Want to get advice on making this a little herb garden

choose smaller herbs, there is not much space.https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/gardening-by-zone/zone-9-10-11/zone-9-herb-plants.htm

1. To encourage parsley to sprout more rapidly, soften the seeds by soaking them overnight in warm water.

2. Thyme plants should be started from seed every two to three years. Older plants are poor in quality for cooking or other uses.

3. Harvest mint often to encourage vigorous growth – but grow it in a container or it will take over your garden.

4. Growing sustained, harvestable amounts of herbs indoors require long periods of intense light. Abundant light is also required for plants to produce the oils that give herbs their flavor.

5. Parsley is credited with all kinds of benefits, including relaxation of smooth muscle tissue (especially important to asthmatics), maintaining good vision (it contains lutein and zeaxanthin), and promoting good circulation and heart health.

6. Rubbing lavender leaves with your hands can remove strong odors like garlic or onion.

7. Many herbs like dill and sage self sow if the flowers are not removed.

8. Add comfrey to the compost pile. Its leaves are rich in nitrogen and help break down organic materials.

9. Mints need more water than most herbs. They want fairly moist but not soggy soils.

10. Mulching around herbs will discourage weeds and maintain the moisture level of the soil.

11. In many cases, adding garden compost to the upper surface of the soil in the spring is all the fertilization herbs will need for the year.

12. Rosemary makes a wonderful grilling addition with meats and vegetables. You can grow it in the ground as a perennial or include it in, say, a window box that’s replanted yearly.

13. In general, collect herbs for cooking right before they flower. This is when they have the most flavor.

14. Seeds often take longer to dry than the leaves, up to 2 weeks for larger seeds. Place seed heads on dry paper cloth. When they really start to dry out, rub the seeds gently between your palms removing dirt and hulls. Then spread the clean seeds in thin layers on cloth or paper until completely dry.

15. Another way you can dry herb seeds is by hanging the plant upside down inside a paper bag (make sure its paper! Plastic will hinder drying). The bag will catch the seeds as they dry and fall from the pod.

16. When storing herbs don’t use a paper or cardboard container. This material, over time, will absorb all of the aromatic flavor.

17. If you don’t trust your seed starting skills, one of the best places to get organically started herbs and other transplants is your local farmers market. Quite often the person selling them is the person who grew them in the first place.

18. Anise and basil are just some of the herbs known to attract beneficial insects to your garden.

19. Herbs are a great candidate for your first foray into formal gardening. Try an English knot garden with your favorites.

20. Do not use garden soil as a potting mix in containers. It may drain poorly and is likely to contain insects, diseases and weed seeds.

21. If you’re interested in companion planting, try basil next to tomatoes. It really helps to slow down the bugs.

22. Make successive plantings of chervil if you want to harvest it all summer.

23. Sage, so popular with pork and in stuffings, is the most recognized winter herb. It’s fairly hardy, but its best grown in pots so that it can be carried indoors during those freezing months.

24. The best time to harvest herbs is early in the morning on a sunny day.

25. Oregano is hardy to zone 5 and can be overwintered in zone 4 with a thick covering of straw or mulch. It’s a perennial and will provide tasty leaves and flowers for years before it becomes too woody and sharply flavored.

I'm thinking if you put the herbs in pots first, the wood will be preserved longer.

I think I would line the box with plastic poke the holes to match where the holes are already in the wood the same place in the plastic . And then add a little layer of stone on the top of it . Make sure the rocks do not sit in the hole and block it up . use stones that are small and large around the hole preventing it from blocking to drain .Then put in the soil and then the plants . This will help it drain well and not rot the wood as fast .

Good luck ! I love the planter choice .

At the bottom of the pots put a coffee filter. It will prevent dirt or stones from blocking hole.

Or, It’s hard to tell, but I’d think a cheapie plastic liner/planter from HD or wherever would fill your top level without damaging this gorgeous piece.

The bottom would hold a larger cheap planter/window box, or two skinny ones. An alternative might be to line your boxes with good landscape fabric, plastic, and poking holes in the bottom for drainage but saving much of this great old wood from damage.

Walmart, and others, sell automotive cup holders which you could hang from top “rail”. Cover the cup and tie with burlap. Plant two or three of these minis from that rail. Or more appropriate, make your own hooks to hang Ball jars or whatever long enough to plant mini herbs from the topmost rail. Please spray the wire/clearcoat to seal them from rusting and damaging wood)

Make sure you put the herbs that will grow tall in the uppermost one. The ones that spread out can go on the lower one and they will hang down the sides and look really nice. The taller herbs, like parsley, will fill out the top really well and give you large plants. Just watch the sun and heat, when it gets really hot, I wouldn't let them be in the sun all day, it may sun burn them. My herbs like to be shaded a little from the hottest sun, so I put them where they get morning, some early afternoon sun and also evening sun and they went nuts in their new place last summer.