I tried one with miserable results, and they did not overwinter. If you do try it, don't put any plants in the top holes, keep them covered, and I wouldn't put any in the bottom holes either, keep them covered so the water doesn't just pour out. I may try and redo mine using just the middle holes for plants but over all was disappointed in the results.

Jlily, You know I think us two are of the very same MIND! I've been working on my upside down planters for the last two weeks. Mine though I used 5 gallon buckets with a 2 inch hold cut in the bottom. I Googled them and found a video online to show me how-to. Well with my going through the motions I've decided that I needed to find a different way to plant (because shoving the little roots though the hole ended me up with wilted plants). Paper towel is a grand idea! Mine I used coffee filters. Also I needed to find a way to support some of them instead of hanging them all from my metal patio cover (three are on shepherd hooks bungeed to the posts of the patio cover). I'm in the throws of installing a drip line to them so I can still go on vacation and still have tomatoes and peppers. I need to go and take a photo to post. BTW your tomatoes look VERY healthy! What kind did you plant? Love, Jules

I was suspicious of that crazy looking thing anyway. Goes against my gardening "instincts." I had trouble with a clothing company and my card once, called the cc company, and they took care of it for me. BTW, I've kept an eye on a house across town with two of those hanging from the front porch. Doesn't look good!

This is from my garden blog, but its specific to this topic, so I am reposting it here. Sadly. ----------------------------- Well, I have come to the end of the season for my hanging vegetable experiment. How did it go? Not as well as I would have hoped or expected. My previous experiment with a small grape tomato plant in a hanging basket upside down had gone well enough. I do plan on trying it again next year. Ive given great amounts of thought to what went wrong. I think all of my problem revolve around water. Too much water all over the place I had hung a soaker hose above my seven buckets and would turn it on full blast for a little while each each day. This caused a few issues I think Our city water cascaded all over the leaves of the plants any time we watered. There is a lot of crap they add into the water - chlorine, flouride, communism, errr scratch that last one - thats covered under floride. Anyway, its very bad for the leaves on plants (proven by my neighboor who delicately waters under his, versus I who started out the season spraying everything). The majority of the water in the bucket would drip out the bottom and roll down the tomato stem. This actually caused one of the hot pepper plants stems to rot away. I decided about mid season when they stopped growing like crazy that I should stop watering with the soaker hose and do it by hand, which leads to my next problem. Not enough water Getting something to stand on to get into the top of the buckets to water was kind of a pain, so it rapidly feel by the wayside and the plants definately did not get watered regularly. I tended to water only when they looked like they needed it (which any good gardener knows is at the point where the damage has already been done). Improvements for next year to the system I need to find a better way to water. We plan on putting in a rainwater collection system (probably a hundred gallons or so) which will help with the hard city water. Distributing this to the plants will be tougher. I may try a drip hose, but will most likely try to do the watering by hand and just get on a routine with it. Draining in the 5 gallon buckets has to be improved. I will be drilling several small holes around the bottom of the bucket to allow some draining out from places not around the stem itself. I also used wax paper to help retain the plant while it was getting settled. Next year will be landscaping fabric. Possibly enough to keep the stem off the bottom of the bucket (a few layers). The topsy turvey system accomplishes this with foam. Deep planting.I plan on starting the rootball up higher in the bucket so more roots can grow out of the stem that is buried in the soil. Dont pick the first few buds off. I had heard that this helped the plant to force more buds. Well even if it does - its not worth the I-told-you-soÂs from your wife when the plants donÂt do well. Less crowding. I pushed them close together to get maximum effectiveness from the soaker hose. But they all tended to grow into each other. With no soaker hose we can leave them farther apart - more room, better airflow, more sun. Some things must have went well The deer netting over the top and down the sides worked wonderful I will say that the ground cover I planted on the top seemed to do well, and the flowers made the whole thing look a little nicer. The iron work held up wonderfully and the whole thing survived some very windy days. Sigh. More to come if I come up with it.