Look! Terraced Herb Garden

We love the geometry and repetition of a terraced garden, and this little set-up, from the home of Susann Larsson of Purple Area, is an ingenious way to bring the look to your small-space deck or balcony garden. It works perfectly for herbs, which will stay small with constant harvesting...

Susann's lovely little garden benefits from the uniformity of the galvanized steel pots. Notice that she's left the herbs in their own plastic pots in order to avoid any rust contamination issues from the steel.

If you can't find a small terraced display like Susann's, you could always create a look like this using an interesting vintage ladder, or even a couple of shoe racks nailed together.

Susann's blog, Purple Area, is full of more wonderful inspiration, with occasional glimpses of her own lovely space. Unfortunately right now she's taking a little time off from Purple Area, but in the meantime you can read her work (with a little help from Google translator) on SvD.

(Images: Susann Larsson)

Comments (9)

That just looks great - I love industrial-looking planters. Especially the steel planter holding your tree. Beautiful!

It's actually the look I've been going for (and am pretty proud of):
I don't have a balcony or any outdoor areas, but I do live in a corner loft apartment with huge south- and west-facing windows. So I finally decided to set up a herb garden, but I can't stand the quaint, ye olde gardyn type of look. Also I cannot remember to water for the life of me.

So, I made some 2-liter plastic bottle irrigation-watering planters (which work fantastically well). Then, to get the similar look to the above on the cheap, I bought a roll of aluminum flashing at Ace. I took the flashing and cut a few feet in length, rolled it in a cylinder, and secured it with 2 bolts. The I slipped the cylinders over the bottle planters, and on a row on my window sill they look great. And similar to the above!

posted by criv227 on July 10th 2009 at 1:20pm
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Very nice and aesthetically pleasing. I took the cheap route a few years ago by rescuing black plastic "water buckets" that my local grocery store uses for all of their cut flowers. They heaped them in a shopping cart in the front of the store with a sign that said "FREE". My eyes nearly popped out of my head...I couldn't believe the luck. I must have turned 30 of those buckets into deck planters just by drilling three drainage holes in the bottom of each, and they've worked like a charm for all of my herbs and tomatoes. Not nearly as attractive as the galvanized steel pots, though.

I saw another cool planter idea on www.greenwala.com (an online green social network) -- take old vinyl records and melt the sides up so that each turns into a "bowl" that you can use around the house or in the garden. One member entered that idea in Greenwala's "Choose To Reuse" contest, and by the looks of it, that seems to be a top favorite. If anyone here wants to check it out, here's the link: http://www.greenwala.com/greenwala_contests

posted by elizahleigh on July 10th 2009 at 2:35pm
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This is a very inexpensive tiered plant stand that will give a smiliar look. I may get one for my own terrace now!

http://www.vifahwholesale.com/servlet/the-229/Tiered-Plant-Stand/Detail

posted by meganross1 on July 10th 2009 at 3:13pm
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I love this look. I've been wanting to set up an indoor herb garden. Any suggestions on where to find these galvanized pots or a plant stand that's so compact? (The one above from meganross1 is great, but too deep for my space.)

posted by amybanks1115 on July 10th 2009 at 3:41pm
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Yes! Source for tiered plant stand please!

posted by canadian in swedish clothing on July 10th 2009 at 7:10pm
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meganross1 - thank you for the source, but the minimum purchase is $500!!!

Do you know 15 friends who want to go in on it? :)

posted by cashba on July 10th 2009 at 8:59pm
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You can get inexpensive galvanized pots at Cost Plus World Markets in all different sizes, mine have lasted years.

posted by sfgirl on July 10th 2009 at 9:36pm
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Try this website for tiered plant stands:

http://www.simplegardens.com/

posted by jgphotomom on July 11th 2009 at 1:25am
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I'm with 'canadian' above. Source for the stand, please!

posted by baltimorerowhouse on July 13th 2009 at 8:50am
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