The nurseries here still don't seem to have much in the way of herbs, so I guess I will just have to be patient. In the meantime, I found some good ideas for making my herb garden more successful:
How to Make Herb Garden Markers
How to Make a One Pot Herb Garden
Lest you think I've forgotten about my vertical garden, I did a little browsing at the nursery this morning for possible ideas.
There were a lot of different trellises available, and one I liked in particular had asian lines reminiscent of a shinto shrine (my apologies for the photos–they were hanging up and my iPhone doesn't do it justice):
My thought was that I could hang rectangular planters equidistantly on this trellis, kind of like this:
Three of these would fit quite nicely and allow for plants to grow.
The trellis was $49.99 and the planters $8.99 each. Still a long way from the $399 price tag on the vertical garden from Smith & Hawken, but also still a little pricey. I'm gonna continue looking around.
Yikes, I’m afraid of using cement. I don’t think it would be necessary though–I could embed the posts using soil and plant in the pots as well. There is a wall this would lean against and it would be attached to the wall which would also give support.
I’m just afraid of it looking junky.
I so wish it would warm up so I could get this planting party started!
Could you make your own “trellis” with two decorative pots, posts (or metal construction bars) and cement? You could find some posts you like, paint them, embed them in cement in the pots, cover the cement with moss or something pretty, then attach your planters (as shown in your picture) to the support posts? I don’t know if it would be less than $49 to make, but very sturdy.