This was something we came up with when we collected old milk crates from one of our rental properties. I didn’t want to get rid of them, but I wasn’t really sure what to do with them either. Vince has always wanted to try an upside down tomato garden, and once we realized a terracotta pot would fit perfectly that’s exactly what we did! Since we already had tomatoes in our garden we decided to try peppers. After a quick google search, here’s a couple other plants that can grow inverted:

• Tomatoes

• Cucumbers

• Peppers

• Zucchini

• Squash

• Herbs

• Strawberries

What you will need:

• Milk crate

• Soil

• Young plants

• Hand shovel/gloves

• Coffee filter

• Drill and masonry bit

If your terracotta pot does not have a hole in the bottom that will be the first thing you want to do. In order to drill the hole, you will need a masonry bit. Get the bottom of the pot wet and drill to create about a 2 inch hole. That is the hardest part.

Next, take the coffee filter and line the inside of the pot. This will help keep the plant and soil from falling out through the hole. Now you can carefully insert your plant into the pot. It’s easier to have a young plant so it fits easily through the hole. Fill the pot with soil and provide lots of water.

Not only do the inverted gardens look cool, but they take up less space, are less accessible to animals and pests, there are fewer, if any, weeds and it provides an efficient delivery of water and nutrients to the plant (thanks to gravity) while allowing for greater air circulation and sunlight exposure.

Give this gardening a whirl and I would love to see the different containers used for your inverted garden!