Sunday's Project: An Herb Garden Wall

A few months ago I went "junking" in my Grandma's garage and came up with a bunch of old mason jars my Grandpa used to collect. I knew that I could find something on Pinterest to do with them, and I did!

I searched for "mason jars" and found a bunch of cute ideas, but one that stuck with me was making an herb garden in individual jars. You needed some jars, a few scraps of old wood (which I had), some broken pottery to absorb moisture, some hose clamps, some cable staples, and some herbs.

As if I haven't been to the greenhouse enough this year :) I lured Billy out with the promise of lunch if he would go with me. We drove out to McDaniels's and picked out a flat of assorted herbs. While we were in Rix Mills, we also stopped at Terra Cotta Vineyards (where we were married) for a couple of bottles of wine & to take in the amazing view! It was a gorgeous day!

I live in a part of Ohio once-famous for it's pottery. We have a couple of pottery retailers pretty close. I knew I needed some pieces of pottery for the bottom of my jars to absorb excess moisture since there's no drainage. I had intended to find some "seconds" pots and bash them up. When I told the cashier my intentions she informed me that I could buy a 10 pound box of pottery shards for 5 bucks! Deal!

Inside were some of the neatest things!

A nearly perfect, plain, crock

Broken Fiestaware!

and my favorite: a broken garden gnome that looks astonishingly like George W. Bush!

I began the project by staining my wood pieces. 

Before:

...and after:

Then I used  wire staples to affix the hose clamps on the wood pieces. I put my jars on the wood to see where I needed the clamp to go. Either around the top, or in the middle.

There very well may be a better gadget to use for securing the clamps to the wood, but I found that even though these were a little bulky, they allowed for me to adjust the clamp, which came in handy!

I used a hammer and broke up some of the pottery pieces to go in the bottom of the jars.

I put a nice layer of potting soil in the jar ( I used Miracle-Gro Moisture Control) and potted a plant! I found a nice assortment at the greenhouse and they were buy 4- get 1 free! :)

I topped them off with a little more soil & tightened the hose-clamps. Voila!

Beware! You CAN overtighten... at least, I think that's what happened. It was the first one I did! I was planting some other plants & heard a POP! The top just popped off! Whoops.

I used all the wood I had and made about 5 boards & jars. I hung them on an east-facing wall outside & can't wait to start snipping! I'm envisioning caprese salads with fresh basil, mojitos with fresh mint, and new recipes with marjoram- an herb I'm not very familiar with.

That's it! It was a fairly easy, cheap, and fun project! Jane, my Mother-In-Law brought me 10 new plants on Tuesday night- so it's back to Grandma's for more jars!

Happy almost-Memorial day weekend!

-Alisha