Today was a beautiful sunny day in the Pacific Northwest and in honor of Earth Day I felt it was justified to keep work work to a minimum today and get outside for some fun work. What better day than Earth Day to build the tiered herb garden I had floating around in my brain. I have had a pile of perfectly good salvage timber from the kids old play structure beckoning.
Step 1. Build 3 boxes in graduating sizes. If you're lucky like me and you have lots of "helpers", careful turning your back as you might find that they have decided to squat in and accessorize your boxes.
Step 2. Evict the squatters.
Step 3. You want to use some 4x4 cut to the same height as the large box to help perch the middle box, I cut 3 4x4 pieces.
Step 4. Add a wood bottom to the middle box. I did this because I don't want to fill all of the voids with dirt.
Step 5. Stack and secure the middle box positioned however you want. I opted to line up all sides in one corner. Sorry I didn't get a picture of this process, but you can see the final picture for the way I stacked the boxes. I also secured the flat back sides with some metal straps attached to the bottom and middle boxes for extra stability.
Step 6. Secure some gardening plastic or whatever else you want to use ( I used a scrap piece of weed barrier) to the bottom edge of the middle box and wrap around support 4x4 to create a void under the middle box. I then filled the bottom of box with our home grown compost and then organic garden mix soil.
Step 7. Stack 3rd and smallest box using the same method as the middle box using 1 scrap board on end to support the corner in the middle of the planter while resting the other edges on the middle box below. I did not add a bottom to the top box.
Step 8. Add compost and soil to the middle and top boxes.
Step 9. Plant your beautiful herbs. I dedicated the entire top box to Rosemary because you can never have enough Rosemary. I dedicated the bottom box to my Italian herbs, 2 types of Basil, Italian Parsley and some Oregano. The middle tier is my variety pack with Peppermint, Chives, Parsley, Cilantro and Thyme.
Step 10. Water and enjoy the beauty!
Make every day Earth Day! Re-purpose, Re-cycle, Re-use.
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