I’m a big fan of using plastic baskets as car trash cans (try it and you’ll never go back to using a bag!). As I was unloading plants from the back of my car I used the empty trash basket to carry 6 pots of herbs to the patio. Setting them on the table, I noticed that they looked kind of cute in the basket and wondered if I could just use the basket as an herb garden – I figured “it’s plastic – why wouldn’t it work?”. I left the herbs in the basket and put them by my back step and watered them every day. I wondered if they would continue to grow in their little pots… it became evident that they needed to be in more soil than just their little plastic pots… and I was getting really tired of watering them every day! 
I wanted to keep them by the back kitchen steps because it is more convenient than where I usually grow herbs and I had become attached to the whole “basket” idea, so I set about figuring out how to plant them in the basket without dirt leaching out every time I watered them – AND how to avoid the responsibility of needing watering them frequently (I live in New Mexico and our humidity hovers around 10-20% ). I came up with this idea and it has worked beautifully – I much prefer it to my old herb container garden on the drip system! If you try this, just make sure to heavily water the basket once a week – the water crystals/granules need a chance to soak up enough water to see the plants through the next 7 days or so!