Portable Pot of Cooking Herbs

I love snipping fresh herbs from the garden for cooking, but now that we've made the move to town home living ~ I needed to plant a patio version of my herb garden this Spring. What better vessel than an old cooking pot!
I placed a layer of garden rocks in the bottom of the pot for drainage, then added potting soil. I carefully removed the plants from their plastic nursery pots by turning them upside down, then placed each plant in around the big soup pot.
Our local Ace Hardware carries small herb plants, the perfect size for creating a sampler of 6 plants. Some grocery stores also carry herb plants in their produce section, or you can find some at home improvement stores which carry garden plants.
I added some soil around the plants, just enough to cover evenly, then sprinkled some water over the pot of plants & placed in a partly sunny section of our patio. Since I'm always misplacing scissors, I tied a pair onto the handle with some twine ~ for snipping clippings!
As a final touch, I gathered some old mismatched spoons & dipped the ends in craft-store chalkboard paint ~ to use as changeable plant markers. Chalk ink markers come in different colors & provide longer lasting writing, but plain ol' chalk works too. I found my chalk markers at Michael's Arts & Crafts, and also have a few which came with chalkboard coffee mugs from Starbucks.  redshedvintage.com© copyright 2014

 

Trash Talk Thursday: Raisin Rack Redeux

Hidden behind a stack of framed posters, the rustic wood of this old raisin drying rack caught my eye while browsing at a charity thrift store. As was the wall art trend of the 1960's, a poster had been cut and découpaged onto the 3 wooden slats, covering but also preserving the primitive wood which lie beneath. 

Using a wallpaper scorer, I made some small holes in the poster paper.  Then I mixed equal parts of hot tap water and liquid fabric softener in a spray bottle, spraying & gently scraping small sections with a plastic putty knife. When the poster was completely removed, I rinsed the residue with a hose & allowed the drying rack to dry in the sun. The slats allowed space to add 'S' hooks, providing a great place to hang bunches of herbs and flowers for drying.