The Adorable Way You Can Repurpose Old Mugs Into A Thriving Kitchen Herb Garden

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Mugs make great gifts to give and get, but what happens when your collection outgrows your shelf space? There's no need to get rid of any of your favorites when you can upcycle them as containers for growing herbs. A mini herb garden growing within easy reach for meal prep? Yes, please! 

Before we get creative, let's look at what herbs need to thrive growing in mugs. Some simply need bright sunlight and fresh water to keep growing, making them good candidates for kitchen mug gardens. These hydroponic herbs include lemon balm, mint, parsley, and cilantro. Other herb plants prefer sinking their roots into soil with adequate drainage to prevent root rot. There are two ways to do this when planting in a mug: Either line the base of your mug with gravel or small stones before adding soil, or drill holes in the bottom.

You can start your mug garden either with seeds, like the FloraRoot 20 culinary herb seeds variety pack, or with seedlings from your local gardening center. Choose which herbs will grow best in your kitchen by taking into account how much direct sunlight reaches your windows and buying seeds or seedlings accordingly. To save yourself some heartache, avoid herbs that don't do well inside, such as summer savory, basil, and rosemary. Before planting your herbs, have some fun transforming the mugs.

Naming the herb planted inside can be both practical and pretty. Find names or images of each herb on wrapping paper, napkins, or the internet. Fix the images to the mugs using Mod Podge — one of the creative ways to use decoupage in your home. If the color of your mugs doesn't suit the kitchen, repaint them using ceramic or porcelain paint. You may have to bake your mug in the oven to set the color permanently following the directions on the bottle.

Subtle humor is a delightful addition to any kitchen. Choose appropriate herb puns that you can find on the internet, and use an oil-based paint marker, such as the fine-point oil-based paint Sharpies, to write them on your mugs. Some examples are "Cooking is good for mint-al health" for mint, "Dill-icious food under construction" for dill, and "It's thyme to cook" for thyme. To make the writing permanent, bake your mug in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about half an hour. Make sure you put your mug into a cold oven to allow it to heat up as the oven does and leave it in until the oven has cooled down completely to avoid damaging your mug. 

Another idea is to grow some crazy herb hair by drawing simple faces on your mugs. Plant herbs that will give you different hairstyles, such as buzz-cut chives, curly-top oregano, or silvery sage. Once you're finished decorating and planting, position them for display.

Kitchen window sills are ideal for herb mugs, but what if yours aren't wide enough? You can still take advantage of the light that windows let in by hanging your mini herb garden. Try your hand at macrame and add a touch of charm to your space with this DIY adjustable plant hanger. Hang your macrame-herb-mug creation from a mounted curtain rod. Play with the length of the macrame holders to achieve the look that appeals to you. Instead of a curtain rod, you can use a tension rod that doesn't require any drilling to mount. Just make sure you stay within the weight guidelines.

An old pot stand can be used as a quirky shelving display for your kitchen herb garden. Give it a new look with a coat of paint, and then stand or suspend it in bright, warm light and add your mugged herbs. Pot stands make stable displays that don't need a lot of effort before you can use them. 

If you're looking for something with more structure to make the best use of the bright window space, try suspended displays. These OtNiap three-tier clear hanging window plant shelves are a beautiful option that won't detract from the creativity you've put into making your mugs. Another bonus of using shelves made from clear material is they don't block out light or obscure the view. Shelves provide more display room, which means more gorgeous mugs and a wider variety of herbs!