Last fall I added boxwoods to my whisky barrels liners only to notice this spring they appeared root bound and pushing their way up out of the soil. I decided the liners needed to go and the barrels needed to be filled completely with dirt. I waited for the soil to dry out some and then my friend Lisa and I lifted them out of the barrel.
I think the liners a good idea, it makes the planter much lighter but for this type of shrub it definitely needed to be planted in deeper soil. I started thinking how am I going to move the barrel to sweep behind or move it when it’s time to restain the house. I went into the house and rummaged around the junk drawer (do you have one of those) and found 6 casters. I screwed them into the bottom of the whiskey barrel, flipped it over and started shoveling in new dirt.
Once I had it replanted it rolled with ease back into place. Now I can roll it out to the front of the porch when we get a good rain. I think plants need rain water from time to time for the minerals they’re not getting from tap or hose water. So far I haven’t noticed a lack of direct sunlight affecting them, but if it becomes an issue I can now move them to a sunnier location on the porch.
It’s kind of like taking my plants for a walk on a nice sunny day. I do rotate all the plants once a week to avoid them reaching for the sun, even the hosta in the pot likes to bend in the suns direction.
Here’s a favorite tip of mine: Add Cocoa Shell mulch to your planters it helps retain some of the moisture and makes the pot look finished off rather than just seeing the soil. I put it in all my container plants giving them a polished look.
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Clever girl?
Thank Melissa it was such an easy fix I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.
Great idea!!
Judy
Thank you Judy it makes it much easier to deal with now.
Genius!
Kris every now and again I have a brilliant idea, lol.
I love the look of the cocoa shell mulch. I saw this tip on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/pin/16607092355094012/ and thought I’d try it with all of my broken pots. It’s worked great and looks really nice – I love how my flower pots look so coordinated even though they have different plants.
Jenny great idea to use the broken pots and I agree everything looks like it goes together when you pick one thing and do it to them all.
Great idea with the castors. How did the shrubs manage through the winter? Did you store them somewhere?
Linda they did great through the winter, they are under a covered porch and all I did was water them once a month.
What a cleaver idea !
Cheryl it took me a while to get that clever idea, lol.
A beautiful trio of plants…great idea to add the castors!
Shirley it’s so much easier to move around now. I can’t believe I didn’t do it earlier.
What an excellent idea. Thank you so much for sharing it.