We love the bold look of large rustic outdoor pots, they bring character and colour to a space and can be seen as a piece of sculpture.
You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a fabulous garden container. There are often huge decorative clay and enamel-painted pots to be found at home improvement stores, markets, vintage and reclaimed stores and garden centres.
Tips for Choosing and Planting up Large Garden Pots
1
Plan It
Make sure you plan where the pot will be placed in your garden. Often a pot can be a focal point to a garden or terrace and its placement is crucial.
2
Reduce Weight
A large pot can take an enormous amount of water just to moisten all the soil in the pot, so its best to reduce the water the pot retains. More soil is better than less, but by filling part of the base of the pot with a lightweight material the overall weight. There are various products available at garden centres designed for this purpose.
3
Top Up
Fill the rest of the pot up with compost. Try to mix an organic fertiliser into the soil when you plant. Make sure the fertiliser gets to the roots of your plants.
4
Shape Up
The choice of plants will depend on the size of the chosen pot and its position in the garden. Its important to create an attractive overall shape where the pot and the flowers compliment one another. The plants should look balanced with the size and shape of the pot. We like to plant single colour flowers into a large pot, often mixed with taller greenery.
5
Looking Good
Keep deadheading flowering plants to maximise the flowering season and pinch out some leaves on plants to keep them bushy and not leggy. Water the plants regularly. Wipe down glazed pots if you like to keep them looking glossy. A terracotta clay pot can be left to age with moss for a vintage look.
Tips for Using Large Pots as Water Butts
This week we have seen rain in South Devon for the first time in months and it has reminded us that rainwater is precious and should be carefully preserved for the garden. This month we will be installing a water butt in our cottage garden project.
Believe it or not there are some attractive water butts available on the market.
Attach the water butt to your drainpipe and use it to water your plants and wash your windows. A water butt can collect around 5,000 litres a year. A hosepipe can use as much as 1,000 litres of water an hour. It is better to water your garden with a watering can rather than a hosepipe.
Re-Use - Re-Cycle
Possibly the cheapest and most environmentally friendly way of creating a water butt is to re-use an existing one that is being discarded and is no longer required. It can be disguised by wrapping it with wicker or bamboo panels, or by planting climbing plants at its base and growing them up a supporting structure such as a trellis.
Some of the more decorative water butt options available:
£
This Beehive water butt is made from a terracotta look resin material which easily blends in with your garden.
££
This Antique Amphora Water Butt in Terracotta adds a Mediterranean flavour to your garden with which includes a planter .
£££
Hand-crafted, this water butt design is influenced by the 18th century lead cisterns, still to be found in the gardens of grand houses and stately mansions around the country.
Helpful water saving tips from The Eden Project in Cornwall:
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