Dirt Therapy: DIY Hanging Herb Garden

I've been so busy with school and work lately and I needed something to do or create that would get my mind off of all the things bogging me down.  I'm always inside during the week whether it be at school, then work, then at home and I don't really get to enjoy being outside.  I remembered that a  friend of mine is always talking about how relaxing it is for her to get out in the yard and get down with some "dirt therapy", so I thought I'd try that.
 

My boyfriend and had been talking about making a herb garden for a while, but living in a 2nd story walk up makes that just a little tricky, there's no backyard, there's no real porch for a box garden either. 

So, we did the next best thing.... We repurposed a  canvas shoe organizer to hang over the terrace....

 

Supplies:

* Repurposed Canvas Shoe Organizer

*Eyelet Punch

*Large Eyelets

*Zip Ties( you can use hooks in place of these, but these were the best for our project)

*Gardening Soil - (you can use compost instead, but we just purchased soil from the hardware store)

* Assortment of Herbs / Peppers

(Make sure that you read the labels on the herbs to know about how much sun/shade each plant needs before purchasing)

 

 

 

1) When choosing the shoe organizer: you want to test the drainage of the fabric.  You want to pour water through to see how fast the water drips through.  Just to be on the safe side... I used the eyelet punch to put some small drainage holes in the bottom of each section.

 

2) For the eyelet placement, I just placed two eyelets per section about 2 inches apart and 1-2 inches from the top of each section....  You have to take into account how much weight is going to be on the fabric with the soil, plant, and water.

 

3) When hanging... make sure that you've secured it well and that the weight will be distributed equally. 

 

4) We just layered soil and mixed with water as we went and placed each plant in the desired pockets based on how much sun and shade they need.

 

 

We planted Lavender, Sage, Rosemary, German Thyme, Spearmint, Sweet Mint, Parsley, Basil and also pot planted Habanero peppers and Jalapeno peppers....

 

Here is the progress a week later:

 

*Lavender

*Sage

*Rosemary

*German Thyme

*Spearmint

 

*Sweet Mint

*Parsley

*Basil

*Habanero Peppers

*Jalapeno Peppers

 

 We're already seeing new blooms :)

 

"Dirt Therapy" truly does work. 

 It lowered my stress and I get to watch the progress of these "garden babies".

 

There is no telling what I might use some of the herbs for, but I have a few ideas:

*Cooking

* Soap Making

* Lotions

 

Heather