How to Make Your Garden Grow
Two tips people should follow if they need to replace their plant pots
Brent Hoffman
Here are a couple of tips for people who need to replace the old or damaged plant pots in their gardens.
They should repurpose the old plant pots they're replacing
Those who need to buy new pots, because their old ones have cracked or deteriorated with age, should try to repurpose them. This can not only be a fun and inexpensive way to improve their garden but is also very eco-friendly, as it will mean that the old plant pots won't have to go into the landfill.
If a person has a terracotta pot that has shattered into pieces, they could use the broken pieces to create a piece of mosaic art for their garden. Alternatively, if the terracotta pot is not completely shattered but just has a crack in it that makes it unsuitable to grow a plant in, the owner could fill the pot with decorative stones and place an artificial outdoor plant in it instead. If a person has small plastic plant pots that are too weathered to put plants in or which have a few small cracks in them, they could repurpose these as scoops and use them to scoop fertiliser or soil out of the bags these materials come in.
They should think about how the old plant pots got damaged before they select their new pots
Anyone who needs new plant pots should also think about how the old ones got damaged before deciding which new ones they should buy. This could result in them selecting different pots that might last for far longer than the previous ones. For example, if a person's plastic plant pots that they kept in their garden warped due to long-term heat exposure from the sun, then they should consider replacing these pots with clay ones, as the latter is less susceptible to heat-related damage.
Conversely, if a person needs to replace their clay pots because they cracked during some cold weather, they might want to replace these pots with plastic ones. Plastic pots are not porous like clay pots and so won't absorb water (the water that clay pots easily absorb can make them crack when it freezes and expands). As such, they're more likely to stay intact when placed outdoors in freezing-cold weather.
Similarly, if a person will be replacing several of their clay pots because these pots broke into pieces after being knocked over, they might want to switch to plastic pots, which are less prone to breaking when tipped over.
For more information about plant pots, contact a local garden centre.
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For many years, I didn't give much thought to my garden. However, all of that changed when I retired from my job working as a lawyer in downtown Sydney. I suddenly discovered that I had a lot of time on my hands. I didn't know what to do with it. After a few weeks, I started to become slightly depressed. My wife could see what was happening and she suggested that I take up gardening so I called up my sister who is an expert with the plants and trees. She came to stay with me and my wife for a couple of weeks and taught me everything she could.