How to Build an Indoor Herb Garden

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If you’re anything like me, you like to use fresh ingredients anywhere you can when cooking. Not only do you know exactly where your food is coming from, but you can also save money on that pack of rosemary when you only use one twig and then the rest goes bad.

With an indoor herb garden, you can have what you need while also reducing food cost and waste.

I’d love to have a big vegetable garden and several fruit trees in my yard, but there’s just one problem…

I live in a townhouse.

I have no yard.

But I do have a large, back porch and every spring I plant herbs in pots and use them all summer long.

This year, I decided to try something a little different.

It’s been a weird year

Okay, it’s been a weird few years but right now I am currently referring to the weather. It has changed directions more times than a squirrel in traffic. I live in Pennsylvania so we’re always a couple degrees colder than where I grew up in Southern Maryland and therefore, spring takes a big longer to get here.

Well I’m impatient!

So I thought to myself, is there a way I can bring these herbs inside and get started a little earlier and maybe have them a bit longer?

There was one major thing that stood in the way of me just putting herbs wherever I want in my house…

Her name is Sadie and don’t let that sweet face fool you because she is 7.5 lbs of pure plant terrorist. As soon as I put a plant on the floor, she would eat it, and then knock it over, and then just look at me like “what are you going to do about it?”.

So plants, in pots, on the floor was not an option.

Pinterest gets you every time

So this was the original image that started it all…

An upside-down hanging herb garden? Indoors!? What a great idea!

Okay so all I’m going to need is…

• Appropriately sized coffee tins (I don’t drink coffee but Nana does! She can keep them for me)
• Spray paint (I can’t just do one color, that’s boring)
• Wire (I got that!)
• Herbs (Gotta get those!)
• A dowl to hang them from (I work at a hardware store, easy peesy)
• Time (HA!)

Have you ever heard that quote – “Why buy it for $5 when you get build it with $92 worth of craft supplies?”?
That played on repeat in my head as I was putting this all together, so I quickly abandoned this idea.

Also – coffee cans are metal which means with enough moisture, they will eventually rust. I don’t need all that negativity in my herb garden.

I’ve never been one to give up that easily so what else could I do?

Turn that garden upside-down…well, right side up

I decided to try and play off the idea of the hanging herb garden, but maybe tweek it just a bit.

I got some plastic pots, a wooden dowl and some twine, potting soil, and picked up a few herbs from the Farmer’s Market.

Pro tip: If you’re going to be hanging pots, make sure they have an attached saucer to catch water or else you’ll be dripping water all over whatever is under them. This isn’t such a big deal if they’re outside, but it will create quite a mess inside. These are the style of pot that I used.

Step 1 – Hanging the rod

There is already a big window in my kitchen that looks out over my back porch and it already has a curtain rod.

If you don’t have a curtain rod already, you can easily just buy the brackets and install them yourself.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Reinforce the screws – The screws that come with curtain brackets are designed to hold up curtains, not plants full of dirt and water. So you’ll need to replace the short screws with longer ones in order to have some reinforcement.
• Attach to a stud – It should go without saying that your brackets should be attached to a stud and not just drywall. If you hang the brackets just outside your window frame, you are guaranteed to hit a stud without having to use a stud finder or play the “knock knock” game
• Wooden dowl vs metal rod – A metal rod can also be used but for this example, I used a wooden dowl. I needed a rod that was at least four feet and the wooden dowl was the only one I could find. It is also more aesthetically pleasing over a metal rod.

Once the brackets are up, simply hang your wooden dowl or rod in its rightful place.

Step 2 – Assemble your plant hangers

Talk about your Pinterest fails! I bought the twine in order to make my own pot hangers based on this Pinterest post:

When I say it took me twenty-seven tries per pot in order to get them to hang correctly, I am not kidding.

If you think you can make them easier – please go ahead and try but don’t tell me. Just let me live my life not knowing that someone else got them on the first try, or the fifth.

If you want to save yourself the trouble, check out these premade pot hangers instead.

Is it cheaper to buy twine? Probably. But sometimes you pay for convenience and to not pull your hair out!

Step 3 – Plant your plants

I actually did Steps 2 and 3 in the opposite order because the weight of the plants helped me with building my plant hangers.

But step 3 is easy – just plant your plants in their pots!

In case you’re new to gardening or planting and really don’t know where to start, enjoy listening to Alex’s accent in this video from Glam & Garden!

Step 4 – Hang your plants

Finally, you will very carefully hang your plant hangers with the pots on the dowl or rod that you chose.

Your final product will end up looking something like this:

And Voila! Inside, hanging herb garden!

Final tips

• Make watering easy – All plants require water to grow so you’ll need to water them pretty consistently. Make sure your access to do this is relatively simple.
• Enough sunlight – Make sure your plants have the right amount of sunlight. The sunlight coming in from the window should be sufficient as long as you leave the blinds open or up at all times.

Growing your own herbs can have many benefits including reduced cost, less food waste, as well as less single use plastic from the grocery store.

Hanging them inside not only means you can plant them sooner, but it can also add a functional, yet decorative element to your home.

My only problem now? Determining what I will plant in the front three windows in my house.

But I’ll be buying pot hangers this time… #Pinterestfails