Reuse Old Nursery Pots With This Clever Potting Tip

You just found a pair of tall, stately planters that will look perfect overflowing with flowers and foliage on your front porch. But wow, those things are going to take a lot of soil to fill! Before you trek to the garden center for more potting soil, hit up your stash of nursery pots — even seasoned gardeners struggle to keep them out of the trash. Large or small, one or more of these hard-to-recycle containers can become eco-friendly, free filler for voluminous planters. If you have a large nursery pot with a slightly smaller circumference and about half the depth of your decorative pot, flip it over and slide it inside the pretty pot. The remaining space is now all you need to fill with soil. This trick is especially handy for nursery pots that are damaged and no longer reusable for potting.

The nursery pot will have drainage holes on its base, and in general, they probably won't let too much loose soil fall through and go to waste. Still, if this bothers you, take out an easy soil insurance policy by covering the nursery pot with a layer of fabric. This is a smart way to reuse old clothes in the garden, too.

Particularly tall pots will become top-heavy with so much empty space at their base. Before adding the nursery pot and soil, place something weighty at the bottom of the main pot like a paver, some rocks, or a thick layer of sand. Yet, you may be able to skip this step if the pot's base is the same width as (or wider than) its mouth.

This trick is all well and good if you have the perfectly-sized large nursery pot, but most of us have smaller ones along with those multi-cell trays that rarely stay intact enough for reuse. Don't fret, because a literal pile of them tossed into a planter will do the trick. Of course, this leaves lots more nooks and crannies for soil to fall through. You'll save some soil by placing each pot inside the planter, base-up. Better yet, a layer of worn out clothes or part of an old bed sheet over the nursery pots goes a long way in preserving precious potting soil while literally allowing you to throw a pile of used pots into your planter.

There is always a chance that dirty pots could harbor soil-borne diseases. The pile-o'-pots method does present a more of a risk to the plants that will live above them, since there's more potential surface area to be covered with old dirt. If you want to lessen this risk, follow these steps to clean and sterilize the pots. Brush off as much loose dirt as possible, and give the pots a bath first in soapy water. After rinsing, let the pots soak for about 10 minutes in a mixture of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water. Rinse them well before placing them in your planter.