Old pickle jars vs. salsa jars for my herb shelf, salsa won by a lot
I finally got around to making that hanging herb planter in my kitchen near the window in Austin. I had a bunch of both pickle jars and salsa jars saved up from the last few months. The pickle jars are taller and skinnier, but the mouths are so narrow that getting soil in was a pain on my first try. The salsa jars are shorter but have that wide opening, so I could actually fit my hand in to pack the dirt around the basil roots. I ended up drilling three holes in each salsa jar lid for drainage and used some old rope I found in my garage to hang them. Three weeks in and the basil and oregano are doing way better than I expected, no mold or weird smell. Has anyone else tried using those wide mouth spaghetti sauce jars for something similar, or do you have a trick for narrow necks? I still got six pickle jars left and hate to toss them.
I used to save every glass jar thinking the tall pickle ones looked better on a shelf, but after fighting to get dirt past those skinny necks I switched to wide mouth only. A funnel made from a cut plastic bottle actually helps a lot with the narrow ones if you still want to use them.