Unique Pots

Dany Millikin: Gardening in decorative containers can really bring a lot of joy to the garden and a lot of style.

Anita Nelson: And whimsy.

Dany Millikin: And whimsy. Anita brought a bunch of cool pots. They have a great selection at Nelson’s, but she also wants to give us some advice on how to take care of these things.

Anita Nelson: Well, first of all, with a small pot like this, it’s pretty simple. You would fill it with potting soil, or you can use compost mixed with some expanded shale.

Dany Millikin: Which is what I like to do. I like to mix these two to really give it a vigorous, healthy, well-draining soil.

Anita Nelson: Yes, and it works great. And then you just plant your plant right in there and it’s watered. One important thing is always to raise the pot a little bit off the ground so that there’s some air circulation under the pot.

Dany Millikin: And it helps the water drain out.

Anita Nelson: That too.

Dany Millikin: Yeah. Now, if you’re dealing with bigger pots though, you need some other solutions, some strategic solutions.

Anita Nelson: Yes, there are, because the issue with bigger pots is a lot of times you would put more soil in there than you need.

Dany Millikin: Okay, got you, and then the bottom of that can real get real kind of stanky.

Anita Nelson: It can, absolutely. And so there’s some tricks. One of the first tricks I’m going to show you is pot liners, which these would just be held by the rim of the pot and be suspended, and underneath there’d be nothing in the bottom of this very large pot.

Dany Millikin: That’s so cool, and they come in all sizes. They’re really great for letting the water grow through and you can change your plants out more often.

Anita Nelson: With the seasons, and also if there’s a freeze, it’s a simple [inaudible 00:00:01:29], yeah.

Dany Millikin: Oh, wow, that’s awesome.

Anita Nelson: That’s really nice about these.

Dany Millikin: Now when you have deeper pots, like the shape of this face one, which is super charming by the way, there’s some solutions that you’ve got to come up.

Anita Nelson: Yeah, there’s one thing you can do: re-purposing, and that would be using used Coke cans.

Dany Millikin: So you want to put it in upside down.

Anita Nelson: Upside down.

Dany Millikin: Could I use a beer can with this?

Anita Nelson: You could. That’s a first.

Dany Millikin: That’s a first. So you put it in upside down. That gives a lot of air and lightness to the bottom of the pot.

Anita Nelson: It does.

Dany Millikin: Water bottles are another good thing.

Anita Nelson: They also work as well.

Dany Millikin: So it’s a great way, and then you just fill it up with soil around that and the roots go around those.

Anita Nelson: Yes. Now this bottle’s a little big.

Dany Millikin: Okay, for this pot.

Anita Nelson: Yeah, but for a big pot it’s perfect.

Dany Millikin: That’s great. That’s wonderful.

Anita Nelson: Yes.

Dany Millikin: Then there’s different shapes of pots that you have to deal with sometimes.

Anita Nelson: There are. You know, these wide mouth pots, obviously you can grow all kinds of plants in there. It’s easy to water. There’s a lot of room to get the water into the pot. But with these narrow neck pots and tall, narrow, skinny pots, it’s hard to get water into them, and so one trick I found is to grow succulents and agaves in them.

Dany Millikin: So slower growing plants.

Anita Nelson: Yes.

Dany Millikin: Really you don’t ever change out.

Anita Nelson: You don’t ever change out, especially a pot that is like an urn shape with a pinched-in neck.

Dany Millikin: Like the one here to my left, the blue one. It’s like that.

Anita Nelson: Yeah, because once you put a plant in that one, it’s never going.

Dany Millikin: Because the roots will go out. It makes a lot of sense.

Anita Nelson: Yes, and the really best thing about this is it is the easiest care gardening of all, because I have three of these pots in front of my yard. I’ve had them there for 10 years. I’ve never once watered them, not even during a drought.

Dany Millikin: I guess that makes sense with the succulents.

Anita Nelson: Yep.

Dany Millikin: And a lot of times you’ll have slug problems with pots, you know, with plants in pots. And a good thing to use is Sluggo for that. It’s organic. All it is is a little bit of fertilizer basically, but it’ll reduce that problem. You won’t get that slimy mess on the outside of your pots either.

Anita Nelson: And you can use it in your garden, too.

Dany Millikin: That’s true. That is true. Well, awesome. That’s great info. For more, go to homeshowgardenpros.com.