Glazed pots and winter storage

Wed. Nov. 7, 2018

Click below to listen to  my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Glazed pots and winter storage

We’ve already seen cold rain, sleet and snow and the forecast doesn’t look like there’s going to be any “Dog Days” of Autumn coming…  My husband even got ahead of the game and put the bicycles away and started moving the porch furniture!

Another winter consideration are my glazed pots!

I’ve had the pot pictured below (actually have 2) for at least 10 years.  They’ve never been stored inside.  I noticed a small crack on the glazing at the lip a couple of years ago.  It’s bigger now…  I leave them out every year and put greens in them for winter display.

This has been one tough container. It’s taken a lot of abuse but it’s now starting to show it. You can’t see it in this picture but, trust me, it’s there!

The most important thing is that your pots are dry as we enter winter and stay as dry as possible.

If there’s an opportunity for water to get under those cracks, then you’ll likely see damage in the spring. What happens is the moisture in the soil will freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw which causes expanding and contracting. It’s the same thing that happens to our plants, we call that “heaving” and it can lift the plants right out of the ground. If you keep containers dry, you shouldn’t have a problem.  The container below is much more delicate and I would never leave it out in the elements.

New glazed ceramic pot

I manage to get this guy up on the porch … minus all those plants for festive creations coming soon!

I’ve started moving the more delicate pots to up on my large front porch.

Terra cotta pots can also suffer from winter damage. I usually put these in the shed. The main reason is to keep them dry. The cold isn’t really the issue.  Of course, the pot below would be shot if I left it outside for the winter.

Pot o' gold

If you have expensive pots but don’t have the room to store them inside, then empty out the soil (compost it), tip them upside down on 2×4’s, make sure they’re dry and then secure a tarp over them.