How To Make Indoor Herb Garden Planters From Denim

I’m not very good at growing herbs, so I cheat and buy pots of fresh herbs from the supermarket. This week, I made vertical indoor herb garden planters out of denim for these pots of herbs.

The herbs now hang vertically next to the cooker, so they are handy to reach when cooking. I love grabbing a handful of fresh coriander (cilantro) and bunging it into a pot of freshly cooked curry.

Repurposed Jeans Into Indoor Herb Garden Planters

As well as looking good, the herbs in these handmade planters last longer. They are double-potted, allowing easier watering and drainage, just like the Marimekko plastic bottle herb planters I made.

I’ve made planters for 3 of my most used herbs: coriander (cilantro), flat-leaved parsley and basil. In the summer, I will need to add another pot just for mint for all the pitchers of Pimms and Mojitos I love to drink when the sun’s shining.

These indoor planters are featured in the A to Z of denim upcycles.

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What You Need To Make Herb Planters

• Denim legs – I made three planters and used the bottom of three jeans legs.
• Three denim belt loops, one for each herb planter
• Three large plastic soda bottles

• Needle and thread
• A strip of white cotton fabric or ribbon
• Letter stamps and black ink
• Fabric glue
• A strip of pallet wood and dark wood wax
• Three hooks – I used some painted ceramic hooks that I already had.

How To Make Indoor Herb Garden Planters

Step 1: First, using scissors, cut the bottom off the soda bottles. So, you end up with a cup approximately 15cm (6″) high.

Step 2: To make the denim herb pockets, cut the bottom off a jeans leg. Make sure they are about 1″ longer than the cut soda bottle. Turn this inside out. Cut the bottom corners to make it more rounded. Then stitch up the bottom (this can be done by hand or glued if you don’t like sewing).

Turn the denim pouch right side out and stitch a belt loop from the jeans to the back. Finally, place the soda bottle bottom into the pouch.

Step 3: To add more interest to the denim pouches, make some herb labels. Stamp the names of herbs onto a strip of white fabric. Then, cut these labels out and glue them to the front of each denim pouch.

Top tip: If you don’t have a letter stamp set, you can write the names of the herbs onto the fabric with a Sharpie.

Step 4: Place the supermarket herb pots inside the plastic bottle cutouts and then into the denim pockets. As the pots sit in the soda bottles, they can be easily watered, and the excess water has somewhere to drain.

Step 5: Finally, I make a simple hanging post for the indoor herb garden planters. Sand and wax a plank of old pallet wood. Then, screw three hooks into the wood for each herb pot. This was a verticle indoor herb garden that could then be screwed to the wall in the Kitchen.

Having the herb names stamped on the outside has proved to be helpful. I may know my flat-leaf parsley from my coriander (cilantro), but my husband and kids don’t know. It’s been a bit of an education for them.

Hanging Herb Garden

I only hung my indoor herb garden planters vertically because I had the perfect wall strip for them in my Kitchen, between the door and the cooker. It is easy to turn the plank around and have horizontal denim herb planters if that’s what you need for your space.

Whichever way you hang them, not only is it handy having the herbs to hand, but they make the Kitchen look more organic. Plus, my supermarket potted herbs last a bit longer, as they are now double potted, which helps with the watering and drainage.

If you asked for cilantro in England, most people wouldn’t know what you were talking about. That’s because we call it coriander. As far as I know, I think that’s the only herb we have a different name from the US. Let me know if you believe there is another one.

I love repurposing my old denim and have loads of ideas of what you can make from an old pair of jeans some of which don’t involve sewing. I’ve made some hanging denim storage baskets similar to these herb planters. The jeans pockets can also create hanging storage and the legs.

 This isn’t the only herb garden I’ve made. You might want to check out my upcycled window herb planter.

Or, if you are looking for more ideas for the Kitchen, there are some great tutorials for upcycling denim in the Kitchen.