Shoe hanger garden

This is my first year as an active winter gardener. My assumptions up until now were that winter was a time you just didn’t garden. I’ve learned differently and now I’m trying a number of ways to keep production of homegrown foods and herbs going throughout the year. I came across a discarded shoe hanger, and after seeing a number of projects displaying herbs grown in vertical indoor containers, I thought I’d try my hand at a version with a bit of “sole”.

My intention was to overwinter herbs and lettuces. I’ve got a sunny little mudroom which I thought would do nicely for the project. I began with great optimism, gathering my materials on the deck because I figured this would be a very messy project. I would wait until I completed the project before I took it inside.

First I added a little layer of pebbles. Thanks to our aquariums, I always have plenty of leftover natural aquarium gravel to do just the trick. The pebbles keep the roots from sitting in water. Next, I added a layer of organic potting soil from Garden Shop of Homewood. Then I selected the seed packs I planned on: Basil, stevia, coriander, dill, and I threw in a couple of rows of lettuce as well. I could envision harvesting a salad right around the corner from the kitchen!

Once I had all of the pockets filled, I watered each section well, waited for the hanger to drip out a bit, and then brought the entire assembly inside. Yeah! I imagined beautiful, lush plants spilling over the pockets — and I couldn’t wait for the wonderful taste of fresh basil in a hand-picked, homegrown lettuce salad.

Okay, so the indoor garden was not a complete success. Actually, to my chagrin, I would have to say it was a major fail. Everything came up nicely, but the lettuce seedlings grew lanky and thin, the stevia never got bigger than a grain of rice, and the dill and coriander seemed to cry, “Why did you plant us here?”

I set up a grow light and made a couple of attempts at taking the hanging garden out for nice days, but this was not enough to save the project. Perhaps If I’d kept this up, it might have worked — but it was difficult. Trust me on this: A shoe hanger full of rocks, dirt and water is heavy.

As the last of the stringy little seedlings keeled over, I declared the project a failure.

Fast forward a few weeks: Now in full winter, I’ve got plenty of leafy green things coming along in the garden out back. But rainy days and cold weather often make it unpleasant to venture out to the garden. I’ve also got more seedlings of lettuce, collards and other yummy greens coming up in my green house than will fit in my backyard beds. “Hmmm,” I ponder, “perhaps I can salvage this vertical garden after all”.

I rehung the shoe rack full of dirt outside in the original assembling site and put the new, winter hardy seedlings into the individual openings.

Voilà! They love it. The collards are growing and looking happy, and the arugula and lettuces I planted here are actually farther along than those in the ground out back I planted much earlier. I think some rascally rabbits may have something to do with that.

These guys are nowhere a rabbit can reach and dogs and cats on the deck definitely discourage our thieving little squirrels. They yell and curse at us from the safety of high tree limbs while my vegetables grow and thrive. I can see I’ll soon be eating from this handy little shoe hanger turned vertical garden planter.

I think I’ve got another one of these shoe hangers lurking up in the attic somewhere. I may have to bring it down and assemble another. Eat your heart out Imelda, this project is a winner!

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