Fresh herbs are always nice to use in cooking, especially if you pick them from your own yard. I found this water jug herb planter idea in an online magazine, and well… had to build it.

The picture in the magazine didn’t show you how to mount the water jugs, just five jugs in a row with herbs growing in them.

As our yard is limited as to where to mount the jugs, it was decided to attach them to the side fence. We used 1 gallon water jugs.

First step was to cut open the top of the jugs, leaving the handles in place.

Once the tops were cut, I drilled drainage holes in the bottom of each jug.

I used an 8′ long piece of 1″ x 2″ poplar, and two metal U-shaped brackets. I attached the brackets to the fence posts, rather than the fence boards for greater stability. I then routed the 8′ poplar wooden piece through the handle of each jug, and set the assembly in the brackets.

Everything looked pretty good, until dirt was added to each jug. The poplar wooden piece remained in the brackets, but was bending forward from the weight. The wood would have likely broken once the jugs were watered.

My solution to this problem was some chain and two screw hooks. This worked very well, even after planting and watering.

A very nice recycled water jug hack!