My husband Alex is constantly coming up with new ways build a better mousetrap--in other words, to prove he can do something better and cheaper than the commercial industry. He also is convinced he was born to be a vegetable gardener. Those of you who know us both realize this is hilarious, for Alex is a champion procrastinator, and he always has lots of well-intentioned projects he starts, but then they somehow never get finished. Some examples--an end table he had to have because it was "on sale" so he could refinish it the following weekend; an occasional table he got for free the following month to, you guessed it, refinish during the winter; hooks to hang bicycles in the garage to get them out of the way right after we moved in; and speaker mounts for the bonus room. All of these projects? Still awaiting his attention.
In the past he has started tomato plants but I always end up taking care of them--watering, weeding, debugging, and pruning. I swore two years would be the last year for home tomato raising, but this year he wants to try upside down gardening. No, he won't hang upside down while gardening--the plants will grow upside down. Does he buy the commercially available upside down container kits? Nope. He created his own out of an empty, 25lb Purina One bag, one of my pants hangers, and some dirt. Add one tomato plant, and voila! He is already looking up recipes to use his tomatoes in. To try to get him motivated to keep taking care of it, I told him I could raise better, bigger tomatoes the conventional way, i.e. in a pot right side up. The wager was on. But then I found my tomato plant, root ball and all, in the middle of the yard. Thinking the wind had blown it or a tomato plant-loving pelican had grabbed it for nesting material, I repotted it. Two days later, same thing happened. Haley, our Brittany Spaniel, looked very guilty, so I scolded her. Then, two days later, Alex came in from outside and announced "well, I guess I won!". I ran outside, and found the root ball in the yard, an empty pot, and one lone tomato leaf. Meanwhile, his is doing just great.
Personally, I think he trained Haley to eat my plant because he is afraid of my uber gardening skills....either that or Haley is upset about his tomato in her Purina dog food bag.
Below is where my tomato plant used to live
And here is Alex's ingenious creation
