We all have one. You know. The area out of sight, out of mind. The area no one dare venture near! The pots "Final Resting Place". Yup, here is mine. It happily rests behind my compost bin in an area not visible to me and my family. But even so, it is never out of mind. I recently tided up this area and tried to arrange all pots according to their size and shape and type. I never knew just how many kinds of pots plant growers have come up with until I tried to fit them together like Polish dolls. I finally just gave up and placed them all in the area neatly where I could easily find a pot should I need one.
I like to recycle when I can. In the case of the pots I often reuse them for plants, or for molds for hypertufa pots, or sometimes I give them to nurseries. Sometimes they just sit here and sit here and sit here. Maybe they dream of when they were shining brightly on the nursery shelves waiting for a buyer to come and purchase the plant they carried? Not sure, but here they rest for now, bravely waiting out the arctic cold like the rest of us.
What do you do with all of your old pots? Do you have a final resting place for them?
in the garden....tidying up.
My dear potting shed that I have been so busy decorting with stenciling and window boxes, houses all of my pots like this when they are not being used to cover growing plants in the garden from the artic blast. Be very careful when you open the door!
ReplyDeleteUsually I have a bunch of them but when the guys cleaned the shed out, they limited me to one shelf. I keep the biggest ones there.
ReplyDeleteI am blessed to have a garage at home which mainly serves a s larger than life tool shed. At work I have a large closet with shelves. I love to challenge my students with the chore of organizing pots... I am sure they would vote for a society in which pots were a bit more standardized in size and shape.
ReplyDeleteI get to start all over again this spring with the collection. Last fall I gave away a bunch of them at a yard sale and recycled the rest. We seem to collect more pool chemical buckets than anything else, and they get stacked up in the barn out back. I've started some of those seeds you gave me, and I think they are beginning to sprout!
ReplyDeleteThis is so funny---when I saw the picture, BEFORE reading the first sentence--my thoughts were "we all have one of these!" I use clay pots for planting, when they crack or break I use the pieces at the bottom of other clay pots! The plastic ones I just stack up and save to use for pass-alongs.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget the time I was on a garden tour, and went to a really big house with beautiful gardens--the owner was the gardener--and there in this beautiful, almost formal garden, sitting beside the garage were her "pots"!! I loved it!!
The Master Gardeners in our area use them in the Learning Garden, so we put out a plea through our membership for pots. Now, the LG pot 'corral' certainly needs to be tidied! Janet
ReplyDeleteIf you only have one embarrassing corner, you are doing well. I like your green idea of giving the pots back to nurseries. A few of our pots end up in the shed, but most get recycled. I save some to repot herbs for the house. I hope things warm up for you.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a scene from my house in the summer! Actually, the growers around here will take back the pots after they are cleaned. Not the retail places, but the real nurseries.
ReplyDeleteCameron
Oh Tina, this strikes a chord with many, I am sure. Yours are so neat and organized, well done. I tidy them up every now and then, but they somehow get a mess again quickly. They are under the garage deck where I can see them daily. That is supposed to make me keep them neat. It is not working. I do use them to pot up plants to take to the offspring regularly, so need to keep them around. If it would warm up here that space might get the whirlwind clean up it so desperately needs. Thanks for the inspiration! :-)
ReplyDeleteFrances
Darla, I would love to see your stenciled window boxes. I meant to ask, how did the roof come out?
ReplyDeleteDawn, Sheds are good. Try to steal another shelf.
Wayne, Every year the pots change ever so slightly. Weird! I am not liking it at all.
W2W, I am going to think of a good use for those pool buckets. I have a few too. Right now used for grout and bunny clean up. But surely there must be a better use? Don't worry on your pots, you'll be filled up by fall I am sure:)
Linda, THAT would be a sight! A lovely garden and home and where do they stash the pots? Gotta put them somewhere and we home not the trash. Too funny.
Janet, I love learning gardens. It must be a wonderful place as you talk of it with so much care. If you lived close by I could give you tons of pots:)
Sarah, Nope, I have two. One is in the front yard and is full of leftover rock from our house. I haven't used it in other spots yet, I really must get on it though. Thanks for the explanation on Mr. Robinson and his love of animals. I totally understand. For me growing up in Maine I always remember the sport of the locals, though I have never done it.
Cameron, That is pretty good the nurseries will take back the pots. Sure saved on the economy. Though I still think they should have a cleaning place for the pots, instead of the homeowner.
Frances, Yes-what do we do with them all? I remember under your deck and it was quite tidy. You are so organized! It has been cold. Tomorrow or Friday comes a warm up-good time to do some chores before it gets too hot. I work more outside in the cold than the heat. Not sure why.
