What to do with pot ghetto?

11 years ago

I am not new to gardening, but I AM new to pot ghettos!

I have had a significant reduction in my income this year and my plant budget has taken a hit. So I've been trying to feed my addiction for free by starting up a little pot ghetto.

I didn't think I had very many, but when I counted up my pots, I actually had about 50!

I don't have space in the garden yet for all these guys, so what's the best way to keep them alive over the winter?

I don't have a garage; would putting bags of leaves around them be a good idea?

Thanks,

Teresa

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Comments (4)

gardenweed_z6a
11 years ago
Is there anywhere you could sink them into the ground for the winter? I overwintered about 50 gallon-size pots of winter sown perennials by digging a trench wide enough to set them in, two abreast, then filling the dirt back in. I didn't lose but a handful. Another suggestion would be to line them up against your south foundation if possible and mulch them with pine boughs or straw. I use my east foundation for convenience but the idea is that some heat escapes through the foundation and marginally warms the soil closest to it. There's someone on GW who grows cannas in Z5 that come up reliably every year because they're growing close to his south foundation. I know heat escapes along my south foundation--that's where the snow melts quickest.

I DO have an unheated garage and I stack dormant plants in pots one on top of the other in large, deep storage bins inside. I think even that much protection bumps them up a zone winter wise. I sure hope it works with the 'Fan Scarlet' cardinal flower I hope to bring through the winter this year. My cellar is too warm because I heat with a woodstove that keeps it above 80 degrees most of the winter.

Bags of leaves might work but I can't say for sure since I've never tried it. The pine boughs/straw worked for me the past 4-5 seasons. If possible, wherever you decide to line them up, a north-facing wall is likely not the best choice.

Size matters--if you have any large planters that you'd normally bring through the winter, set some of those smaller pots in those.
girlcat36
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you, gardenweed!
My ghetto resides on a west facing wall that gets full sun, and there is a dryer vent there which should add some warmth.
I don't have any space to dig the pots into the ground.
I think I will just push them up against the foundation and surround them with bagged leaves.
Teresa
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The term ghetto just means an area where a group that is similar resides. It has become a derogatory term over time evoking an image of someplace that looks deteriorated and slum like. In rose talk I think it just represents the area where all the plants you don't know what to do with end up until you can figure it out. I have a beautiful pot garden of roses on my patio in the summer. These are roses that will spend their lives in nice decorative pots. I have no intention of planting them anywhere. But I also have a pot ghetto. This is the spot were I have roses that I'm maturing in nursery cans, either bands or my rooted cuttings, and isn't the neatest place. I also have a large area that is my seedling nursery where I keep all my babies. I do call my winter storage for all the pots a pot ghetto because it's pretty unsightly. Usually a pot ghetto is messy and unorderly, more like the classic impression of a "ghetto", and a garden is cleaner and neater or more decorative. I probably use the term ghetto for my patio pots sometimes too though. People understand it and it just comes out. It's easy. I try not to now because they really are a garden unto themselves. They have their own particular set of needs and challenges like each of my beds do. Besides being the short hand of the times I think another component if using the DH, DW, etc. is for privacy and internet anonymity. Some people don't want to put their names out there or advertise their status.
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I was asking these same questions last year :) I live in Knoxville, so we are similar in climate. I had about 20 1g pots, 10 5g pots, and maybe 10 still in their band containers by the time winter came around. After asking for advice on here, what I ended up doing was putting the majority of pots on my covered front porch and covering the open sides, where the rails are, with plywood to protect them from the wind. I also muched the top of the pots heavily and kept the pots very close together with the more tender varieties toward the center of my ghetto. I kept the most tender varieties in my unheated garage. For the bands, I purchased two of those mini greenhouses from Lowes (they cost about $50) and put them outside on the back patio in the most protected area. I also watered them about once a month. This system worked well for me. I think I lost maybe two plants (Austin's Allux Symphony...boohoo!) Had there been enough leaves around I would have covered the plants on the porch with them for extra protection, as quite a few posters suggested. I'm by no means an expert, and as you know last winter was mild, but this is what I plan on doing this year as well :) As for planting, I was told that the potted roses are better in the ground than in pots, even if you have to sink the pots with the roses still in them. I think my last potted roses made it into the ground around October. Some nurseries, like Pickering, offer Fall bareroot shipping. I know a lot my disagree with me, but my Fall planted bareroots do better than my Spring planted one. Just be sure to mulch well :) Good luck! Tammy Here is a link that might be useful: my post from last year...
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PM2, I keep forgetting that you are a zone warmer than I am. In my zone the chances of failure to survive the winter are much greater than 50%. In you zone, I would do what bakemom and kqcrna advised, break them into hunks and plant them out now. If you don't have time to get all of the hunks planted out, then go to plan B and just plant the hunks into large containers with about 4 inches of soil in them and winter them over If you don't want to or have time to plant any of them out, then the next step would be to break them up into hunks and plant the hunks in their own containers for the winter. Plan C would just leave them alone for the winter and some, if not all, should survive. Fran
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squirrel ... I've experimented in the past using hay bales placed into long rectangles covered with plastic with holes with space inside to place covered and uncovered containers. This system works just fine. What I found was heat retention in the coral is sufficient for sprouted containers to have their tops completely removed very shortly after sprouting even in the coldest and hardest freezes. At the same time, you'll still want to keep the tops on the unsprouted containers to have a more ideal greenhouse effect going until they pop. The real key to success with this method is to make sure the plastic top is constructed to be easily and effectively adjusted to increase or decrease ventilation in the compartment space according to fluctuating direct sun and temperature conditions. I do think you'll find the coral will make for a very nice appearance. Good luck.
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claireplymouth z6b coastal MA
11 years ago
You could also push them up against the foundation and then place a row of concrete blocks as a border to hold in the bagged leaves. The concrete blocks should act as a heat sink and help minimize temperature fluctuations.

Claire
girlcat36
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you, Claire!

What to do with pot ghetto?

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gardenweed_z6a

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What to do with pot ghetto?

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gardenweed_z6a

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