Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Strawberry Pot

The last weekend in June, Nicholas and I went to Petals from the Past near Birmingham, AL. They specialize in antique roses, heirloom shrubs and hard to find perennial flowers and herbs. I went there earlier in the summer and got some half-price seeds, including the lemon cucumbers. Nicholas got a whole mess of perennials.

This time Nicholas got another mess of perennials, and so did I! They were continuing their June Special of "Buy two, get one free" and had their pottery half off! Their pottery collection was pretty awesome and fairly priced to begin with. What caught my eye was the Strawberry Pots. They had 3, 3.5+, and 5 gallon strawberries. I picked up the last 3.5g for $21.00. Excellent buy.

I had to fill this pot with something, and since it ws buy two, get on free I picked up some herbs. I got a prostrate rosemary, sage, and oregano. A regular rosemary that Nicholas brought me from work also went into the pot.

I forgot to take pictures of the finished pot, which is super cute, but here is the putting together of it. Whenever using unglazed ceramic, soak the pot in water overnight. Ceramic absorbs water, which makes it really good insulator and excellent at regulating soil moisture, but if you put soil into a dry pot it the soil will quickly dry out. Because my pot was large and funky shaped I didn't soak it underwater, but wrapped a wet towel around it and filled as much of the pot I could with water. Every few hours I re-wet the towel.


The bottom three inches of the pot has soil covering it. In the center I stuck a sodabottle to conserve space/weight. Around the bottle and on the sides where roots won't grow are packaging peanuts for the same purpose. 


When transplanting, I shoved the roots through the hole rather than the leaves. Roots are more robust and its good to break up the rootball anyway. I water it every day from the top and each plants' hole and sometimes spray the pot with water.

I'm not sure what I'm going to put in the rest of the holes. Nicholas wants some mint, but it's not my favourite flavor (except on lambies..mmm). I thought maybe green onions or spinach/lettus. Or just some pretty flowers. Don't let the photos fool you, it's super cute! I'll take another picture when I get the chance.

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