Taking grow-your-own one step closer to the house, these are some well-designed planters that will allow you to keep a fresh herb garden on your table-top. Smooth, white patent ceramics seem to be the current trend. And what better background is there for plush greens and small, pretty flower heads?

Banner image Table-Arable by Myrthe Mandemaker
From top left clockwise: Weeds planter by Arwin Caljouw; Thymus Serpyllum ‘Snowdrift;’ Prepara Power Plant; Herb Pots from Garden Boutique; Diascia ‘Coral Belle’; Herb Garden by Officeoriginair; Factory Planter by Chiaki Murata; Urb Garden by Xavier Calluaud; Campanula Rotundifolia

The Weeds planter by Arwin Caljouw gently mimics the interplay between wayward greenery and urban paving. I would plant this with a low-growing, fragrant thyme like Snowdrift or maybe some good old garden cress – it’s so easy and quick to grow. Though the delicate sprigs in the photograph above make a lovely design statement, I would want to almost cover the surface so that only hints of the ceramic structure show.

Myrthe Mandemaker’s Table-Arable, an art piece that experiments with integrating plants and textiles, is so inspiring. She implanted germinated seeds into the folds of a table cloth, which sprouted into beautiful little pockets of green and purple. The idea is that you could water the table at breakfast and harvest at dinner time. Although not a feasible growing system, it captures the spirit of intimacy and connectedness we could all have with the food we eat. I’m imagining old split-wood tables with a profusion of herbs and leaves offering themselves to your plate, and skipping to avoid patches of thyme thrust up from cracked wooden floorboards.

The Urb Garden by Xavier Calluaud is a great innovation – a self-sustaining system that recycles kitchen waste, uses worms to create fertiliser, and feeds your greens, all contained within this attractive modular planter. No news yet as to when/where it’s available, but I predict it will be a big hit with urban gardeners.

The Prepara Power Plant is a decidedly more practical piece of equipment, a hydroponic reactor boasting NASA proven technology which basically means it uses a soilless material mixture to grow herbs from seed – a mervelous piece of table-top geekery. Less of a statement piece, more of a kitchen appliance, it’s designed to enable you to grow a range of fresh herbs indoors.

Similarly, Chiaki Murata’s Factory Planter series is a set of amazingly stylish pieces, a cross between sculpture and mini garden. It’s quite literally described as a ’slice of nature’ and I think it is the slender framework that attracts me most, almost like a window into a little green field. I think this would work best with something with blades – spiky chives maybe, or wheatgrass. Something beautifully green at any rate – a soft, sun-kissed shade wouldn’t do.

Officeoriginair’s Herb Garden for Royal VKB strikes just the right balance between design and functionality. It’s a fashionable sleek, curvy white planter that you can plant seeds or shop-bought herbs in. It’s small enough to fit into any kitchen or dining room without stealing focus.

The Garden magazine recently did a little feature about gardens on the table, featuring a range of pots planted up with succulents, bonsais and herbs. They rightly point out that having a miniature garden on your table allows you to use small plants that get overlooked and overshadowed elsewhere. Pretty, delicate low-growing plants like a Diascia in apricot or red are ideal, sown sparingly and combined with an edible herb like rosemary. I also think a small Campanula like C. Cochleariifolia or C.rotundifolia would be nice, particularly for outdoor dining. They usually form a lovely carpet of flowers but are so pretty they really should be seen up close.