My garden is lacking in size. It’s 90+ degrees out every day. Do I start diggin’ the new garden plot? Do I make a container garden for the patio? I’m not sure when or how it quite dawned on me to do this next part, but it did, and I’m so glad!
I decided that I would build a “Hanging Herb Garden” to help expand my garden without having to lose 50 pounds from sweating and digging a whole new plot. It was really easy and it was a good way to recycle some of those yogurt containers that I set aside for such a time as this. Just like my topsy turvy, I decided to do a tutorial for you. Hopefully one of you will have a fence that needs some friends to hang out with it ;)

Let’s get started!

Supply List:
Rope or twine (I used Sisal thanks to Cheri at The Garden Elves)
4 plastic containers (more or less depending on how many herbs you plant, mine were 32 oz. yogurt containers)
4 plants (more or less depending on how many you plant)
dirt/soil
a drill (if you don’t have a drill, you can use a nail and hammer)
2 eye hooks (just slightly larger than the diameter of your rod)
1 rod (mine was 48x )
scissors
electrical tape
spray paint (optional)

Step 1: Cut 2 pieces of twine/rope/sisal for each container you will be hanging. I cut mine each about 5 feet in length. If you’ll be hanging them rather low, you’ll want more. I don’t recommend going any shorter though because you want room for your plants to grow without hitting the rod. (don’t know where my original photo went but you get the idea!)

Step 2: Gather your containers. Make sure they are nice and clean! Using your drill, drill 6-8 small holes in the bottom of your containers.

Step 3: Drill 4 hole in the sides of your containers about 1/2 from the top. Drill one in each direction, North, South, East and West. This makes for no lopsided hanging pots!

Step 4: *optional* Flip your containers upside down and spray paint in the colors of your choice. The aqua that I used, by far the best spray paint ever! It coated the container I used in 1 coat!! The yellow and the “watermelon”… about 5 coats. No lie. Primer would have been great to use on those first! Once they are coated how you like and dried, turn them over and give them a quick spray to cover the upper lip of the container. Now is also a good time to spray paint your rod if you choose to do so. I chose black but I’m starting to wish I would have sprayed it green! *optional*

Step 5: Drill your holes in your fence for where you will place your eye hooks and put the eye hooks in the holes. You only need 2 hooks if your containers are about the same size as mine. If you go larger, you will want a thicker rod and 3 hooks. If you don’t have a drill, you can use a nail to make a small hole and then turn your eye hook where you placed the hole. Keep in mind, this is not an easy task without a drill. Maybe you have a hubby with big muscles to help you out!

Step 6: Using the twine/rope/sisal that you cut earlier, thread your containers. You’ll want to pair your North and West together and your South and East together. Use my picture as a guide. Make sure you then pull the twine/rope/sisal so that they are equal in length.

Step 7: Fill your containers half full with dirt/soil. If your plants are dry, water the soil in the container before you add them. It makes a world of difference!

Step 8: Add your plants to your containers. I always add a little bit more dirt/soil to the top of the plants to make them look a little nicer and it also helps keep them a little more moist.

Step 9: Put your rod through your eye hooks.

Step 10: Kinda eyeball how far down you would like your plants to hang. Remember, if you’re planting something that will grow tall, you need to give it room to grow! Once you have figured out where you would like your plants to hang, tie your twine/rope/sisal in a knot above and or around your rod. Snip the leftovers just above the knot. Continue hanging the rest of the plants. I chose to stagger mine in height to add a little spunk to the garden but you don’t need to if you don’t want to!

Step 11: Using your electrical tape, wrap the tape around your knots. I did several figure 8′s and wrapped like crazy to make sure there were no holes or cracks for water to get in. This helps keep the knot in tact through the weathering that it will receive. There’s no such thing as too much tape!

Step 12: Using your electrical tape again, we’ll want to make sure that the rod itself doesn’t slide out of the hooks. To do this you simply wrap the tape around the rod many many times until the tape is a little fatter than the hook hole. You only need to do this on the outsides of each hook. Example, the left hook needs to be taped on the left of the hook. The right, taped on the right. If you’re using 3 hooks, the middle hook does not need to have any tape on either side.

 

You’re done! Water your plants and admire your work! Soon you’ll have delicious herbs to use at your own free will!

*just a lil note… the top herb garden was done previously so do not use that as a guide… there have been minor issues with it!*

This isn’t just for herbs. You could really do anything in them. I was even thinking about using them for starter plants for this coming falls garden. Another idea would be to stagger them all along our back fence and fill them with beautiful flowers. Oh how gorgeous and colorful that would be!

If you decide that you’d like to try this in your yard and you have any questions about any of the steps. Just leave me a comment or shoot me an email and I’d love to help walk you through it!

Happy Gardening everyone!!

Tags: small garden ideas, small garden spaces, the garden

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 and is filed under the garden, the tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.