The city gardener: Repurposing the old as plant containers

Reclaimed Timber Crate. Courtesy of Country Culture

My 5-year-old is suspicious of my intentions towards her bright-pink wellies.

I confess that it has something to do with my search for interesting containers to liven up the terrace, which at the moment – yet another confession – looks more like a small football pitch than a space where things grow and bloom.

Earlier this week, we covered part of the terrace with artificial grass. The kids love it. They’ve been having play picnics on it and, in the mild breezy afternoons, the green is often strewn with pink plastic plates, dolls and soft bunnies.

I mainly want to use this outdoor space for relaxing and perhaps reclining in a comfy chair to read over the weekend. I want to be surrounded by plants that I love and, just as importantly, with plant containers that tell a story. And I want to have a bit of fun with it all.

Boots are hardly the height of imaginative recycling when it comes to plant pots. From salvaged bathtubs to old tyres, spice racks, bicycles, laundry baskets, chests of drawers and drainpipes, enthusiastic gardeners have been turning their eye to all sorts of unexpected items in pursuit of environmental friendliness, excitement, novelty and cheaper costs.

But before you jump into a DIY container project, consider a few things. You need to drill drainage holes and waterproof whatever you decide to repurpose. More importantly perhaps, don’t forget the aesthetics. In small spaces such as balconies, which may be in full view from the indoors, you’ll have to work really hard to transform an old cabinet into a rustic planter.

So far, I’ve decided to recycle an old metal shelving unit (previously a shoe holder) to organise my collection of small containers – galvanised metal buckets, market crates and watering cans – planted with evergreens, herbs and seasonal flowers.

Instead of cramming the shelves with too many different types of containers, I like sticking to a few styles and grouping similar ones to create maximum visual effect.

A consideration about small containers: in our sun-soaked growing season, they dry out very quickly. So planting a water-thirsty plant in a coconut shell or a vintage tea tin may not be such a good idea. You can mix water-retaining granules into the potting soil, or add some sweet soil to it to reduce watering frequency. Mulching with wood chips or pebbles is another way to reduce loss of moisture.

Last year, I picked up a small vegetable crate from a fresh-produce market, painted it a Mediterranean blue and planted it with headily fragrant local flowering basil and sweet alyssum (it became a little bee magnet). This year, I’m planting more crates, as well as covering parts of them with chalkboard paint. It’s a fun way to introduce words into the garden and also involve the kids.

On the subject of packing material, the Dubai-based gardener Virginia Roberts recently converted a wooden pallet into a vertical planter. She explains how she went about it: “To back the pallet, I recycled some shade material that we had bought for our patio area. You can also use landscape or hessian type material. I fixed it to the wood using a staple gun. The flowers I planted are gazania and periwinkle. Once planted, you need to leave it flat until the roots grow and the plants become sturdy – normally about four weeks. Finally, you lift it up and put plants in the top section of the pallet.”

Just make sure that the pallet has not been chemically ­treated – and you’ll have created an imaginative planter that’s also ­environmentally friendly.

Shumaila Ahmed is a Dubai-based gardener, teacher, researcher and writer.