HANGING HERB GARDENS
Super stylish Japanese kokedama – literally “moss ball” – turn any pot plant into a Pinterest-worthy feature, so here’s how to use this technique to create a hanging herb garden.
Environment & care
Herbs are tricky for kokedama because they are such a broad group of plants. The main factor to consider is that the light and water requirement for some herbs, such as basil, will be prohibitive when choosing a candidate for kokedama. Stay with the woody stemmed perennial herbs which will stick around for more than a few weeks. Herbs with rapid lush growth will be too demanding to be worthwhile in a kokedama.
Herbs need lots of food in the form of sunshine as well as organic fertiliser. If you intend to pick your herbs for use in the kitchen, keep a close eye on them to make sure they don’t become malnourished. Keep a good quality organic fertiliser in liquid form handy and give small amounts regularly at half strength. Herbs need eight hours of full sunlight each day. They rely on sunlight to produce new growth – a lack of sunlight will lead to leggy, weak plants. Keep them hanging outside the kitchen window where they can be easily watered and tended as well as picked. If the kitchen window isn’t an option, then hang your kokedama inside a patio area or from the eaves of the sunniest side of the building.
The only way herbs would get enough light inside is if they were in a corner window facing the sunrise, or in a window which also has a skylight above it. Especially consider that you want to provide enough nutrients for the plants to produce edible quantities of leaves. Use a generous amount of soil mixture.
How to water your kokedama
Because of the open neck of the ball, it is easy to top-water – simply pour water into the top of the ball until it starts to drip. This needs to be done frequently enough that the herbs don’t experience root drying. If roots get dry, the plant might think there is a drought and burst into flower, then die.
Hardy perennials don’t tend to be as dramatic and are a little more tolerant of dry balls, but still err on the side of too much rather than too little water. Drought conditions can lead to bitter herbs.
If you plant a range of herbs, then there will be separate plants competing for moisture and food and you will have to account for this in the initial design. The ball will probably end up with quite a large neck opening, which in this case makes watering from above very practical.
Use a really thick layer of moss to protect the soil inside from moisture loss by evaporation. If you have a particularly dry home, add a layer of coconut fibre to the outside as well.