What does everyone do with their old pots?

Wash and keep the useful sized ones, others just get thrown away I'm afraid.


Val

 

I never throw a pot, can always find a use for them, they get used year after year. Can never have enough pots.

 

I gaffer tape prepaid junk mail envelopes on them and hand them in at the post office

 

most just get chucked in the green bin nowadays im afraid...i have enough as it is so try not to add any more than i actually need. i used to collect all sorts including all manner of pots (anything i thought i might possibly use) and store it away in the greenhouse like some demented squirrel until i could barely fit in there myself....seriously, had to get a skip in the end!

 

Still no interest on freecycle.

 

It's a shame we don't live closer I'd have taken them off your hands Jane....i've got a bit of a plant pot 'thing'...can't get enough of them

 

If you leave them in a very dark corner between the fence and the greenhouse for 5 years they're as good as new when you finally get them out!

Managed to offload a few bags onto a freecycler last night, another one coming today. I'll end up with not enough at this rate!

 

I can remember last year it seem to take forever to get to yours even though we are in the same county. Although we did go through the country route. I can't see us going to your part of the world anytime soon to be honest. Unless the other half buys another lathe or some other powered contraption for his workshop.

I'm quite happy to send you some though. They are quite light and I should be able to pack a fair few in a box without it costing too much. If you drop me a pm of what sizes you want I will see if I have enough to split between you and lolimac.

 

Just wondering....if there was a frost due, could I upturn them over the plant? Would that protect them from dying?

Sorry if that's a stupid question.

 

Stupid questions - join the club!
Strictly speaking, putting pots over the tops of plants would not be advocated in any gardening manual, but yes, in an emergency, it would be a quick way of giving a bit of instant protection. I have done it myself - I kept a large upturned tub over a banana most of one winter and it's still alive. Ditto, tetrapanax.

An emergency, like Nov 16th, sharp frost forecast, it's dark, I fecklessly believed summer would go on forever and I'm running round the garden improvising at the last minute. So I chuck whatever is available over the most prized plants.

But, big proviso, I think it's OK to do that in winter when light levels are very low and all you need to do is keep the root alive. The foliage might well rot off if deprived of light and air but it might do that anyway.

It's not OK to leave young, tender plants or seedlings under a pot for more than a few hours. You could cover them with a pot in an emergency -like it's June, you've just put out your courgette seedlings but night temps in single figures are forecast -but you would absolutely have to remove the covers in the morning to avoid damaging the young plant. It would get excessively drawn up due to lack of light quite quickly.

 

I dug up all the self seeded seedlings, put them in my spare plastic flower pots, and then positioned them in various places on the flower bed.

I think I now have about 7 baby Foxgloves growing. Ill probally have to pull up the remaining 1000 or so.

 

Fill a few carrier bags with your unwanted pots, put them outside your property with a sign "Free Pots", that should shift them fairly quickly.

Steve...

 

I keep them. Got hundreds in my garage!