Who says you need a garden bed, or even pots, to start your own edible garden? Melissa’s showing you how to grow veggies and herbs, even if you have no space at all. From mushrooms in a box to potatoes in a bag, the best gardens can be grown in the most unlikely of places.
How to make a stacked herb tower
Gather your supplies
- 3 to 5 pots that taper in diameter
- Saucer for the bottom, biggest pot
- Quality vegetable potting mix
- A range of herb seedlings
You’ll also need
Gloves, trowel, secateurs, pruning saw
Here’s how
1. Choose a location for your stacked herb garden close to the house, preferably a sunny location to maximise plant growth and flowering.
2. Place a saucer and your largest pot into its final position and fill with a good quality potting mix half to three quarters of the way up.
3. Plant the bottom layer before moving onto the next. We used spearmint as the soil will stay wetter at the bottom, and mints like this. You can do a trial placement and push an imprint into the soil so you know what sort of planting space you have to work with.
4. Stack your second-largest pot on top of your first, placing it in the centre of the potting mix. Bury it slightly by twisting it and firmly pushing downward – this will give it more stability. Plant your second layer with seedlings. As you go, make sure each pot is level by standing back and observing it.
5. Continue this process until you run out of pots. Don’t go too high or it may fall over. A stack of four terracotta plants is ideal.
Top tips
- Feed your plants every 3 months by sprinkling a small amount on vegetable fertiliser on each layer of your stacked herb tower.
- For the best look, choose edible plants that create a carpet and spill over the sides of the pots. Good options include mints, thyme, parsley, viola, nasturtium and strawberry.
- Mints tend to go wild, so give them a whole layer to themselves.
- Protect tasty things like strawberries from being eaten by slugs by planting them further away from the ground.
- Instead of using seedlings, you could try growing from seed. Just replace the top 5cm with a layer of seed raising mix.
- You could make the very top pot a tiny water feature by using a pot without a hole in the base. In the warmer months, use it as a propagating dish and after removing the lower leaves, place your cuttings in it to begin forming roots.
- Soak your terracotta pots the night before planting so that it doesn’t draw any moisture away from your new plants.
You might also like:
How to install a raised herb garden bed
How to plan a vegetable garden
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