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Named "2005 Best Garden Product in America" by Reader's Digest, this ingenious hanging tomato and flower planter is turning gardening upside down!

Thanks to a whole new direction in growing tomatoes, your crop will be bigger, better tasting, healthier, and easier to grow than ever before. You can water, feed, trim and harvest without bending or kneeling —and since your crop is upside down and will never touch the ground, staking, caging, bacteria, ground rotting, fungus and small animals become problems of the past. Best of all you won't have to dig any holes or pull weeds!

It's the perfect gift for any gardener. All you have to do is plant it and hang it up. It's great for those in apartments or small backyards and perfect for patio, balcony, terrace or tree. Water and fertilize through the built-in top funnel; trim and harvest at chest height!

Topsy-Turvy is also wonderful for growing cucumbers, peppers, flowers and more. Just add your soil and plants.

The Topsy-Turvy Planter makes it easy to grow tomatoes and vegetables because it eliminates the need for a backyard garden plot.

It's the easiest way ever to grow vegetables or flowers.

By Tamara Galbraith

Asparagus is has been grown for at least two millenia. It is not susceptible to many disease problems. It's a good source of vitamin A and also has good amounts of calcium, folic acid and Vitamin C. It is a cool season perennial which can live for decades. Asparagus does require some work to get started, but unlike other vegetables, it will keep producing for many many years. It will need regular watering in early years but requires much less work than most other vegetables once it becomes established. Besides, those little shoots peeping out each year are a great harbinger that spring has arrived... plus, once you've tasted freshly-picked asparagus, you'll never go back to the store-bought stuff!

Asparagus has a large root system with feeder roots and rhizomes that develop into spears and storage roots. Roots can grow very deep (at least 6') and wide. Warning: asparagus will not tolerate wet feet - if you have an area with a high water table, do not plant it there. Asparagus prefers a soil pH of 6.5-7.5, and doesn't do well if pH is less than 6.0.

Each planting row should be a furrow at least 5-6 inches deep and as wide; keep rows about 5 feet apart. Loosen soil as deeply as you can from the bottom of the furrow. If the soil removed from the furrow was a sandy loam, it can be mounded for filling in as the plants grow. If you have a fine clay or silt soil, remove it and use it in a low spot elsewhere (or use a raised bed). Mix several inches of a good planting mix ( we recommend Harvest Supreme) and some Dr. Earth Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer. in the bottom of the furrow. If lime is needed to adjust soil pH, add that at this time.

Next, make a small mound so the asparagus crown will be on top and the roots spread around it. Plant the crowns/roots 4-6 inches deep (shallower in clay soils). Cover them 3 inches with half organic and half sandy loam mix (or use a good planting mix, such as Gardner & Bloome Soil Building Compost, if you have clay soil), then wet the entire row. when the plants are several inches tall, add another layer of the above mix (avoid covering the foliage - it's better to fill too slowly than too quickly) until the furrow is full. Water weekly if it doesn't rain. (Stop watering in early autumn to encourage dormancy.)

Pick no asparagus shoots the first year to allow the foliage to grow, yellow and die on its own. This creates the food for the roots. Mulch in autumn with straw, compost or strawy manure to reduce heaving from freeze-thaw cycles and to delay early spring emergence of spears. During early spring of each year, remove the dead foliage and any overwintering weeds. (Don't cut the fern down in the fall - the dead fern will catch moisture and snow in the winter and will keep the soil temperature about 5 degrees colder than the temperature of bare soil.T his colder soil temperature will delay early emergence of spears in the spring, which could then be killed by a spring frost.) Also broadcast lime, if it is needed to maintain the proper soil pH. At the same time spread 2 to 3 pounds of 5-10-10 fertilizer per 100 square feet and rake both fertilizer and lime into the upper 1-2 inches of soil.

The second year, pick sparingly only those stalks as big as your finger. Keep watering, fertilizing, and mulching with manure and compost.

The third year is the year to really begin harvesting. The 2-4-8 week sequence is a good rule: pick for two weeks the third year, four weeks the fourth year, and eight weeks from then on. To harvest - when the stalks are at least 7 inches high, just snap where they begin to be tender and enjoy. (If you use a knife or clippers, you risk accidentally cutting immature spears and also spreading disease between plants.) Stop harvesting when a majority of the shoots are smaller in diameter than a pencil.

Good companion plants for asparagus are tomato, parsley, and basil. By the way, just a bit of trivia - asparagus is one of a fairly small number of salt-tolerant vegetables - it used to be traditional to sow salt on asparagus beds to control weeds. (We wouldn't recommend that in most places - the salt might run off and kill less tolerant plants.)

By Tamara Galbraith

Herbs that prefer cooler temperatures are definitely in the minority. Southern gardeners know that, in the heat of summer, it's hard to keep control of the basil and borage. But parsley? It's a cool character in the herb garden.

Parsley's history is pretty cool too. Winners at the ancient Greek games were crowned with wreaths of woven parsley. In medieval times, it was believed that parsley only grew in the garden of an honest man or women and, when chewed, would keep away the devil.

In the garden, parsley is an easy-to-grow spring herb. It is a biennial, meaning it lasts only about two seasons before flowering and going to seed. There are generally two standard types of parsley: curly-leafed and flat-leafed. The curly type — commonly served as garnish — tends to be stronger in flavor, while flat-leafed parsley is milder and preferred for use in recipes.

The ideal soil for growing parsley is fertile, fluffy, moist and cool. Although full sun is preferred in cooler zones, hotter regions should not only mulch the plants but let them lounge in afternoon shade for best results. Parsley also does well as an indoor plant in a kitchen garden.

Even if you're not a cook, parsley's delicate shape makes a beautiful addition to the landscape. And if you don't care about eating your own parsley, then by all means, let the larvae of swallowtail butterflies chow down on it, should they show up.