sǝoʇɐɯoʇ ƃuıʍoɹƃ

I've pretty much ditched the idea of being much of a gardener. When we first bought our house, I was pretty excited about the notion of turning part of the yard into a garden. And for many years I'd get all gung-ho in the Spring and plant a whole bunch of stuff.

Of course I'm not a big fan of weeding, so once the excitement of planting vegetables was over (about 5 minutes after planting them), I'd abandon the garden in hopes that it would take care of itself and turn into a bounty of produce late in the summer.

Well, that pretty much never happened. Sometimes I'd get lucky and actually get an edible onion out of the deal, and I had some sporadic luck with tomatoes. In recent years I've always planted a tomato plant or two, and oftentimes they would actually produce a few actual tomatoes.

The problem is that I'd watch a tomato grow from a little blossom, into a little green tomato, into a big tomato, and then into a big tomato with a large bite in the side of it thanks to the stinkin' deer.

Last year I finally got frustrated with this process, yanked everything out of the garden and planted grass back over it. Since I do really enjoy the taste of fresh garden tomatoes, we're taking a different approach this year. I have set up one of those "Topsy Turvy" tomato planters, "As Seen On TV!" Of course, if it's advertised on television, it must be a fine product, right?

We'll see how it goes. I'm not sure whether this device will produce upside-down tomatoes, or exactly what is going to come of it. If I put the tomatoes on a hamburger, perhaps I'll eat it upside-down out of respect for the process.