GardenHacker:
not your typical seedy site...

No signs of flowers yet, but the upsidedown tomato plant's still growing. The main drawbacks of this experiment so far are: 1) Needs Frequent Watering and 2) Can Get Overheated. Was a bit wilty on a very hot day, a couple of days ago. Once it was moved to a shadier spot and given a good drink, it was fine. Upside Down Tomato Planters are still a space saver if you have just a patio, and slugs just look up and scratch their antennae.

Ok, it's hard to see in this picture. The "Window Box Roma" is beginning to bear fruit around my Japanese Tomato Ring, and I may have mis-tagged the "Black Prince" in the background, as it's fruit is looking a lot like it's neighbor. Time will tell, so stay tuned. I took my moisture meter and tested the soil around the plants, and though the garden was on about a "3" (on a scale from 1-10), the soil around the JTR was metered out consistantly at 8. I water the JTR's with a five gallon bucket, slowly pouring one bucket into the center of the ring every day or so.

After spraying with a garlic mixture (2 Tbs Dishwashing Detergent, 2 Tbs cooking oil, 1 crushed clove garlic, 1 quart water, set in the sun for a day), the beetles were "legs up". Odd little things, they have a clear shell with brown blotches - wish I'd taken pictures of it - it was on my microscope plate last night, "dead as a doornail" - really. Must have been a big wind, or a bug eating ghostie in our addition, 'cause it's nowhere to be found today. Haven't seen any more of them - but if I do, I'll be sure to take a picure before it disappears.
The Potato Bags have been filled twice since the last picture, with compost, then with straw.

I'm continuing to experiment with hydroponics as well. Here's a piece of styrofoam with 1/3" wedges cut out lengthwise, and "wicks" (cotton rope with polyester core) stretched and held down inside them. Each one is about 1-1/2" apart. This will be the first part of my "hydro-wickie sandwich", that will lay in the growing medium.

Here's the top view. Used a kitchen knife to cut 45 degree wedges out of the 1" styro, and added a 1/2" cut along the edge to hold the ends of the wicks in place.

Sitting on top will be another piece of styro, the rings drawn on the top are 3" diameter, the lines coincide with the wicks below. Holes will be drilled or cut out in the center of these rings for putting a "soil-less medium" (anything from rockwool to peatmoss to paper towels, the last being the most handy), and the plants. Any non-root crop that can be grown in a 3" diameter area should suffice (ie: lettuce, brocolli, etc., not carrots, radish). Found I had mixed results with the cup arrangement - they'd frequently get too wet.