Garden Tips Newsletter
A Perky Pot Filter
August 17, 2009
So here’s the scene. It’s a nice late summer day and you’re out on the back porch eyeing that overgrown asparagus fern bulging up out of the pot. You are ready to move this big boy up to a bigger pot. You’ve got everything you need: a big sturdy pot, a big bag of potting mix, a pair of nice garden gloves and a small hand shovel or trowel. You also have a broom to sweep up your mess.
But then, just as you are getting ready to perform the operation, you see a hole in the bottom of the pot. You’ve got to stop and go find something to fit over that hole. Otherwise, that high-dollar, good potting mix you purchased will wash right out. Now, you go poking around in the yard to find that perfect pebble, or go scrounging around in the garage or garden shed looking for a pottery shard.
But wait, there’s an easier item to find: an ordinary paper coffee filter. If you are a forward-thinking, recycle-minded individual you can save your old used filters. If not, just grab a new one and place the filter in the bottom of the pot and fill with soil. Yes, the paper filter does break down eventually. But by then, the soil should be settled and the roots developed enough to minimize soil erosion.
So there you have it: a simple, smart solution to a sometimes vexing problem. There really are no grounds (pun intended) for concern about using a coffee filter to cover the pot holes you encounter as you travel down the gardening road (another stupid pun intended!)
Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes Garden Tips weekly and is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.