Easy Self Watering Patio Herb Garden

At first my husband and I grew the typical basil, oregano, etc. we'd buy at the grocery store after the growing season. Then we started adding a couple of "I wonder what that bougie herb tastes like" plants  for fun. It turned out to be a tasty budget living hack because I use this exact Nesco dehydrator to dry my fresh herbs and use during the rest of the year for free instead of paying a much higher price at the fancy grocery store. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)

  We. Need. More! 

Insert Mad Scientist laugh here: Mawhaha! 

Living in a condo my vegetable gardening space is limited to my small patio. It took a bit of a think until I realized the same indoor small indoor space organizing idea can also be applied to outdoor spaces. If you can't build out, build up!

I got the ball rolling last year, when I scored this metal plant stand for 5 bucks at Goodwill last summer. Since most herbs like cilantro, dill and the like grow tall, I wasn't sure how to mange growing herbs on the second shelf and gave it a test run with  the current pots last season.

The white tubes in the planters are the watering tubes for self watering planters.

A tiered outdoor plant stand like this one  would have allowed me to place pots where ever I wanted on it but I don't have the real estate to spare for it.

The plant stand worked well. I can get things to grow on the second shelf if I push the top shelf pots back a little and move the middle and bottom plants forward a little. Basically making it into a small space tiered plant stand. Also the shabby green basil planters need to go.  

I needed a mess of new planters and I wanted them to coordinate with what I already have. If  the neighbors and I  have to look at it, it might as well be cute (on a dime.) 

 

I popped down to the home improvement store and bought seven metal galvanized steel buckets like these  and made them into self watering planter similar to the one in the photo below, just on a smaller scale. Self watering planters are the secret to my success of keeping plants alive (I often forget plants need water to live.) Self watering flower pots also conserve water which is a major plus.

 

You can read my How to Make a Self Watering Flower Pot tutorial here.

The weather beat the plant stand up over the winter. It didn't take much to spiff it back up with two coats of this rust and fade resistant spray paint while I was at it. Gotta protect that 5 dollar investment!

Finally, I planted and transplanted the new self watering herb pots in its new location on the patio. 

I'm letting some of these plants bolt so they will reseed and grow as volunteers next year.

This year we have purple basil, dill, and cilantro. Spicy oregano, what turned into a sacrifice plant that pests are eating instead of everything else, and transplanted Thai mint so I can use its large planter to grow veg. The bottom row are my husband's Tabasco and chili peppers.

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