How to Make a Ball-Shaped Hanging Herb Garden

You may not have a lot of room on your patio or deck for pots filled with herbs. Or perhaps you simply want a different way to display your herbs. One solution is to place your herbs in a hanging basket, but not just any hanging basket. This gardening arts and craft project for a ball-shaped hanging herb garden is actually quite easy to do and yields an interesting way to show off your herbs.

You will need:
2 wire hanging baskets (same size) with coconut fiber liners
small bag of perlite or vermiculite
Good-quality potting mix with slow-release fertilizer
Wire
Wire-cutters
Corrugated cardboard
Scissors or knife
Herbs (your choice)

Step 1: Set one of the wire baskets on another flowerpot or trashcan to stabilize it and to make it easier to plant.

Step 2: Thoroughly wet the coconut fiber liner to make it easier to make insertion points for your herbs.

Step 3: Create holes (insertion points for your herbs) around the liner. Use a knife and then enlarge the hole with your fingers. Be sure to create a hole in the bottom of the basket. This will be for either the herbs that you want growing from the top or from the bottom. Repeat for the second basket.

Step 4: Determine which basket is to be on top and which on bottom. You can then choose the herbs you wish to plant and gently push the root system through the holes. (You can protect the roots by wrapping them with plastic wrap if you wish and then remove the wrap once the roots are through the hole.)

Step 5: Blend the perlite or the vermiculite with the potting mix to make it more lightweight. Fill the pot with this mixture, pressing gently as you fill to eliminate any air pockets and to make certain that the mixture surrounds the roots of your herbs well.

Step 6: Cut out a circle from the corrugated cardboard. Pierce numerous holes in the cardboard circle so water can flow through and then wire to the top basket.

Step 7: Align the two baskets so they fit together to create a ball. Wire them together. Attach the chains that came with the baskets and hang.

Tips:
If you like to cook with herbs, choose those herbs that you most frequently use. For example, if you enjoy Italian cooking, you will probably want to plant such herbs as oregano, basil, and thyme.

Choose herbs that require very similar conditions.

Herbs that tend to grow tall should be place on the top of the ball, while those herbs that like to trail can be planted around the circumference or along the bottom.

For extra security, you can attach the chains for hanging the baskets to both baskets.