I am a firm believer that if it's got a hole in it, it can hold a plant. I love rummaging through op shops finding weird & wonderful containers that could possibly hold a cutting. My favourites are baskets, & pretty cups. If you are like me, you have a huge array of pretty but chipped mugs. I also use old fry pans, boots, casserole dishes, teapots, froggy scourer holders, gumboots, boats (I have plans for a canoe garden if I can ever get it out of the dam where it was sunk). Old toilets are great for climbers. I do most of my propogating this way.
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| plant in a cup |
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| plant in a cup |
The cups that I use haven't got drainage holes. If you are good with a ceramic drill, then go for it. I'm not so good, & crack them. I place any container without drainage holes under the verandah or sheltered from rain. This way, I control the amount of watering, not mother nature. If a plant has wet feet continually, it will die.
I rather liked this idea. I wanted to propagate lawn chamomile, which is fairly shallow rooted, so it went into the frypan. The old camping toaster has wonderful drainage.
I was sad to replace our old billy, which we had owned for 20 years. Now it's a lovely hanging container.
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| many baskets |
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| a basket |
The great thing about using baskets is that, when they get old, you can plant the whole thing in the garden, reducing transplant shock. They have excellent drainage, which suits succulents, specially in our wet environment. My rule of thumb is that when the basket starts to rot, the plant is ready to be transplanted.
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| an old vase |
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| a terracotta dish |
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| styrofoam |
This little beauty I found by the roadside, fallen off a truck, I'm assuming. After grumbling about the mess left by travellers in our beautiful bush area, I decided to recycle it. I punched drainage holes in every section, filled with good quality soil & worm castings. I then planted strawberries. Next year, I may try lettuce. Mint would be good too, as it wouldn't be able to take over your garden. Maybe raising seedlings too.
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propogating in toilet rolls
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I wanted a quick & easy way to propagate rosemary & lavender plants for a hedge. I folded the bottom of the rolls, filled with good seedling mix, & placed the cuttings. When roots form, you can plant the whole thing, which reduces transplant shock to the roots.
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| an old teapot |
Watering
I can't emphasise enough the importance of watering. On a hot, windy summer day and no water, your pot plants could become cactus. I do the finger test. All you need to do is rub your finger down into the potting mix and if it comes out with granules of potting mix stuck - that tells you that it's obviously moist enough. If, on the other hand, no granules stick to your finger, the soil is too dry. This can lead to the soil shrinking away from the edge of the pot and so whenever you're watering, instead of going into the depths of the rootball, it's actually just going down the side of the pot. If this has happened, you can dunk the whole pot in water to saturate the entire rootball. If your pot is too heavy to dunk, you'll need to use a wetting agent so that the water does penetrate into the rootball.
Ferstilising
It's important to fertilise your pot plants regularly and in small doses and like feeding plants in the ground, vary the fertilises. Slow release fertiliser will keep the nutrients up to your plant during the warmer months. In winter, animal manure will add organic matter to the potting mix and a liquid feed will give plants a bit of oomph any time of the year.
Thanks to this website for the wonderful ideas below
http://themicrogardener.com/clever-plant-container-ideas/
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| an old watering can |
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