DIY Projects

The Herb Clothesline

by Laura Northrup Poland

I grow a lot of herbs in my garden, and one of the ways I preserve them for winter use is by drying. Last summer I dried most of my herbs quickly in an electric dehydrator. While this did work, it wasn’t really necessary. Most herbs (maybe all) will air dry quite nicely without the use of any machinery or electricity.

Robin Wall Kimmerer writes about hanging bundles of drying herbs from the rafters of her home in her book “Braiding Sweetgrass”. I love that image of herbs hanging from the rafters. It feels very beautiful and romantic. For months I daydreamed about how I wish I had rafters in my home, so I could hang herbs from them. I thought about retrofitting some rafters. Then I thought about getting another job so I could afford to retrofit rafters, and then I thought about what would happen to my farm and my quality of life if I did that… no thanks. When the idea finally occurred to me it was painfully simple. Build another clothesline!

Thus the herb clothesline was born, the third in a series of special purpose indoor clotheslines I have built in the past year or so. For the cost of three nails and a few feet of cotton clothesline rope (all of which I had on hand, leftover from other projects) I now have an elegant and energy-free herb drying system.

The Details

I installed this clothesline in the wall studs, but as close to the ceiling as possible. This is so that the herbs will hang high above heads and also above windows, so they’ll be out of direct sunlight. Into three separate studs, I hammered a nail half way in, and knotted the rope onto the protruding part of the nail. A screw would work just as well or better than the nails, but I was out of screws when I made this project. This knot system will allow me to tighten the rope later when it slackens, which I wouldn’t be able to do if I had pierced the rope with the nails.

To hang the herbs, first bundle them together with a rubber band. Then, depending on how careful you want to be, tie them to the clothesline with a piece of string, secure them with a clothespin, or split the bundle and straddle it over the line. My nature is to be careful so I went with string + clothespin.

I think it’s lovely, and my herbs have been drying very well so far.

herb drying clothesline

Just for fun, here are pictures of my other clothesline projects:

This is my patio bistro indoor clothesline. This was the first one I built, and it’s actually for clothes. It doesn’t hold a full load of laundry, but it’s perfect for air drying special delicate clothes or blankets, or for use in combination with a clothes drying rack. I still aspire to building a big outdoor clothesline like my grandma had someday, but this one was much easier and cheaper to construct.
Kitchen Clothesline
This one is my kitchen clothesline. I use this one to hang my reusable freezer bags, regular ziplock bags that I’ve washed for reuse, plastic wrappers washed and destined for ecobricks, nutmilk bags, and cheesecloths. I wrote a whole article about this clothesline if you’re interested in learning more about it.