How I found myself in the rebar aisle!

Do you use herbs in your cooking?  This DIY herb garden might be just the thing to add to your summer patio.  I love the fragrances and find myself picking a leaf or two, or just rubbing my fingers on some of my lovely herbs when passing by.  I like using terra cotta on my patio and chose to build a vertical garden  with them for my herbs.

So, here I was in the rebar aisle at Lowes, but behold, I found something better than a piece of rebar to begin my project!  This is the important thing I found and I wanted to make sure you knew what it is, so I took this picture of the label.  This is a 36″ steel stake that has holes in it.  I couldn’t find anything similar at Home Depot.  Please excuse the dirty hand and nails (that I tried to hide with my watermark), I was planting, and not using gloves like I should!  Nearby in the aisle where the rebar was I found Quikrete, Fast-Setting concrete mix.  I gathered my Quikcrete, a terra cotta pot and my steel pole.  I assembled my terra cotta pots.  I used one 14″ x 12″, one 10″ x 9″ three 6″ x 5 1/2″ and one 41/2″ x 41/2″.  I began with my 9″ (tall) by 10″ (across) pot using duct tape on both sides of the drainage hole of the pot to seal it before mixing the concrete.I mixed the concrete mix with water directly in the flower pot and stuck the black steel pole right in the middle.I used a level against the pole to make sure it was straight.

I then used boards against the steel pole to make sure it remained straight until the concrete set up.  It only took about 15 minutes until the concrete was set up enough to remove the boards.  

Here is my pot with the cemented post in it and the largest of the pots.

I simply set the cemented pot down inside the larger pot and then began to add dirt all around the smaller pot and filled in on top with potting soil.

It was time to start planting!  I planted the herbs around the edge of the smaller pot and on top of the concrete in that pot.  Make sure you don’t fill the inside pot more than 3/4 full of concrete so you have some space to plant on top of the concrete.  

Next step was to put a common nail (one with a head to it, so it won’t slip through) through one of the holes in the steel pole.

I slipped a flower pot over the steel pole and it rested on the nail.  The pots rest securely on the nail pushed through the holes on the pole. 

I planted the smaller pot and then went about repeating this two more times, each pot planted with a different herb.  You can tilt your pots for a jaunty look like I did, or set them straight for a more uniform look.  

When I appeared to be finished, I added my tiny pot on top on which I had lettered “herb garden”.  All I have to do now is keep it watered in the Florida heat and enjoy taking advantage of having my fresh herbs right on my patio!  I will be sharing a live demonstration of this on Facebook Live for Hometalk on Friday, April 28th at 1 PM ET!  If you have any questions you can ask in the comments here, or tune in on Friday and ask!

I’ll be sharing this at the following link party:  The Scoop