Has anyone else been having problems with Blotanical?? I am sorry to all my faved blogs on there, but I cannot access it this morning as it is too slow. I'll try later.
Hi Tina,
ReplyDeleteThe pots here are stacked nicely, but since the honeysuckle was removed everyone can see them! I am planning a screen to hide them...Aren't they a reminder of the plants we have purchased!
Gail
All of mine are resting in the garage, yet another reason I need to get a shed! I've tried to organize them the same way but even pots of similar size sometimes don't fit together. They sure have a lot of types of containers!
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit it, Tina, but I used to throw away some of my smaller pots. Now they're in a corner of my garage that has become the winter storage place for all my gardening stuff (no wonder I can't get my car in there!). They're eagerly waiting for seed starting soon!
ReplyDeleteCute post. My tons of pots are in the basement and they are not at all tidy!!
ReplyDeleteTina,
ReplyDeleteThe roof is still black. So much for the expensive cleaning product, we will be using diluted bleach as so many of you suggested! Thanks for asking.
I wash the pots and stack them in the shed out of sight. Last year I lost so many new plants that I decided to take advantage of the return policy at Lowes. So the dead plants were placed back into their original pots. I could have gotten back more money if I had the pots better organized and receipts for all. This year, I will make sure to keep receipts and pots together if I have to bring them into the house! If the plants die, I am not out any money if organized! I will get refund and then more plants!
ReplyDeleteHi Tina --yeah the family finally has power --it was 8 days without. So, now we can get back to our normal routine --not as easy with guests. Lots of work to do but I only keep a few pots --the others are recycled -I don't have the space with all hubby's hunting/trapping supplies, lol. I manage a few in the shed with my red beauty. Another cool day but, ah relief is in sight with the weekend weather forecast:)
ReplyDeleteGood morning Tina. I keep a few pots around for seed starting, plant giveaways, etc., but the rest I recycle at my favorite nursery. They have a bin on one side of their parking lot for you to drop them off. Its such a great feeling to know they'll be reused and not "trashed."
ReplyDeleteI don't have the room! They either have a plant in them or they go. Usually I have several on hand with tools in them though. And some from the nursery the plant came in that I put in the bin for the potting soil.
ReplyDeleteBrenda
I use clay pots mostly and use the broken bits at the bottom of other pots. Honestly, I've never had that many unused pots. Our weather does not permit it!!! Nice collection there.
ReplyDeleteHello Tina, I have not so much as you but I have :). They are in my cupboard in my floor... hmm, I hope I take the right words :). It's sure funny for you, to read my English, right? (-; Greetings from Kessi
ReplyDeleteSo funny you posted this. I was just looking at my stacks of them. Over the winter some have filled with water and it was a disgusting mess. I keep planning to bring them to a nursery to recycle them. I do use the larger black ones for plants in my pond.
ReplyDeleteHello Tina, now I have a translator for you, too on my blog (-;!! Enjoy it, dear greetings - Kessi
ReplyDeleteHi Tina, I have several of these pots. They are stacked up in the shed, under the table where my swing is--mainly everywhere. I need to go through them & organize again. No nursery close by to take them to. I do use one occasionally to take a plant to a friend.
ReplyDeleteHard to return to any place as they are afraid of some virus or something. I guess that is why they want them cleaned.
I save mine. Chances are I'll be needing them for a plant sale or to give a friend a plant from the garden. Often people come and get some for their own plant sales.
ReplyDeleteMarnie
Gail, I'd rather see pots than honeysuckle:)
ReplyDeleteDave, Your garage should be called the 'Garden Garage' and have a new found purpose.
Rose, Seed starting time is coming fast-despite all the snow.
Mom, Your basement is really neat! I love exploring and remember seeing some of your pots. Won't be long and your garden will be waking up-look for the daffys soon.
Darla, You're welcomed:)
Skeeter, Me too! Gotta keep em organized-you know you are a gardener when you kill plants. You know you're really thrifty when you take the dead plant back to the store for a refund:)
Anonymous, I am so glad! I just got back from Hoptown and it looks like a war zone! I could not believe it at all. I knew it was bad up there but oh so bad. I wished I'd had my camera. The sugar maples and maples in general took the ice really badly. Glad your family is back at home. I hope they did not have too much damage.
Kathleen, Your local nursery is very forward thinking. We need more of that.
Brenda, Ha! I too have a large pot with gardening utensils in it-another use I guess.
Kanak, Can you tell I plant a lot? Most of the plants are all sale plants which is a good thing. I'm slowing down now-only a few must haves on my list-not every sale plant I find. Why doesn't weather permit you have a lot of pots? Too hot?
Kessi, Your English is perfect!! Have you tried my translator? It translates the whole page-a good thing.
