Tower of Herbs!!!

I am all gung-ho about planting a garden this year, and couldn't leave out the herbs!  Cooking with fresh herbs is great, and something I want to try more.  I didn't want to plant them in my garden (weeding would have been a pain in the butt), and I found this "Tower of Herbs" on Pinterest from the Martha Stewart website that I really wanted to try!  From the website, the directions use 5 terra cotta pots per one tower, where one smaller pot is placed upside down in the largest, bottom pot to take up room (less dirt) and to act as a base for the one that will go on top.

I didn't make mine quite the same as hers.  I did not want to use terra cotta pots (they soak up too much water from the soil), and the pot turned upside down inside another pot did not work very well for the plastic pots I found (at Wal-Mart). So, some tweaks I made were :

1.  Used plastic pots instead of terra cotta.
2.  Used more soil (about 1 and a half bags).
3.  Added a PVC pipe with small holes drilled in it as a way to add stability to the pots, along with a way to water the herbs without dumping water on top of them.  This idea came from my younger brother.  He had done something similar with a large wine barrel used as a strawberry planter.

So here we go!

Supplies:
2 - 6" pots
2 - 10" pots
2 - 15" pots
2 - 22" lengths of 1" PVC pipe
2 bags of soil (I used Miracle Grow, 16 quart bag)
Power drill with 1 1/4" drill bit and 1/4"
A partner in crime!  (I used my little brother)
Seeds! (I used sage, thyme, parsley, oregano, chives, and basil)

1.  Using the 1 1/4" drill bit, drill holes in the bottom center of your 10" and 6" pots.

2.  Cut your PVC pipe to the length you would like (I used 22" so it stuck out of the top somewhat).
3.  On your PVC pipe, marks dots every 3 inches.
4.  Using the 1/4" drill bit, drill small holes at these dots for water flow.  I alternated where the holes were drilled by turned the pipe 90° each time I went to drill a hole.
5.  Gather everything and put it together!

6.  Placing the 15" pot on the bottom (no hole has been drilled in it), have your partner in crime hold the PVC pipe inside the pot in the middle as you dump soil around it.  Add soil until it is filled about 2" from the top of the pot (the soil will settle).

7.  Take your 10" pot and slide it over the PVC pipe so that the pipe is sticking up through the middle of it, and place it on top of the soil in the 15" pot.

8.  Fill it with soil and add the 6" pot.
9.  Fill the 6" pot with soil.
10.  Plant your seeds!  I made 2 towers with sage (in the top pot), thyme (middle pot), parsley (bottom pot) of one tower and oregano (top pot), chives (middle pot), basil (bottom pot) of the second tower.

Finished!!!

As of today, July 8th, I have herbs popping up in each of my planters!  I can't wait until they are fully grown and smelling delicious!

'Tis Time to Garden!

It's time to start planting!  So last Monday I finally planted some starters, including 35 different types of plants!  I hope our garden this year will be full and gorgeous and delicious!

There are a lot of different things to use to start plants, a few really cool recyclable/eco-friendly type of ones such as these using a lemon peel, or these using egg shells.  I have also thought about using an old egg carton.  However, I really like using the Jiffy one because it comes will all the little dirt pellets so I don't have to get everything dirty with a bag of soil, and it has the plastic lid thing to create a greenhouse-like environment.

I have never planted this many seeds before!  Usually I use a small 12 spaced Jiffy container because my garden usually consists of plastic pots and not a garden spot, but I have a garden spot now!  So I went all out!  The only thing bad that I encounter is knowing which seeds I planted in which spot :(.  This year I made a grid in Word and labeled each spot, so far it's working well!

Luckily we have had some pretty good sunlight here (except the last few days :( ), but enough that these seeds have been going crazy!  After only one week this is what they looked like!

I am very hopeful for our garden, and super excited!  And I have decided that, for the herbs I have planted, I would like to make a "Tower of Herbs".  Looks like it would be super helpful!  And I can keep it on the back porch, easy to get to for cooking, and hopefully Bruce the cat won't eat them...haha.

And lastly, I have to admit, I am a bit of a Pinterest addict.  I have found a few nifty things that I would like to try out in my garden this year, check them out!