Upside-Down Tomatoes, Take Two

Our upside-down tomato project last year had some great success. Nine months later, our freezer still supplies us with marinara and diced tomatoes from the garden. However, in light of the failure of a few elements of the hanging structures, I've decided to make some modifications.

With the help of Sara (and Gwendolyn in the mai-tai) and an afternoon of 54-degree sun-lovin', I began construction of a tomato trough, which will replace two of the tomato trees from last year.

Here's one of the posts, bereft of its tomato-growing branches, but enjoying the addition of its delta-trough supports (patent may be pending, depending on whether I will need to defray increased insurance premiums):

The posts are about 11 feet apart. I am still benefitting from the generosity of friends who unloaded some 14-foot 2x8s (which are really only 1 1/2 x 7s, curse the nominal system). So the trough will over-hang the posts by a couple feet:

After all four boards that form the sides of the trough are up, here's what the cross-section looks like:

I need to cap the ends, make a bottom for it (with holes for tomato plants), and line it with something to help the wood from rotting too quickly. Then we wait for May, when tomato-planting season begins! Stay tuned for what are sure to be more adventures and mis-adventures in the great upside-down tomato saga.

~emrys