Or, in other words, what NOT to do…
Photo by .leila
- Fill your pots with dirt wherever it’s convenient for you. I did this. Once. Things like potting benches sound quaint, but they’re not ideal for medium or large containers. If you are filling a big pot, it is much easier to put the pot where you want it, then drag over the soil and fill up the pot in place. This saves you from having to lug a heavy pot all over the place. Bags of soil are almost always easier to maneuver than heavy pots. If you must move your pots around, try filling the bottom with crumpled plastic bottles.
- You should fill the bottom of your pot with broken pieces of terra cotta pots. I have never done this. I don’t know what the purpose is, but you don’t need to save up random bits of broken crockery. I’ve seen some sources recommend the broken pieces of crockery help improve drainage. Doing so seems rather counterintuitive. Terra cotta is clay. It absorbs water. Also, flat pieces of the pot could totally block the drainage holes. Needless to say, my containers all have healthy, good looking plants in them, and their drainage holes are naked.
- Water your pots every day. Unless it is very hot outside and the pot in question is very small, you almost never need to water plants in containers every day. It’s better to check the soil before deciding whether to water. A good general rule of thumb (although this varies from plant to plant) is to wait until the top two inches of soil are totally dry before watering again. If you don’t know the specific requirements of a particular plant, try the two inches rule and watch the plant to see if it shows signs of being over or under watered. Adjust accordingly.
- It’s wrong to throw a plant out. My husband gets upset if I throw out a plant that isn’t 126% dead. I, however, think if you’ve given a plant your best shot and it is almost certainly on the path of dying, then there is no point having an ugly garden. Admit your failures, learn from them, and move on.
- A good way to save money on plants is to buy weak or sick plants from the discount bin. More often than not, those plants are beyond saving. So unless you got the plant for mere pennies, the time, effort and resources you put into saving a plant is not worth it. Not to mention, if the plant dies, you have to go out and buy another plant to replace it. You’re also risking infecting your existing plants with whatever ails the sick plant.
- Dirt is dirt. Buy whatever is cheapest. All dirt is not created equal. First of all, not all dirt is meant to be used in containers. Some of what you see at your garden center is top soil, meant for amending dirt in a traditional garden. Second, never use dirt from the garden in your pots. It almost never drains fast enough for containers and you’re probably scooping up pests and diseases in addition to soil. Third, poor quality potting soils result in poor looking containers. I bought a cheap potting soil this past year and it compacted and didn’t drain well and the plants growing in those pots weren’t as healthy as my other pots.
Have you ever gotten bad gardening advice?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Bad gardening advice, hmmm, where to start? How about leaving burlap and wire cages on B&B plants? I don’t agree with this theory.
I’ve thrown plants out — last summer, I had some beautiful bright red petunias. Whatever possessed me to buy this particular type is beyond me, but I wanted the color, I guess. It didn’t take long before they had sprawled all over the place, their sticky leaves snagging other plants as they went. Poof! Out you go! Petunias are meant for hanging, me thinks. When you have limited space, as you do on a small balcony, I refuse to waste a single square inch on anything that looks ugly.
To help lighten the load, we sometimes crumple up old newspapers and use that in the bottom of pots. I’ve never used broken pieces of clay pots either. My buddy Felder Rushing says go ahead and toss a plant (into the compost heap) out if it don’t suit you, “it’s not like you’re married to it.” I adopted a sickly lookin pot of chives once at a farmer’s market stand, for free. I set it out in the garden and it’s thrived since. Some plants might look dead above the soil, but underneath, roots could still be healthy. We mix our own potting soil: on part peat, one part composted leaves, and one part perlite. It’s worked well for us for years now.
Some great advice there (stemming from some less useful advice in the past)
Hmm the only time i ever used anything in the bottom of a pot was when I bought a self watering one (not for the self watering properties but because I didn’t want to waste water dripping over the balcony) except when i got it home i realised the bottom bit was missing, so it was just like a normal pot but with even less drainage. Terracotta and stones were the only thing between me and a waterlogged tomato (which is now mammoth sized)
I’m terrible about potting up plants at the end of the growing season with dirt from the garden. I always run out of the good bagged mix, and fudge it with soil. And I always kill whatever I potted up. One of these seasons, I’m gonna get it together. I promise. (My herbs are peeping, “I’ll believe it when I taste it!”)
Great post. Sometimes the greatest lessons we can learn come from our errors. (My high school algebra teacher used to say, “An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.”)
Thank you SO much for this post, Fern. I see all of these things over and over again and it is all I can do to explain to my suspicious coaching clients that no, I do not own stock in the potting soil company, there ar valid reasons for choosing a good one and not using plain old dirt!
And AMEN on the pot shards. Just because Grandma did it does not mean it is correct, much as I loved my dear Grandma (mine did that too).
And YES PLEASE on the tossing of dead and diseased plants. So many people throw good money after bad by trying to regenerate something that just isn’t meant to be. I’ve had clients insist that I design their whole new garden using 40 or so tattered, bedraggled, unhealthy plants, many of which were bought at a big box store from growers who cared about their bottom line over the quality of their plants.
This post has me A-MEN-ing all over the place. Great points.
(by the way, I guess I’ve been having a problem with my feed and haven’t seen your new posts turn up – I wondered why you hadn’t been posting and came on over to find you had been. Huh.)
Oh no… i have just put pebbles over my drainage holes! wished i had read this post more carefully. Now i will have to try pushing the pebble aside.
Kaikit–Pebbles are probably not that big of a deal. But there is no reason to block the drainage hole. Drainage is a good thing in containers!