Catherine, They sure build up quickly don't they? I can't imagine how. Have you posted on your pond?
Lola, Yes! You are right I am sure the nurseries would be worried of viruses and stuff. A dangerous thing in the business with so many plants.
Marnie, I am seriously debating having my own plant sale. Goodness I think I have enough plants. Hubby would appreciate my earning some money to play with my plants. Have you had your own plant sale? Are they hard? I live in the country and not many here really appreciate plants, but maybe advertising would be the trick. Not sure.
hi tina, thanks for your kindley words at ruhezone !!! it was not possible to get your translater but I look again...
ReplyDeleteI´m also have a pottery corner for the young plantes, next time I show you...have a good time !!!
Kathrin
Yep I call it my workarea! :) It's on the other side of the shed that faces the fence. Out of sight and out of mind.
ReplyDeleteHeh. Even I have a pot graveyard, and I have a very small patio on which to garden. I have a plastic tub with a lid where I toss all my nursery pots. I just went through it and downsized. A good 20 or so pots were introduced to the recycle bin.
ReplyDeletejuhu, Ihave the translater at my blogs, kessi was helping me, juhu, now you can read everything easer, thats wonderful !!!
ReplyDeletethanks for kessi !!!!
I've never had that many but we have an old barn I put some in and some go to the dump. My thumb is black not green!
ReplyDeleteMine get stacked on the propane tank until either the wind blows them around or the sun cracks them. I really don't use that many pots since I am mostly an orchid gardener and prefer a very specific type of pot. But, my expensive palm tree as created a bunch of babies so I could use some of those small ones to transplant, dang!
ReplyDeleteThis feels a little like getting a peek inside someone's medicine cabinet (not that I do that, of course).
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a seriously normal gardeners yard! I guess you can relax! We are all a bit obsessive- compulsive when it comes to plants, pots, etc...but hey, that is totally normal, right??!!!
ReplyDeleteLike Rose, I used to throw some of them away. Now, I save some, but recycle most of them. If I start to grow more things from seeds I am certain I'll be keeping even more, as well as the trays/flats that come with them.
It will be nice when we can all get out there and start using our pots!
I used to stake all my old pots behind the shed. This got to be a little bit of a challenge once fall clean up begins and they are under a mass of leaves.
ReplyDeleteI finally decided that what ever will not stack neatly on the bottom two shelves of the shelf unit in the shed would get recycled. Ever since then I have concurred my old pot collection, YEAH!
I'll admit I've tossed a lot of these in my day. Recently I heard that a nursery about 45 minutes away will donate a dime to the native plant society for every pot you bring in. And for when I'm not up that way, there's a local dropoff spot that the society members have organized that's only 5 minutes away. The nursery benefits because pots cost more than a dime these days, and the local native plant society gets a nice donation. Win-win.
ReplyDeleteI take mine to the recycling center. Have you checked local nurseries? There's a couple here that take extras from folks who need to get rid of theirs.
ReplyDeleteKathrin, Thanks! The new translator works very well!
ReplyDeleteRacquel, Aren't you going to show it to us:)
Fern, You just gotta have those pots-they are great to have around, even on balconies:)
Dot, Black thumb? Not green? Your garden and photos are wonderful either way.
Vickie, Yup, when babies come along the extra plants sure come in handy. What kind of pots do orchids require? I do not grow them. I resist and protest and will not because I know I'll get too many.
Susan, Have you ever heard of folks putting marbles in their medicine cabinets? I have read of this. Not me and my medicine cabinet is pretty neat (the guest one anyhow:) Welcome back!
Jan, You are so right! We all need those pots.
Good idea Dan. Set a limit. I like that.
James, There's another forward thinking nursery. Good idea to donate money! I would think all green industries would be concerned about the environment and do this.
TC, I gave about this many to a local nursery owner one year. Then I kind of regretted it as I do often use these. I do think others will take them back. The guy I gave the other pots too is out of business now.
That area is my garden shed, and one wall behind it!
ReplyDeleteOh, my pot pile is such a mess in the garage right now! If only it were stacked as nicely as yours. Dear hubby took our fourteen 15-gallon-sized pots back to the nursery after planting the trees out of them last fall, thank goodness. They took up so much space. The smaller ones seem to stick around and clutter everything up! - VW
ReplyDeleteTina and Kathrin (-; !! Yes, the translator is perfect! Now I can read all!! Thank you so much for installing :)!!!
ReplyDeleteMonica, Ha! We all have them don't we?
ReplyDeleteVW, Wowser! Those are some big trees you are planting. So glad the nursery could reuse the pots. Almost spring time-those pots in your garage will get a workout soon.
Kessi, So glad you like it and it works for you guys!