My Basil Tin Can Garden

Is there an herb or spice (or two) that just say summer to you? For me, that would be basil and dill. I love using both of those herbs fresh from the garden in my summer meals.

I grow basil in pots on our deck. It just seems to do better that way. In recent years I've planted two pots with several basil plants each. Since those pots will now be on my front porch this year, I had to come up with alternate planters.

The painted cans I used for a couple of herbs last year held up well. So I thought I'd expand on those and add 4 more painted cans.

As a support, a corral, and to keep the cans off of the deck surface (where they could leave a rust ring), I used 2 old fence pickets and 4 used bricks from our property.

It's been a cold and wet May this year, so I've delayed potting my basil seedlings out. Some of them suffered some damage in the waiting. I tried hardening them off on two occasions, only to have to bring them back inside full time until the weather warmed again. 

Although it was raining again today, I set out to pot the largest of the seedlings. I worked on the kitchen floor and made a huge mess, but oh well. You know when you're confident that you can do something neatly without laying some newspaper down on your work surface? That was me this morning. I'll be careful, she said. I'll be neat, she said. I don't need newspaper. Let's just say potting soil, a top-heavy and tippy watering can, and a clumsy gardener turns a clean kitchen floor into a muddy mess.

I filled 5 of the can-planters with 4 or 5 seedlings each. I have 2 more cans to plant and will do that when my next batch of seedlings are ready. After seeing the damage to the very earliest batch, I started another 9 cells of basil seeds under lights.

I will continue bringing the planted cans in over night until our weather improves. From the weather forecast, that looks like it may be until the end of the week.

I realize that tin can gardening does not suit a lot of personalities.  I'll tell you why it suits mine. It gives a second life to something most of us think has only one life. It's quirky, and I'm quirky. It's one of the cheapest types of planting pots available to me. And I like the parallel between this can once holding a manufactured food and this can as a container in which to grow more food. Anyway, that's just me.

Bringing Old Flower Pots Back to Life

I have these old fiberglass flower pots, bought at Home Depot about 15 years or ago. Originally they were sage green. (It evens says so on the label on the bottom of each pot.) Over the years they have faded, and the paint has chipped in places. In the last couple of years I've planted them with basil and kept them on the back deck. The wear and tear wasn't an issue to me in the backyard.

I needed a pair of pots for my revamped front porch this year, And since I like to reuse items I already have, I chose these two pots for that purpose. But I wanted them to look refreshed.

Last week I gave them both a good scrubbing, inside and out, then left them to sit and dry out on the deck for a few days.

I have leftover green spray paint (Rustoleum Eden) from the herb pots that I made out of large #10 cans. Since I wanted these refreshed pots to be able to move from front yard to back yard as I choose in future seasons, using the leftover paint makes these pots more versatile for my use. Save money, more versatile --  Eden green it is!

The left pot has one coat of Eden green paint,
while the right pot is still weathered sage green.

Although our weekend was a rainy one, I had a narrow opportunity to spray paint outdoors on Monday afternoon. The clouds thickened at one point in the day. Fortunately the rain held off so I could give both pots a few coats of paint before getting them into the garage to cure.

One of the finished pots, with 2 full coats and 1 partial coat of paint.

The pots look great and are ready to fill with something colorful for the front porch. I have just a couple more improvements to make in that part of the yard. I'll update with photos soon.