Thanks for posting the links, Babka!

Pieter

it surprises me that he says that the pots freeze in an attached garage in his zone ...

im wondering if he is using the term loosely .... because im not really thinking his pots ice up ...

anyway ... must have read that in the way back machine.. a lot of it sounds familiar ... everything but leaving them on the driveway.. lol ...

i never understood his fascination with everything British .....

ken

ps: i still owe you some info.. wonder if i can find that phone number ...

Ken- You can send an email thru Houzz. I have checked messages allowed.

-Babka

Good article. Thanks for the post.

bkay

Yes, thanks, I finally had time to read them. I’ve got about five hostas in spinout bags. Does anyone who has worked with them consider them to be containers?

Kathy, I just used spinout bags for the first time this year but they don't behave the way a regular container does: the entire enclosure is permeable, so while it will somewhat slow down water movement I don't expect to have the same drainage issues with it as I experience with my potted hostas. Matter of fact I didn't even bother using a potting medium in them, I simply re-used the soil I dug up for the hole to place them. FWIW as a side note, I'm very pleased with how the spinout bags have worked so far. I finally pulled the trigger on them when I saw how badly the hostas and ferns fared at the edge of a raised bed with arborvitae at the back, man those things have massive surface root structures that will choke most perennials. The rescued Junes and a Painted Fern looked vibrant and healthy again this year. About the only thing that didn't seem to mind the tree roots were some Western Bleeding Hearts.

Pieter

Jerry, I have six whiskey barrels in my garden. They have some of my best looking hostas because of the protection from voles. I think I’m going to tip them to look for tree root invasion this winter, but the soil doesn’t freeze here very often. I’ll just let them stay upright and uncovered again this winter. I did have two hostas in barrels that did poorly this year. About September I figured out they had sunk down too low. I dug up one of them, Earth Angel, and raised it. It’s been growing there since 2014. I could not believe the root mass! It was hard to lift it out even with very little soil adhered.

Is that a real whiskey barrel or a plastic one? The wooden ones leak at the edges of the staves some. I guess cutting them in half affects the integrity of its whiskey holding capacity.

Pieter, I used regular amended soil in my spin out bags when I built my hospital bed this spring. When some of those bags were repurposed into permanent placements in the garden I increased the amount of pine bark fines in the mix to make it a little lighter.

This is what’s left of the hospital bed. Seven bags placed on a slope then surrounded by cheap bagged topsoil and stabilized with another log. The crummy top soil I surrounded the bags with was full of tree roots when I pulled up a bag last month but none grew into the bag so I guess they work.

zkathy, I don't consider my spin out bags to be the same as containers. I amend my existing garden soil and use it to fill the bag. I remember reading somewhere that it is not much good to use a well draining media mix in the spin out bag if the area around it is clay and not well draining.

Old_dirt, I would fill the top of the pot with bark chips and put a bag over it. Perhaps some leaves in the bag and/or wrapping the barrel with burlap (or other insulating material) would be helpful too.

Currently I have approximately 20 spin out bags in my garden. I have learned that roots will invade these bags eventually. It depends on what kind of roots and the age of the bag. I would recommend lifting the bag out of the soil at some point to check for root invasion.

Kathy, that is a wooden barrel but not a real or original whiskey barrel. I wanted a real one but at the time I couldn't find one. Next year I plan to get a real one and fill it with mini's.

Thank you Kathy and newhostalady for the advice.

Old_dirt, by the way, don't use a dark colored bag to cover your hosta pot unless the pot will be in complete shade.