Miriam shows you a practical plan for constructing a living herb wall that fits your space.
If growing organic culinary or healing herbs at home grabs you, a wall garden will bring you joy. As gorgeous as the massive system at the Al-Sultan Ibrahim restaurant in Maameltein, Lebanon is, the home owner can plan for a smaller, more viable one. The video below shows a plan for making a small living wall where your favorite herbs can grow and thrive close to hand, every day. It only takes a little drilling.
I’d love to free up some space on my tiny balcony and move at least some of my plants to a vertical space. I considered get a shoe hanger, filling it with dirt and seeds, and hanging it on an outside wall. But this stopped me: the weight of the dirt, plants, and water. Would the hanger just rip apart under that weight? It might work, if I planted only a few herbs, but I want at least fifteen varieties within my reach. The video below shows a way that even I, an apartment dweller with no carpenter’s skills, can make a vertical garden.
The video below refers to ornamental plants, but obviously herbs will thrive in the same system. You will need to consider the physical space each variety needs and if overhanging leaves will interfere with another plant’s sunlight. But that’s part of the fun in gardening – observing and adjusting as needs arise and seasons change.
A vertical garden planted indoors should obviously face the sunlight or stand under a skylight. My mother had a thriving coffee plant under a skylight once. But a grow light on a timer will provide light too, and are available at popular home center stores.
Home wall garden kits are also available on line from $40 – $2,000, depending on size and materials.
Growing dwarf vegetables would be a fun project with kids. Imagine planting all the spaces with one crop – fingerling potatoes, let’s say, or strawberries. Then harvesting it in triumph, straight from the garden – the wall garden. How cool would that be?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp8YyQqVTSI&w=560&h=315]
More on Green Prophet on herbs as food and as medicine:
- Practical Herbs, A Book Review
- The ABCs of Traditional Middle-Eastern Spice Medicines
- Natural Herbs for Breast Health and Enhancement
- Grow Wild Chickweed At Home
String of herbs image from Shutterstock; image of herb wall from happy krissy
Author: Miriam Kresh
Miriam Kresh is an American ex-pat living in Israel. Her love of Middle Eastern food evolved from close friendships with enthusiastic Moroccan, Tunisian and Turkish home cooks. She owns too many cookbooks and is always planning the next meal. Miriam can be reached at miriam (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
