Creating a buried pot garden is a beautiful and easy way to ecoscape. Not only will your garden be extraordinarily charming and tidy, it'll consume less water and energy. Sunken planter gardens like this one provide both form and function. The pots prevent your herbs or plants from overrunning their designated areas, and the mulch keeps unwanted weeds and pests at bay while consuming no water and energy.
To recreate this look, it's best to use ceramic pots with a wide brim for a standout look. Choose bright, light colors like yellow, white, turquoise and fluorescents for greater contrast against the darker mulch. For the surrounding ground coverage, select mulch, gravel or stones that will off-set your pot color. And lastly, edging your ground cover with rosemary (seen here) or garden borders will help keep it in place.
For mulch options, recycled rubber mulch has advantages over the traditional bark. It's heavier so it's more resistant to blowing all over the path and making a mess, doesn't attract termites like bark, and is more effective at retaining moisture. It's also eco-friendly to boot, made from recycled tires.
This buried pot garden is tidy perfection. We'd love to hear about your results!
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Heh heh. I read the title of this post and thought it was going to be about something completely different.
It looks cool. Is there any issue with freeze/thaw with the pots being in the ground or do you need to take them out of the ground every winter?
Wow, such a cool idea! I second Duane Hill's question, though.
Looks like landscaping at one of our local banks. What's up with all that ugly mulch everywhere?
I wouldn't count on this keeping herb from overrunning your garden. My mint plant is now growing out of the bottom of the pot as well as the top. Bamboo or any other plant that grows this way would be just as bad.
I'm also curious how you deal with this in the winter. I'd think that the pots would crack whenever it freezes if there's any moisture in them at all.
Rubber mulch is nasty, and its a fire hazard. They used it at the playground of my daughter's school (even after the playground was accidentally burned down) and it gets everywhere. Blech.
I don't like it
I winder about frost as well... shame they've not taken advantage of the way copper repels slugs & snails in some way, to keep the nasties off your herbs - solid copper planters would be $$$ but a thin strip here and there might work?
@Pamela at ClockworkCrow I'd never heard of rubber mulch until today, but it's the kind of thing I might have been drawn to, so thanks for that tip on avoiding it! Sounds nasty when you think about it.
This is a method I've used as a nursery designer for commercial tree production. Reduces wind interference (blowing over) and increase water efficiency. In the landscape it is a great way to rotate plants, keeping flower/foliage color interest in the forefront. Also a great way to allow your tender plants to live in the landscape during the warm months and be returned indoors/greenhouse during the winter. I often start plants in pots before planting them in the landscape for good. This allows for you to place a showy plant that will be too big eventually into a nice showy spot now. Basic black landscape pots can be used as the receiver with adequate gravel drainage beneath. In my area, Zone 7 (central east coast), and higher there is no issue with frost heaving and black landscape pots are flexible enough to accommodate soil movement.
-Picture Example 1-
-Picture Example 2-
I don't like it either. I'm not also how this is greener-- yes, less plants consume less water, but....you have less plants!! Just plant drought-resistant native species if you don't want your garden full of thirsty vegetable plants.
another good photo example
-Picture Example 3-
Yes, in regard to posted questions, buried ceramic pots will crack and heave in a hard freeze. I think this idea needs tweaking. (And I agree with rubber mulch being awful.)
I have had success with growing tomatoes in buried, plastic, 10-15 gallon nursery pots that have the bottoms cut out. I did this not for looks but to conserve water and discourage gophers and voles, but you could replicate the look above with terra cotta-colored plastic pots with a rolled rim. For plant health, though, I would cut out the bottoms of the pots.
I think this is a great idea, not everywhere, but it could be used effectively in many places. Also, other things could be used besides mulch such as a low drought tolerant ground cover or even bricks etc. Such possibilities!
Great idea! Thanks to Sierra Charlie and Rural and rueful for your helpful comments, as well as all the comments regarding rubber mulch.
You can do this with houseplants as well, depending on your local climate. Sink them into the ground pot and all in an appropriate spot in your yard or garden and leave them out until it gets too cold. Did it when I was a kid - the plants grow like crazy.
You have to be on the lookout for pests, though. And most houseplants prefer shade - direct sun even for a few minutes a day will kill many of them.
A lot of the questions raised here have been covered in some other recent posts.
Olla Gardening: submerging a round ceramic water jug in the soil next to plants. Yes, they need to be removed before a frost. A little annoying, yeah, but it's really only one extra step from bringing in non-submerged ceramic containers before a frost. No big deal.
Orange Mulch: a post bemoaning the widespread use of bright orange mulch. People added a lot of interesting facts and links that have got me thinking that basically all mulch is bad news bears.
I like the orderliness of this buried pot approach. Since mulch seems to be evil, I'm trying to imagine how it would look with maybe some short ground cover. You could make a cool walking path with walkable ground cover growing around paving stones and then the sunken pots around the outside?
Love the idea for plants that spread aggressively like bamboo or papyrus...
My favorite yard in Portland OR this year--they sunk a galvanized container, surrounded it with gravel and rock, and planted an apple tree so that it was about 10 inches below its true height. easy for picking. rest of garden (artichoke and some other perrenials) was buried in metal containers as well but not as deep. Lots of room for imagination
A bit too neat for my liking however I like a post earlier about making it a ground cover path or something. Good jumping off point though.
Oh! Like latoyaversailles, I thought this was going to be about a whole other topic... Quite disappointed now actually. (LOL!)
You had me until I read that rubber mulch is eco friendly. At that point I pretty much can't take you seriously, as just because it's reused, chopped up rubber, doesn't make it any good for the environment. The thought of having rubber in my garden makes me gag. I'm surprised that junk is even sold. Recommend some compost.
This post just made me sad.
I agree with the comments about rubber mulch - that sounds horrible, and surely it wouldn't encourage any wildlife that wanted to use the garden!
How exactly do your support your claim that this uses less water & energy? There are a number of fallacies in this article. I really can't take it seriously. That said, the garden IS lovely if a more formal aesthetic is your preference. Not very eco-friendly though. If you like it, just say so...attempting to justify it only serves to detract from your credibility.
I tried this in one garden bed, and it worked well to protect the plants from gophers, but I still had to bottom-line & top-line the pot with gopher wire to prevent them from tunneling inside the pot to get to the plants/rhizomes.
This is a great way to change out plants in your yard. I saw an article years ago about a home in Texas that did this. The lady had a large sweeping driveway that had gorgeous blooming plants all the way along it. She would keep all her potted flowers in her greenhouse and then change them out with something more heat tolerant as the summer went along. Great way to save money on plants and keep the ones you have alive once they are starting to stress.
I think I'm going to try this for my herbs. It freezes here and I love the tidy look (sans rubber mulch. ick) and the ability to change positions w/out disturbing the roots.