Borneo Lady: Upside-down gardening

Capsicum plant

Tomato plant

Want to do some gardening but with limited or minimal space?

No problem! Try upside down gardening.😀

With food shortage everywhere, this kind of gardening will definitely help a lot of people.

Upside down gardening is an unique way of gardening where plants are grown hanging and in a suspension soil. Not only does it help those with minimal space for gardening but also keeps ground pests such as snails, away from ravaging the plants!

It is noted that Kathi Morris was one of the 1st in recent times to start planting Tomatoes and Pepper this way in 1998. In New York, it's getting popular as published in the New York Times, especially Tomatoes!

On 26th April 2022, one of my friends, Alice, shared me this video which motivated me to start back what I did before, and that's "upside down planting" .

In this video, I recognised the gardener whom I have watched before, a couple of his interesting ways of gardening in Utube. So I began to search and found this channel in English version.

TEO Garden in the English version.

With the title "No need for a garden, grow egg plants at home with many fruits and a high yield"

When I first started this kind of planting, it was not because of space but more to curiosity. I was just wondering how a plant can grow that way and I still can't believe the results, until I saw it with my own eyes when the plant bended upwards overnight! It's amazing that it has resulted in a success. Because of this step by step process that I witnessed, I can now hopefully share this wonderful experience with anyone who is interested.

This was my 1st attempt with chili in 2020.

It was a success😁. Pictures were taken on 12.1.2020

Though it only produced less than 10 chilies, I was still happy with the results.😁

Like the saying, " Be grateful for small mercies God has given us".🙏

In February 2020, I visited a friend's condo in Singapore.

She also started the upside down planting - Tomatoes!

So, when I returned, I tried to do the same but was not so lucky as the plants did not thrive and repeatedly failed 😞. So I never try again after that.

Two years later, in April 2022, my mood to repeat upside down planting returned after watching these videos.

Therefore, on 12.5.22, I decided to try again since I had so many baby tomatoes plants in my garden.

Items used:

Empty water bottles (5L size).

Wire (to hold the bottle when hanging up).

Pliers.

A sharp rod to pierce holes on the bottle + tissue paper.

Empty oil bottles can also be used but its more tedious as u need to wash them thoroughly to remove the oil stain in the bottle. The empty oil bottle seem thicker and stronger. They don't break easily.

A Plant and soil

How to prepare the bottle was shown in the video of TEO Garden.
There are many ways of gliding the plants through the top opening of the bottle. Whatever the method is, the main thing is to not stress the plant with too much handling. The plants must be treated like a queen or princess, very delicate precious and fragile- so to handle it slowly and steadily. hahaha...

But it's true, my 1st attempt, I was a bit rough resulting a damaged stem and the plant. The 2nd time , the bottle fell before I can even hang it up and the plants broke again😓. I became better after each failure and after several attempts, I finished the task smoothly 💪

The root balls with soil intact were wrapped with tissue paper. Purpose is to minimize transfer shock as roots are very sensitive and may not thrive when too much handling or messing about.

The plants were gently glided along to the top opening of the bottle. The tissue paper around the "root ball" will hold the plant in place at the neck of the bottle.

Add the rest of the soil to 1/2 or 3/4 full of soil .

Water the soil and hang it as shown.

-12.5.22-

The next day, 13.5.2022, the plant had began to bend upwards 😂😅😁

15.5.22

Looks promising 😀

25.5.22 - Flowering appears

When flowers started to bloom, Epsom salt spray to the foliage is advisable.

It is thought that Epsom salt makes tomatoes sweeter.

1 teasp Epsom salt to 1 L water. Shake mixture well in a spray bottle and spray the foliage twice a month.

4.6.22

Noticed 2 little green cherry tomato fruits😂Hooray!

At last I succeeded in getting tomatoes this time! Ha! Ha...

I was so elated seeing these fruits appearing😂

15.6.22 - fruits getting bigger😂

-22.6.22-

Tomatoes Turning yellow😀

Signs of ripening soon.

-23.6.22-

Turning orange.

24.6.22

Turning Orange-red.

Ripen red cherry tomatoes😊

And it's sweeter than those from the market.
Maybe the Epsom salt spray does the job.😂

After tomatoes, I tried with brinjals too and again it was successful!💪

Brinjal starting to flower which will develop to fruit soon.😊

I also tried Capsicum which was also a success.

Yellow Capsicum

Advantages of upside down planting

1. More useful in urban areas especially in apartments where space are limited for gardening.

2. No more weeding
3. No more pests from ground attacking the plants such as snail, slugs etc

4. Efficient delivery of water and nutrients to the roots.

5. Allows greater air circulation and sunlight exposure

6. Minimize use of cage or stake to hold the crop.

Disadvantages

1. Limited varieties - I read from some reviews that only certain variety are best for this type of planting.

Chilli for sure is one of them because I have tried myself and it was a success . Then the tomatoes which my friend also have been successful in doing that. The rest are cucumbers, beans, bell pepper, brinjals but I have not tried them yet so I can't comment .

2. Soil dries up fast.

3. Limited yield from each plant.

With my successful home grown cherry tomatoes, I created a simple salad.

Ingredients needed:

A bowl of baby spinach. (washed and dried)

1/2 cup Mulberries from my garden(washed and dried) .

Cherry tomatoes from my garden.

Crushed mix nuts and dehydrated raisins

Feta Cheese- cut into small cubes bites

They are hard cheese that doesn't melt.

This cheese is the best known salad cheese. Based on it's saltiness and tangy flavour, no extra salt is needed for the salad and it goes well with greens and tomatoes.

For Salad dressing :

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 teasp mustard

A tabsp honey

A pinch of salt & a dash of black pepper.

Method:

*** To prepare the salad dressing, put all dressing ingredients into a glass bottle and shake well. Then set it aside until it's ready to pour into the salad.***

For the salad :

1. Prepare the washed and drained well baby spinach in a big bowl, along with the Mulberries.

2. Before pouring the salad dressing, give one good shake first, then pour around the salad.

3. Give a good toast with a pair of chopstick

4. Add in the crushed mixed nuts and raisins.

5.Lastly add in the small cubes of Feta cheese.