Want to make your own vertical herb spiral garden? This compact space saving design can be made with just a few basic steps. Construction materials and methods vary. So after deciding on the best position and gathering your materials, you can have one built the same day. * [The original link to this image (via Cara-Ornamentals) is no longer available. I have no control over this & apologise for any inconvenience but you’ll find alternative resources below.] If you like this particular design and want to learn to make the curved wire baskets, see the end of this post for videos and wire basket suppliers for Gabion Herb Spirals. These are some basic instructions for making a gabion wall or visit BlondeMafia or Garden Drum. More instructional videos for gabions are here and here. For the tutorial steps, read on! Think of this as a typical ‘recipe’ you can follow, substituting ‘ingredients’ you have handy. Orientate your pond or bottom of the spiral on the southern side in the Southern Hemisphere and northern side in the Northern Hemisphere.

When it comes to planting, this will allow you to position your plants according to their sun, shade and water requirements. STEP 1: Measuring up. Have someone hold or bang the stake into the central point of the ground where you want to position your herb spiral. To determine the perimeter, stretch out the string attached to the centre stake to mark out your circle. Wolf Dogs For Sale GaDraw a line in the soil with the other stake or bamboo cane tied on the end of it. Cheap Used Tires In HawaiiOr use chalk if you are marking out a hard surface.T Shirts 40th Birthday The diameter averages between 1.5 – 2m (5 – 6.5 ft) or 750cm – 1m (2.5 – 3.25 ft) from the centre. Tip: If building straight on top of concrete, make sure you drill holes or have adequate drainage.

STEP 2:  Your base. If starting on lawn, you will need to stop weeds from growing. Cardboard can be used for this purpose to sheet mulch. Build the spiral on top. No light = no weeds! Some people use newspapers or thick phone books instead. I choose to avoid adding anything to my organic garden with inks that may be based on genetically modified soy beans. Cardboard edges need to be well overlapped to block all light. Lay your weed mat or wet cardboard (soak with a hose or in a wheelbarrow) to cover the circle you have marked out. Cardboard will breakdown and add carbon to your soil. It provides a food source for microorganisms. You may also choose to add some organic matter under this, to accelerate breakdown of the cardboard. e.g. chopped vegetable scraps and other green waste from your garden. STEP 3: Construct the wall structure. Using your edging material of choice, start laying your bricks/rocks on the outer edge. Work inwards to create a spiral shape. Allow about 0.5m (1.6 ft) width to plant into or adjust if making a smaller spiral.

For a more formal look, use mortar or cement between your bricks or stones. Tip: Save your best looking materials for the outside ‘face’ and those that will not be seen on the inside of the spiral. If using heavy rocks or stone, you may prefer to dig a shallow trench around the circumference of the circle. Lay these rocks into it, on top of a layer of cardboard or weed mat to prevent weeds. If using the dry stone wall method, you may find it easier to add your organic materials as you go, to provide support. Adding organic materials at the end for the mortar method. Once you have your basic shape laid out around the circumference, add a second tier of bricks. Remember, the outside ‘wall’ of your spiral is lowest (e.g. 2 bricks high or perhaps 1-2 rocks depending on size – enough to retain your soil). The middle will usually end up about 1m (2.5 ft) high with a central planting area. It gradually tapers down in height on a light slope to the bottom.

You can block it off or add your bog/pond at the base if using. STEP 4: Add your organic materials & nutrition. This will be different, depending on what you have easy access to. Some people only add mulch or straw to their herb spiral and plant into pockets of compost. If you’re on a tight budget or this is all you have access to, then this system of ‘growing soil’ will work fine. Remember ‘dead dirt’ is unlikely to bring you a successful outcome! “Like humans, plants thrive on good nutrition.” – Anne Gibson Rather than buying in a trailer load of soil from your landscape yard, you can make your own soil teaming with living microorganisms. Soil that has a good structure (a crumbly fine texture that holds moisture well) is ideal for healthy productive plants. These organic ingredients are likely much cheaper than buying in soil too! Click below for more vertical garden ideas to maximise space Affiliate Links: Your support of this site is appreciated!

Good sources of organic matter that will build soil fertility include: Sprinkle rock minerals (crusher dust from your landscapers is also suitable and very economical) and organic fertilisers as you add the organic matter to build in nutrients as a food source. If you have access to biodynamic preps, you may choose to add these too. To assist breakdown and ensure there is enough moisture, water in each layer with liquid seaweed. Expect some natural settling to occur. Moisture loving plants at the bottom of the spiral will thrive if you include some (optional) additional moisture holding ingredients. e.g. coconut fibre (coir peat), sphagnum moss, worm castings or some well aged compost (humus). These videos focus more on constructing the herb spiral structure, than building the soil. I think you will get a better idea watching several herb spirals being built. They all offer different perspectives and insights! Watch how to build your soil to feed your plants in a herb spiral, to meet their individual needs.

(The video quality is not great but the information is helpful!) This video covers a Permaculture group building a herb spiral with straw and planting into pockets of compost. This video shows a herb spiral made using rocks and soil. Dean Chichelli from The Nature Learning Center shows how to build a Spiral Herb Garden. He mainly uses straw and then plants into pockets of compost at the end. This last video shows how to build a very compact herb spiral with bricks. Diagramatic technical specifications plan – Full size printable. Check out the Herb Spiral photo album on Facebook for more inspiring ideas. Really cramped for space? You can still design a mini sized herb spiral! Since first posting the gabion herb spiral design, there has been incredible interest from all over the world in building them. The original image at the top that linked to Cara-Ornamentals is no longer working. Below I’ve listed some suppliers and resources that may be helpful if you’re interested in sourcing materials to build your own.