Alternative to plastic pots

[BunnyRuddington]

After listening to the What’s Up Doc recent podcast about plastics I’m trying to cut down on my plastic consumption.

I need some new pots for planting in the garden. What’s a good alternate to plastic that’s not going to cost a fortune?

My adult child uses lots that look like they're made from some kind of cardboard. Cannot ask them what it is, or what it's called as they're at the allotment at the moment (probably potting on into this kind of container).

You can sometimes get spares from garden centres that haven’t sold or people giving them away on Facebook I don’t know if charity shops sell them

There's several options. You can go old school and use terracotta (lots of used ones for sale on ebay). There are also modern plastic alternatives like wood fibre or fabrics like wool or hemp.

Fibre pots (used to be peat pots). Good for seedlings, but not for permanent pots.

For larger permanent planting there's: terracotta - ecofriendly but prone to frost damage, and quite heavy; concrete - a bit more frost resistant I think but even heavier; fibreglass - light and tough but not sure it's really better than plastic; metal - seems a good option for a lot of purposes, but they"re rare; wood - needs treating regularly, usually needs a liner (often built in, usually plastic but some are metal).

And I have seen big hemp pots that are designed to last a couple of years, but they were quite expensive for something that would need frequent replacing.

I need some new pots for planting in the garden. What’s a good alternate to plastic
You want 'new to you', which is not the same as 'new to the planet'. Get yourself some existing pots from friends, freecycle etc. I've amassed loads over the years - so many that I had a cull the other day! (a responsible cull, those that were decent I paid forward, the rest went to the recycle bin at the garden centre).

I'm afraid that I didn't listen to the podcast - six minutes in and they still hadn't started on the subject in hand yet! I gave up.

I have a mixture of ceramic (glazed), wood and zinc. The zinc ones were a gift (expensive), the ceramic ones I picked up in a sale in the garden centre and the wooden ones I bought online when they were discounted. The ceramics are 15 years old with no cracks or frost damage but they are in sheltered spots in the garden. The wooden ones vary in age from 2 to 10 years. I've used cheerful coloured Cuprinol paint on them and give them a freshen up every couple of years. Only one is showing its age - its the most exposed and a couple of bumble bees took up residence at either end of it this winter (they access it via a couple of knots in the wood which fell out) so it's not being replaced!

I have 15yo strawberry pots that are salt glazed that sit on pot feet facing east in my NE garden that has regular and late frosts that still look good as new. Agree with a PP that second hand is the way to go. Speaking of which, I've posted this before but I think it's a brilliant idea: Filing cabinet planters.

What do you mean for planting in the garden?

Pots that you temporarily grow seedlings in and then plant out or pots that will have permanent plants in them as you would terracotta pots?

For temporary pots you can make origami pots but they only last 2-3 weeks before they need to be planted, if you double up the paper thickness they can last longer. if it is permanent pots then you can use all range of things from old bath tubs, old welly boots, old casserole dishes etc. I have strawberries and herbs planted in chimney pots and in terracotta wine racks that were left here by the old owners. I have plants in old metal buckets I found behind sheds. Anything can be a planter if it is stable and able to hold soil.

Sorry I wasn’t clear. I meant containers for using in the summer mainly.

Proper garden containers can be expensive. One of the cheapest ways to get round this is to not buy 'proper', but to use something else (as Shedmistress said). Or, in the vintage / recycling parlance, 're-purpose' something else.

Scout round cheap places like charity shops or car boots and try to see things with a new eye. Use PP's mantra of "anything can be a planter".
You can make things look a bit more cohesive, if you want, by giving them the same finish - a lick of paint, faux stone effect, etc.
Alternatively, get busy with an old pallet, plastic liner and your carpentry skills.

As ever, Alexandra has a handy video on this.

I found some metal planters in IKEA yesterday. But they have a plastic coating. 😕