Inexpensive large containers?

I don't think they would be big enough for your blueberries Debbie but for anyone just looking for cheap, biggish containers, B & Q sell buckets for 99p and supermarkets give away the big containers their flowers come in.

 

I went to homebase the other day and got 2 large square black tin pots and a large black trough for £7 all together just because they had little dents in but i like pots abit worn i thought it was a bargain when they were supposed to be £30 each!

 

Is there any cheap way of improving the look of big plastic containers? I have bought some huge black things because they were cheap).
I know that terracotta pots can be coated with a wash of yoghurt to encourage lichens etc to grow on them, would this work with plastic?

 

Louise, I suspect it is difficult. You probably could paint them, but after a time the paint would get scuffed and the solution may look worse than the problem. I think the reason why the yogurt works is because terracotta is porous. I doubt that anything living would stick to plastic.

If they are for veg, they are working pots and I feel they don't need to look good. But if they are ornamental, they do need some attention.

Just this last autumn I got rid of all my terracotta pots, so I haven't worked out a solution yet. But ideas are to 1) to grow bushy, trailing things that hide the container. 2) to put smaller pots in front of larger pots to hide both the pots behind and the bare lower foliage of the plants in those pots. Then in front of the medium sized pots I would put smaller pots. I have done this and it can look quite effectiuve. and 3) In a gravel area I have put a collection of pots to make an island. Putting the largest on stones or bricks, for the height, then surrounding them with smaller pots, and resting against the smaller pots I have places large stones that I have found in the garden.

 

i have some tin baths and old galvanised pots - dont know how much they would cost but they might be good for growing blueberrys in, try a junk yard or reclamation site?

loopy