I love the idea of using fresh herbs when cooking.
But have you ever paid for fresh herbs??
One recipe I was making called for fresh basil. This was during the spring, so I knew I would have to pay a “little” more for it being out of season….well….my husband (bless him for going to the grocery store for me) came back and reported the package cost $6! (And let’s be honest….it probably wasn’t all that “fresh.”) You can see why we use primarily dried herbs (because an extra $6 a recipe is a little too “cosmopolitan” for this rice and beans family! Ha!).
Luckily, our cooking is getting some fresh additions in the flavor department because of this bad boy:
Stick with me, dear reader, because when we saw this wall shelf at Goodwill, I knew it had to come home with us! (There were actually TWO. I have plans for it’s sibling for another project.)
It is supposed to be a shelf that holds wine glasses on the bottom (see those little feet hiding underneath?). But, while wine glasses are an essential part to any mom’s arsenal of survival tools, I had other plans for this shelf. It had “Herb Planter” written all over it. Well, not really, but it soon would (quite literally in fact!). Read on!
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The Plan
This planter was part of a fun Facebook group challenge I participated in called “Thrift Games” (hosted by Charleston Crafted). Doesn’t that sound fun?! The idea was to spend no more than $15. The second challenge was to find something that would fit the theme of “summertime.”
I knew I would need to save room in my $15 budget for getting the herbs, so I only spent just over $3 for the shelf/planter.
Once we had scored that, it was onward to Home Depot. I was in luck because they were having a sale on herbs and vegetables, so I got all 4 of these for $12! Here is what we picked:
I used 2 criteria when picking:
- (Most important) Did I think I would use it?
- Did I like the way it looked? (If it was going to be sitting on my counter, I wanted it to look pretty, so I went for varying textures and heights.)
I used mason jars I already had to plant the herbs in (some I had and some my mom gave me- thanks mom!)
Hmm…Something is Missing….
Once it was all put together, I was really liking it, but it just seemed to be missing something.
And then it hit me-it needed a little sign. (Because who would know it was an herb planter without a sign stating the fact? [Let’s all give a little eye roll here. Wink.]
I have quite a thing for signs (if you want to be swanky and sound sophisticated, you can call them “textual art”).
Trust me when I tell you that homemade signs are slowly making their way into every room in my house. I’ve caught the sign bug!
To make this little sign I used an unfinished craft sign I had on hand (you can pick one up at the craft store for less than $1) and also some acrylic craft paint that I had-LOVE this color. (I painted the pig in this post here using it.)
The process to make the sign is SO easy. It literally took 5 minutes to complete it. Check out the “Cheater Method” I use to make EVERY sign in my house in the tutorial here. (But be warned, you might start a compulsive habit like moi…so read with caution!)
Once everything was done I just used some little twine to tie it around the shelf.
I like how it looks even more with the little “herb” sign (and who doesn’t love a little pop of turquoise blue?).
All in all it came to $15.30 (Hopefully that .30 didn’t ruin it for me and I can still play along for the $15 “Thrift Games” Facebook challenge…. Please? I’ll share my herbs with you! Basil anyone?)
(If you can’t find a shelf like this one, this also works with baskets-I saw several at Goodwill that would look great!)
Check out the neat ideas other bloggers came up with for this new “Thrift Games” challenge here.
What a great idea! There is nothing better than fresh herbs. Love it!
Thanks so much! Thanks for hosting the fun challenge! (And I totally missed before that your name was Morgan too. How fun!)
I love how your herb planter turned out! What a great idea! And $15.30 is a total score!
Thanks Tracy! Now let’s hope I can continue to keep them alive! Yikes!
Very cool! Is the bottom for hanging wine glasses? Pick some fresh mint for mojitos! 😉
Excellent idea Emy! I like how you are thinking! 😉
I love it! I have to admit, I tried to plant some herbs a while ago…they died within a month. So now I have succulents. But If I could keep them alive, I would totally do something like this!
Fingers crossed I can keep these alive Andi! If not, I might resort to succulents (which I have those too and love them, so it wouldn’t be a huge loss….just not super for cooking! I’ll let you know how it goes!)
This is so crafty! I love it!!! And what a score for $15.30 – even if you did go over by a few pennies, it was totally worth it! And I love that you shared the challenge – I’m going to edit my post to share too! What a great idea.
Thanks so much Melissa! It was a fun challenge to participate in. Now here’s hoping I can keep these herbs alive this summer!
Very cool project!!
Thanks so much! 🙂
I love this project!! Great update!
Thanks so much Michelle! Here’s hoping I can keep the plants alive! 😉