Free, Used Plant Pots

Here is a SMALL selection of some of our plant pots.  I don't think we've ever bought one and we have alot of plants in pots! There are salads, flowers, bulbs, fruit trees and herbs in pots.  The reason we have so many is that we are renting the house we live in now and next time we move we'll be bringing all our hard work and effort with us.  We won't be starting from scratch again.

We got all of these pots and the ones below and MANY more at our local garden centre.  There was an actual mountain of pots waiting to be thrown out as they had no use for them. We loaded up the car as much as possible but I still think about the hundreds that were sadly left behind, sniffle, never to hold a plant again....boohooo. 

There are other advantages to growing things in pots.  It's very easy to tailor the soil in each pot according to the requirements of each plant.  Some like loads of manure, some prefer a dressing of seaweed meal, some prefer well drained, some prefer heavy soil.....  Another advantage is that the plants can be moved about.  For example our baby fig and physalis (above,you can hardly see them) have been wintering over in the greenhouse as they are frost tender.  They are now being hardened off and will be staying out at night soon to make way for salads and then tomatoes.  Also, fruit trees that are trying to ripen their produce can be moved to warmer conditions to help them along. 

Obviously there are things to be careful about, like making sure the pots don't dry out.  Also the plants may need to be repotted every couple of years.  But for us in our temporary garden it is an ideal solution.

 

As I said, all of our containers have been given to us, been found by us or made by us.  There seems to be no shortage of containers rolling around this country.  The fish box, above, was found washed up on a beach.  There's always one lying around every time we are at a beach.  It makes a great salad bed.  At the moment there is winter purslane, lettuces, spinach and beetroot in there.

We have about four tyre pots.  We laid a piece of wire mesh on the bottom and suddenly we had a huge pot.  Our little alpine strawberries seem very happy in there.

This little box was made by Chris from pieces of wood that he found dumped by the side of the road on his way to the farm.  It's my favourite plant pot for my favourite flowers....awe.

And one last one....