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Planting pots

eileenoeileeno Posts: 19
in Problem solving

I am just about to plant up my pots with annual bedding plants. I don't have any old broken pot to line the base for drainage. Can one suggest any alternatives. Thank you, from an absolute beginner.

Posts

  • Joyce21Joyce21 Posts: 15,489

    Some broken bits of polystyrene, if you have any.

    SW Scotland
  • KeenieKeenie Posts: 29

    I have gravel in some, polystyrene in others and in my biggest pots that don't move I have bits of brick and rock that the builders left behind. 

  • Ladybird4Ladybird4 Posts: 36,870

    Any largish stones (or rocks) that are in your garden will do just as well or you could sacrifice an old terracotta plant pot. Put it in a carrier bag to avoid the danger of flying pieces and bash it with a hammer.

    Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 14,375

    To be a bit controversial, there is no need to put anything in the bottom of pots for annuals.

    For longer term planting I would use something, as suggested above.

    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • eileenoeileeno Posts: 19

    Thank you everyone for your suggestions. Just planted up my hanging baskets,  will get crackin' with the pots. Thanks again Eileen 

  • Kitty 2Kitty 2 Posts: 5,150

    For my containers of annuals I use a variety of tricks.

    If the pot has large holes in the bottom, a sheet of kitchen paper or newspaper stops the mpc falling out the gaps.

    A tall pot gets a brick in the bottom for weight and then filled up with polystyrene bits for bulk. Annuals don't need a whole 2ft depth for their roots.

    Huge big pots get filled with whatever I can get my hands on, rubble/polystyrene/old turf image.  As long as the toppings good stuff the plants will be fine.

    Annuals will only be in there for a few months....the rules are different for long term container planting image

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,653

    I like to use wine corks in deep pots.  They keep it light when you need to move it after planting but also absorb water which is then available to the roots if the compost dried out a bit.   Doesn't work with plastic corks.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • eileenoeileeno Posts: 19

    Thanks again everyone . Some great advice. 

  • SussexsunSussexsun Posts: 1,444

    I use cut up old jumpers and tshirts. It makes it a bit lighter if it is a heavy pot that needs moving.

    To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.

  • eileenoeileeno Posts: 19

    Thanks Sussexaun, plenty old t-shirts will give it a try. x

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