Tips for Planting in Vintage Sinks

But sinks can be a little tricky to plant in because they only have the one drainage hole. If not careful it can get clogged up with soil, becoming flooded and causing your plant roots to rot. There are a few things that can be done to help prevent that from happening.

Here's the old porcelain farmhouse sink that I found at a garage sale last summer for $10. It's quite large, and a few weeds were already starting to grow in it. The first thing I did was remove the old soil from last year's planting. I put that in the compost.

As you can see there is some wire mesh screen in the bottom of the sink to cover the drainage hole. This keeps it open for water to flow through it freely. If it wasn't there it would become clogged up with soil, and pretty soon there would be no drainage at all.

Then some gravel is placed on top of the screen to help with drainage.

I filled my sink with good quality potting soil. For me it has to have slow release fertilizer in it and moisture retaining particles.

In some of my bigger planters it's much more cost effective, and quicker and easier, to buy a mixed hanging planter and use that rather than individual bedding plants. At our local nursery we can get 2 lovely hanging planters for $25.

Sometimes plants are a little, or a lot, root bound.

These roots have taken on the shape of the bottom of the planter.

Even once it's in the new soil the roots will continue to go round and round rather than out and down.

The roots need to be gently broken up, or scarified, so they know that they're free to roam in their new planter home.

This goes for all root bound plants, whether they're annuals or perennials... large or small.

I have to say that I'm not really too gentle about this, and my plants always do very well.

I tend to completely remove the excess roots.

In goes the plant, and I have instant beauty in the sink. This will fill in nicely and the flowers will pour over the edges.

So the next time you see a lovely old sink for a good price don't pass it by. They make beautiful planters, adding another element of fun and interest to the garden.

The cost of this project was about $25 for the sink, the plant, and the soil. Considering I'm able to use the sink year after year I'm happy with that.

To see two more sinks I planted check out my repurposed vintage sinks planters blog post here.

You can find more repurposed planter projects on my blog, Color Me Thrifty, here.