Rosie And The Hanging Herb Garden...

Disclaimer:  I haven't been paid to promote any products, just sharing my latest little project that's  making me smile x

Hello Honeys,

Today has been laundry day and you know me, any day with laundry in it is a good day 😊 I've always loved doing laundry.  Some of my earliest, happiest memories have laundry in them.  Sitting at the table in my Grammy's kitchen, with milk and biscuits or maybe some hot chocolate in winter time with lovely, warm, buttery toast.  While I was at the table, munching happily on my toast (or biscuits) Grammy would tell me about her childhood, her school days. All the while she'd be doing her laundry at her sink.  

No washing machines back then honeys. Grammy had two huge (to me, but I was only little) Belfast sinks, side by side.  One sink was very deep and the other one more shallow. Standing between the two sinks was a huge "wringer" that Grammy fed freshly washed clothes and bedding and towels through to squeeze the water out. To wash she had her "wash board."  Looking back, it must have been back breaking work but Grammy always smiled and sometimes she sang💖 

Laundry has become a bit more of a challenge recently, but every time my spine yells when I bend to take things out of the washing machine and move them into the dryer, I think of my beloved Grammy and how she'd work though her laundry, chatting and smiling and singing💗  I miss her every single day, but some days it knocks the wind out of me honeys.  Sorry, being too serious x  

While I wait for the dryer to finish running and the other load of washing to complete it's cycle, I thought I'd share some pics of my latest little project, as I promised yesterday💝 

I've wanted to grow some favourite herbs at home for so long honeys. Nothing huge. I'd just love to be able to add tasty, fresh herbs to our meals instead of reaching for the jars on our spice rails.  We did try once before and had some success actually, but that was such a while ago so, time to try again. 

A dear friend, Sarah (thank you honey x) bought me a beautiful box with lots of packets of seeds inside.  So, wanting to try growing them, I was thinking about where I could sit them to have the best chance of any available sunshine.  We do live in Scotland honeys.  You'd have more chance of finding a UFO, complete with Martian crew members wearing we love Mars t shirts, as find a sunny day here most of the time 😊  We do appreciate (rare) sunny days when they appear though 😄  

Of course my first thought was to put the planters on the kitchen window ledges, but then where would I put all of the cookie jars?  We do have quite a few.... another collection to downsize... someday 😊  

Inspiration...

Then, it happened!  I had an idea!  I remembered the spare rails, and their matching containers, we had upstairs. There are so, so many uses for those hanging rails from Ikea.  We have them dotted around all over the house.  

We haven't ever replaced the doors in this house.  Neither of us really like those plastic doors everyone seems to have now, so these solid wood doors are fine for us.  Well, the back door that leads out into the garden, via the kitchen, has a long, narrow window set into it and it's a sun trap-on days we see the sun. I mentioned my idea of a hanging herb garden to Hubby, using the spare Ikea rails and this happened...

I'm so, so happy with this project honeys! It's not in the way, the seeds are clearly getting enough sunshine (even in Scotland 😊) and how fabulous to be able to (hopefully) have lots of lovely fresh herbs on hand to inspire dinner choices.

In our guest room upstairs we store (very tidily) our collection of baskets, bins and anything else that helps with home organisation. Hubby calls it our "home Ikea" ❤  As we've downsized our home this past couple of years, donated things we no longer use or need, it's left us with so many empty organisers! We've even donated lots of those too. Now, that's something they don't talk about in all of those countless home organisation books I've read (and those books, of course, add to our clutter!)  

Back to those rails then honeys 😊 I actually went back upstairs today, to our "home Ikea" and brought another rail, and two more containers downstairs with me.    I think I'll ask Hubby to add the extra rail between the two rails on the door already...   

As you can see honeys, there's plenty of room for an extra rail...

   

Can you see the difference in the photo above? It was taken only a few days after the other photo, taken when the herbs were originally placed by the window on the back door.  

The spring onions, or scallions to our cousins across the pond (they're called sybies - pronounced "sigh-bees" here in Scotland) well, they were already growing so well on the kitchen window ledge, but look what's happened at the back door...

 

The spring onions have taken off honeys! They've grown so much in only a few days! Oh, and before I forget, you might notice I've added a third container to this top rail.  It isn't in the sun, so isn't used to try to grow herbs, but instead I put it there to act as a storage place for Hubby. So far, he has a small torch there (we also have two others by the front door in case of power cuts) and the keys for his sheds outside where he keeps his lawnmower and other garden tools. I'm sure we have a pack of the hooks for these rails, I'll have to find them and add one for his shed keys.   

As you can see, there's not much happening with the chives yet, but it's only been a few days and I'm sure they'll catch up. 

Moving to the other two containers,on the lower rail, there is a bit of a shock...

 

Look how quickly that cress is growing!  

Again, as with the chives, not a lot happening with the basil, but as I said, it's only been a few days, almost a week?  So, I live in hope to have some lovely, home grown basil to add to my pasta dishes 😋

Another great thing about this project is how inexpensive it was as well.  Free really, since we had a couple of spare rails, and containers, upstairs. Even if I'd had to go buy them though it wouldn't have been an expensive project.  When we bought these little rails, they were around £1 each and the containers cost 50p each.  I'm not sure how much they are now, but the range is called Sunnersta (and I still miss my much loved Bygel rails.)  

Do you grow herbs honeys?  Do you have any hints or tips you'd like to share?  Thank you for keeping me company today, it means more than I can say 💖  Till next time dear ones, stay safe, hugs always x