– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension
Photo: Pinterest @ https://morningchores.com/clothesline-ideas/
Readers raise your hand if you use a laundry line to dry clothes outside. Raise your hand if you want to dry clothes on a line outside, but do not have one. Now, raise your hand if you have an herb garden or want to grow an herb garden this year! If you have a hand up right now, keep on reading. I have an idea for you.
The idea is not my own, but it is one I read recently and want to try myself!
The credit goes to Reginald Blomfield and F. Inigo Thomas who published the idea of planting a knot garden of herbs clipped to a uniform height and used as a drying table for laundry in a publication called The Formal Garden in England in 1892. I read the idea in a book called 1,001 Old-Time Garden Tips gathered by Roger Yepsen.
A knot garden is a precisely planted and clipped garden layout common in formal courtyards. The outline is typically square with interwoven paths of plants creating a symmetrical design that is both pleasing to gardeners and artists. Design ideas are seemingly endless in application depending on the preference of the gardener. The same concept could be applied for gardeners who favor a more whimsical layout that includes herbs and laundry with less precision and space of any dimension.
Regardless of design preference, why not dry your laundry where you plant your herbs? Instead of using electricity to dry clothes, use solar and wind energy. Add natural home-grown fragrance from your garden without pressing oils or drying herbs to put in sachet. Benefits include having a dual-purpose space in the yard, saved time, saved energy, and pleasant-smelling laundry!
Whether you already have a laundry line or an herb garden, both, or are starting from scratch, here are some ideas for you to plan your herb and laundry line space for the coming year:
- Select a laundry line design that will suit an average sized load of laundry or two for your family. From home-built designs with 4×4 posts with lines strung between, to foldable rotary clotheslines, to lines attached to a fence, deck, or building, or a simple pulley line clipped from one stationary surface to another, there are customizable options for you!
- Choose materials that will retain their strength through years of exposure to the sun and weather, that can be cleaned of surface dirt so that grime will not transfer to your freshly washed items, and that can withstand the weight of heavy wet clothes.
- Place the line so that it is easily accessible. You will be more likely to use it if it is within a short walk from your water source and is it is easy to reach based on the stature of the people doing laundry. This is important for the herbs as well. If you are sensitive to your neighbors seeing your unmentionables on the line, place in a space that is out of their view.
- The same space that is good to grow herbs will be good to dry clothes. The site should receive adequate sunlight throughout the day, catch a breeze when it blows by, and be out of spaces where animals (whether pets, livestock, or wild) congregate. The ground must be workable to set the posts and plant your herbs or have a raised foundation to support the posts and a garden bed.
- Space lines with 8-to-18-inch gaps to allow for easy laundry hanging and plenty of light and breeze infiltration for both the plants and the laundry.
- Add a bench, shelf, or attached basket to act as an extra set of hands while working either in the herb bed or on doing laundry.
- Put herbs that are resistant to foot traffic and disturbance (such as mint) on the borders of the herb garden so that an accidental step will not kill the plants. Put herbs that are delicate and sensitive to touch or disturbance toward the center.
- The closer your herbs are to the laundry, the better for the addition of fragrance to the fabric. You can gently brush the herbs with your hands before and during hanging or folding laundry to trigger the transfer of herbal oils from the plant into the air, onto your hands, and onto the fabric.
In my opinion, combining the hobby of gardening and the necessity of doing laundry make the chore more appealing. I cannot promise that you will save money if you add a clothesline and an herb garden to your yard this year, but I am confident it will add to the satisfaction you feel while caring for your home.
You can explore ideas to combine clotheslines and gardening on the popular website/app- pinterest.com. The Pinterest board that caught my eye includes 26 ideas for clotheslines which was posted by user “MorningChores” and can be accessed at https://morningchores.com/clothesline-ideas/.
If you would like to bounce around ideas about laundry lines or herb gardens and how they could fit in your space, reach out to me- Christine Gelley at gelley.2@osu.edu or 740-305-3173.