Upside-down Tomato buckets ready to go!

by Rick
(from container-gardening-for-food.com)

I finally went out to Wickes and brought a bunch of their 99pence builders buckets. These are for my upside down tomatoes which I intend to hang on all four corners of my plant climbing frame.

I test fitted them today and decided to cut grooves in the tops of all the protruding spars where they will be hanging, this is to secure the handles and prevent them from slipping.

As additional security, and to prevent the buckets from swinging in the wind, I was intending to use galvanized builders band to wrap around the circumferences and attach to the upright posts, but I went to order some builders band yesterday only to find it was a lot more expensive than I'd first thought, so I have decided I will use cable ties joined together instead.

The picture above shows the basic idea, with the red-bordered inset showing a groove for one of the bucket handles.

I specifically chose builders buckets because they have a slight rubbery content which I believe will help stand up to being baked in the harsh UV rays of the sun all day without going brittle. However, this is just a supposition on my part, and I do not have any evidence to suggest this is actualy the case.