Maybe the passion flower or maypop (Passiflora incarnata). It is a climbing or trailing plant native to the eastern US that likes sun and well-drained soil. The plant has the most spectacular blooms, edible fruits, and the plant itself is used medicinally as a remedy for insomnia. (I included the USDA link on this plant.) If looking for something more temporary (until thyme gets larger), you can try some vining veggies like squash, cucumbers, melons, or beans. Food plants are often herbs in their own rights and should be at home in an herb garden. For example, cucumber is known for its cooling action - got irritated, allergy-ridden eyes, cucumber slices on your eye lids feel absolutely marvelous! Of course, there are climbing roses. Roses provide not only medicine for the heart and soul (who can be blue when roses are blooming!) but essential oils and vitamin C laden hips. Roses were in herb gardens for centuries. FataMorgana Here is a link that might be useful: USDA Passiflora incarnata

Thanks Tina, you are the best! The mangoes are almost finished, this has been a really strange year, there are very few left on the tree and mostly at the top... and I spotted a new 'eater' up there pecking away, a Woodpecker! there was more than one bird, couldn't believe my eyes....usually the mangoes last well into August but not this year... Cal shoveled lots of the mulch on Sun., there is no-way I'm going to get you doing that in spite of your generosity!! Terry is coming also now that the rain has let up..... I really love your herb-garden you are very creative, and your center-piece is lovely, do you plan to put water in it, or fill it w/plants? either way would be fantastic...keep us up to date w/more pics.... thanks, sally

If you know any contractors, you could ask them. How much soil are you looking for? If you want it by the truckload, there's usually "aggregate" places where you can order a truckload of top soil. Glover in Hilo may sell topsoil by the truckload, they have cinders at least. We build raised bed gardens from cinder blocks. About three layers high, then we put down a layer of weed mat to keep any tree roots from coming in from below. Then pile in whatever soil we can get. I'll usually let all the weeds sprout up and then yank them out before they seed. But you can skip this part if you don't mind weeding for the first year or so of your garden. Then the top 10" of soil, especially the top 4" are the best soil I can get. There's usually amendments of oyster shell worked into at least the top ten inches as well as compost and rabbit manure since we have that. Rabbit manure is an excellent fertilizer, you can put it directly on your plants without the need for composting as you'd have to do for chicken manure. For the cinder blocks, we set them so we can reach into the middle of the garden. How long doesn't really matter, but being able to reach the center from the sides is pretty important, IMHO.

Thank you all for trying. I am including a picture. The idea is for the plants to sit on the stones in the trough by the window. The depth from the edge of the counter to the trough is 42". The trough is about 11". The stones will be approximately the same level as the counter so I will try to slide the pots from one to the other. The counter is so deep we use a remote control to open the windows. I have a grabber or two but they don't open large enough for or handle the weight of the pots. I can climb on the counter but I want a better solution than that. I'm thinking of using a flat shallow or edgeless pan with cork on the bottom (to protect the counter) so I can use a pizza peel to slide the herb pots onto the pan and then pull the pan towards me. While this may work, it is certainly less than ideal which is why I'm reaching out to the creative minds here for ideas.