The DIY Garden Trick To Grow More Herbs In Less Space

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You don't need to give up your dream of starting a herb garden just because you live in a small apartment or have a balcony barely big enough to fit an outdoor rug. Take a tip from the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon: Vertical allotments are the perfect gardening solution for those with small backyards. Unlike the famed Hanging Gardens, your herb growing journey doesn't require great riches or feats of ingenuity. All you need are a few bills and a trip to Dollar Tree.

Gardening supplies can get expensive, but if you DIY using dollar store items, you can craft a tiered vertical planter with space for up to 36 separate plants on a budget. Balcony garden visionary DIYwithBTS has devised a wallet-friendly way to transform the Garden Collection 3-Section Stackable Planters from Dollar Tree, which retail at just $1.25 each, into a many-tiered planter that only takes up about a quarter of a square foot in floor space.

While you're perusing your local Dollar Tree, consider how many stackable planters you want. Each individual planter can hold up to three plants and comes in blue, taupe, or a traditional terra cotta color. If you're only interested in growing a few staple herbs, like basil, rosemary, or thyme, pick up a handful of stackable planters. Of course, you can make your tiered planter as tall as your space allows — some examples reach 12 planters tall.

The stackable planters, as their name implies, nestle into one another, but since they're made of plastic — and come from Dollar Tree — they don't have much stability on their own. To ensure your tower doesn't fall over (taking your carefully cultivated plants with it), create a support for it using pipes. You can purchase new metal or PVC pipes from hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowes, or you can reuse old PVC pipes.

Using a heat gun, melt the center of each planter's underside until there is a large enough hole for a snug fit around the pipe. Slide the planter onto the pipe. For added security, bolt the pipe to a floor flange, like this Pipe Decor Iron Floor Flange four pack for around $29, that's screwed to your deck or a sturdy wood block. You can also use a couple of flanges and an elbow fitting to attach the planter pipe to an upright piece of wood like a deck post.

While this tiered planter does its job well (it supports a lot of plants in a 6 inch x 6 inch space), you might not like its industrial aesthetic or may want it to blend into the background more. To customize your DIY project, try spray painting it. Since the tiered planter is easy to assemble and disassemble, you could put it together and save the customization for later. Just make sure you don't spray paint your plants once you've put them in your planter!

To prepare your planters for spray painting, give them a light sanding to roughen up the surface. Once you've sanded them and cleaned up all the resulting dust, coat the pot in a primer to ensure the spray paint doesn't chip or flake off into your soil. Follow that with a few thin coats of paint in your chosen color. You can get a perfect finish using a paint sprayer tool.