• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • John F Dean
  • r ranson
  • Jay Angler
  • paul wheaton
stewards:
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Leigh Tate
  • Devaka Cooray
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Matt McSpadden
  • Jeremy VanGelder

Improvised pots! (for plants)

 
steward & author
Posts: 38513
Location: Left Coast Canada
13742
8
books chicken cooking fiber arts sheep writing
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I had a bit of fun potting up my coffee today and made a pot for my coffee from my coffee beans.    I don't know if the plant will like it, but I do.  It's cute.

What about you?  Any fun and frugal ideas for pots for potted plants?  

by the way, the cute little chickens come from here
coffee-pot-from-coffee-bag.jpg
coffee pot from coffee bag
coffee pot from coffee bag
 
Rusticator
Posts: 8593
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4560
6
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
How about a tea plant in a tea pot?
 
master steward
Posts: 12490
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
7044
duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Most people need to plant in pots that have a hole near or at the bottom so they don't drown the roots. My friend plants in all sorts of clay based pots like teacups, coffee mugs of all sizes, and other interesting things she finds at the Thrift shop (so not necessarily free, but pretty cheap.) The catch is that she has her husband come and use our drill press to carefully drill a hole in the "pot to be" using a special drill bit (A "Glass and Tile" bit is one option.) The benefit of a drill press is that it's easier to control the pressure. That said, he does have failures and looses some, so I wouldn't do this with anything you consider precious! The big advantage is that you end up with a long-lasting pot that is upcycling something that might otherwise have landed in the dump!
 
Carla Burke
Rusticator
Posts: 8593
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4560
6
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
This is true. Other options include using the ceramic or glass to act as a waterproof base under the actual plant container, like a saucer under a pot.
I've also seen folks using shoes and boots of all kinds, lol.
 
pollinator
Posts: 177
Location: South Carolina
67
homeschooling kids monies forest garden duck trees rabbit chicken solar composting homestead
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Carla Burke wrote:How about a tea plant in a tea pot?



This is now on my list of things to do this year
 
Carla Burke
Rusticator
Posts: 8593
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4560
6
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Chris Vee wrote:

Carla Burke wrote:How about a tea plant in a tea pot?



This is now on my list of things to do this year



Yay! My thought is that anything that can hold 'mud' can hold a plant. How much more fun to follow r.ranson's theme, and plant stuff in something that tells what they'll (hopefully) become? Like cacao started in a big cocoa mug or tin? I have - and have access to more raw coffee bean bags - how fun to Transplant a coffee plant from the little bag to a big burlap one, when it gets big (even if the bag has to just be decoration on the outside of the big pot)? Maybe rosemary & thyme in a small, old chicken roasting pan?
 
Chris Vee
pollinator
Posts: 177
Location: South Carolina
67
homeschooling kids monies forest garden duck trees rabbit chicken solar composting homestead
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
A potato in a potato sack 😊
 
Carla Burke
Rusticator
Posts: 8593
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4560
6
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I think too, if this will work, indoors, the potato sack & burlap coffee bag will most likely be the upper limits of size, lol. I've seen some very fun blue jeans, standing up, leaning against a fence, and filled with plants - definitely too big, for outside. BUT, I think even cute, would be baby blue jeans. Sitting on a brick, painted to look like a book, filled with African violets, or a small baby's tears plant or succulent - like maybe hens & chicks... I think they'd be adorable!
 
Posts: 18
8
  • Likes 8
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I don’t have any punny ideas, but I use whatever trash I can find. Yogurt containers, salsa jars, plastic milk jugs, juice cartons. It all gets saved from entering the waste stream, and saves me money!
D5B8DDBC-C700-4950-9205-FFAE5FF24259.jpeg
[Thumbnail for D5B8DDBC-C700-4950-9205-FFAE5FF24259.jpeg]
0EDBF117-A1D5-42D0-8AB7-F386B1D5FF35.jpeg
[Thumbnail for 0EDBF117-A1D5-42D0-8AB7-F386B1D5FF35.jpeg]
 
Posts: 57
Location: Richmond, VA, USA Zone 7b
20
3
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I know a guy who uses cigar boxes for house plants. He says they are great because they control the moisture really well.
 
Posts: 70
Location: Upstate SC
8
7
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have a lowes nearby but you can probably ask any large company like that. On occasion I will ask the guy in charge for some of their empty plastic pots that they stack up on the side. They usually let me have as many as I want including any trays they might have that hold all the pots. Great way to recycle.
 
Posts: 60
Location: Missouri
19
homeschooling kids home care books food preservation cooking
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Joshua Berg wrote:I don’t have any punny ideas, but I use whatever trash I can find. Yogurt containers, salsa jars, plastic milk jugs, juice cartons. It all gets saved from entering the waste stream, and saves me money!



Ahhh! *rushes to trash to pull out yogurt container*

I don't have enough pots for my plants so this won't count as clutter! Thanks for the tip!
 
Posts: 285
67
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I think any type of container will do as long as it's glazed under exterior's bottom or has a nonporous tray.

I learned the hard way TWICE!  (it should have been obvious  but my brain must have left me) when I placed ceramic pot directly on the floor, and another , an old crock pot filled with pickles (which I never tasted because the old crock pot was leaching led I never knew about).

After a while, I  wanted to move into another area and found one moldy spot under ceramic pot and crock pot. Both stained the floors for good.

Unglazed bottom ridges of dinner plates/bowls etc. will do the same.
I only use glass plates (curtesy of second hand shops) on any pot with holes, or no holes.
 
Jay Angler
master steward
Posts: 12490
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
7044
duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Ela La Salle wrote:After a while, I  wanted to move into another area and found one moldy spot under ceramic pot and crock pot. Both stained the floors for good.

In my damp environment, that sort of thing can happen from just about anything that traps damp air. I'll often put things up on small blocks of wood or ceramic material or even upside down jars, in groups of three like a short 3-legged stool. That helps a lot.
 
pollinator
Posts: 976
Location: Porter, Indiana
166
trees
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I needed really deep pots, so 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled in bottom turned out to be the best option. I picked up these buckets for $1 each, and I believe they were previously filled with the paint used to mark football fields. Also, they are filled with soil/compost I got for free from my county's yard waste site to keep the costs down even more.
20230203_114604-small.jpg
[Thumbnail for 20230203_114604-small.jpg]
 
Ela La Salle
Posts: 285
67
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
To Jay Angle  from Ela La  salle

Absolutely agreed. I do just that for outdoor pots/containers. But the one I mentioned were placed indoor in dry environment (upstairs in LR with lots of big windows all over, and downstairs  with smaller windows,  where it's cool but dry). Hence my promise to never do that again indoors

 
Posts: 10
Location: GA
3
goat kids duck
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My sister is always giving me random stuff, so these are frugal because they were free.  I had to drill a hole in the bottom of the cup for drainage, but this snake plant has been in it for about a year and doing just fine.  The red vase is from an old hookah, and the bamboo also seems to be doing fine.  
IMG_2958.JPG
[Thumbnail for IMG_2958.JPG]
IMG_2959.JPG
[Thumbnail for IMG_2959.JPG]
 
bacon. tiny ad:
A rocket mass heater is the most sustainable way to heat a conventional home
http://woodheat.net
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic