I had to find a pot that had a huge hole in bottom, but it had to be in the center. That's more challenging than you think! This one had a hole but I had to cut away some of the plastic. I then took a piece of muslin and covered the hole. This prevents the soil and roots from seeping out.

Next, I taped it down and cut a slit in it to feed the Cherry Tomato plant through. The Organic Cherry Tomato plant was purchased at Ace Hardware for $1.49.

I placed the tomato plant upside down (Left) and then put in handfuls of soil and placed two Sweet Basil plants on top. It's a shared planter, but it's a success! After one night, the Tomato plant already turned its leaves to orient itself properly. It didn't reject being upside down (Right) and we were surprised how quickly this happened!

The finished product on the left was complete with a hanging planter bracket ($4.99) and some way to hang the planter since the wire and hook were missing. I have twine that was wrapped around the planter but in the end, I found an old luggage strap and it's more more stable.

17. Scrap Garden Ladder

As you can see above, I also completed a garden ladder. We found the 2x4's for $1.50 each and all four horizontal pieces for $0.75 a piece at ReStore in Loveland. I had to buy a box of 3" long nails and with an hours worth of brute labor - Voila! A planter ladder! 

I found and marked the angle at which I needed the ladder to stay propped up, found a handsaw and hacked away at the bottom of the ladder. I then leveled each piece as I worked my way down the ladder and, though it's not perfect, it will do the trick. All three plastic planters would have retailed around $8-$10 each but I got all three for $5.

I planted:

1 - Beefsteak Tomato

1 - Cherry Tomato

3 - Yellow Peppers

2 - Rosemary

And in the round pot below there are: 

2 - Anaheim Peppers

2 - Habenero Peppers

I might even do a white-wash finish on the ladder later this summer and spruce up some other things around our patio. More to come!