Friends! Remember when I went on and on about my super clever ladder herb garden?

While I was waxing on about my own cleverness, were you at all concerned about the little monster/toddler running around myhouse who recently discovered the joys of sandboxes and fresh basil? Did you think, hmm, I wonder if she bolted that precarious-looking ladder to the wall or something, because it'd be a hot mess if it came crashing down? Well, dear reader, you are wise beyond measure. The ladder, while charming, was baby bait in the worst way. He would get to it so fast -- past legions of ostensibly responsible adults -- and the next thing we know, he'd be building soil castles and munching on a fresh handful of greens. At least, I told himself it was greens; it was very, very likely actually soil. We needed a solution, and I got my heart set on a little window shelf that was out of Westley's reach. So I made one, with stuff I had on hand.

Here's what I had on hand: A shoe rack I'd deconstructed a while ago, some medium-duty twine and a couple of potholder hooks.
 So, with the help of my dad, who came up this weekend and is patient with things like figuring out the angles one needs to make of twine to create stable herb shelves, we looped the twine through the existing screw holes in the shoe rack shelf, and attached them to pot hooks I hung in the top of the window sill. Brace yourself for this beautiful shot:

I know. You're so jelly. But the window valance (AKA folded-over table runner I've been too lazy/busy to change out or iron) hides all this glory. You still get an awesome shot of the general window shabbiness and the glorious roof outside, but at least this is hidden. Anyway, the herb shelf. That first pic is a teeny bit stylized; in reality, I cram all the herbs up there because I have to.

So yeah, that's my herb garden shelf. And you guys, I may not have nailed the appropriate toddler-friendly indoor herb garden situation the first time around, but I am crushing this gardening thing. Look at all those plants that are alive! They look happy, they smell great, and I love having that little dose of green in the window. It focuses the eye a bit away from whatever that steal beam-age situation outside is. I have this image of hanging dried herbs and peppers and flowers from the rungs as we move into fall. But for now, it's summer. Caprese, anyone?

PS - I actually finally cleaned my windows, but you can't even really tell. So that's anticlimatic. PPS - Any shelf or scrap of wood the width of your window will work for this project. You just need to drill holes in all the corners and thread through your strong rope or chain through the holes. Connect to pothooks or plant hooks and work out whether you need to connect the two sides of rope, and if so, where, to have the shelf hang level. It was really simple watching my dad figure that part out.

As usual, thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!