Advice needed, balcony plants

dawanda

Hi everyone,

I need advice re plants on the balcony.
I've bought a few trees and scrubs and flowers , as well as planters (these IKEA ones that are ceramic, I think) and now I realise that planters need holes and those planters don't have any.

Does anyone know whether I can drill holes into them with a hammer drill? (I'm asking in advance, since I would need to buy a drill) Or is there another way to create sufficient drainage without drilling holes into the pots?

My second question is this: I bought two trees that keep falling over bc of the wind. I'm not surprised since the plastic pots are of course very light. But if the ceramic pots are out of the question bc they don't have holes, what else could I do to make the planters heavier? (the cheap way, without buying super expensive new planters)

thanks very much in advance

Lumen

I think a proper hammer drill on a ceramic pot would result in many pieces. A regular drill should be fine.

If it's glazed, used a tile bit.
If it's not glazed, use a masonry bit.

Regarding tree planters, mine do that too. They're tapered narrow at the bottom. Finding large, nice looking planters that are not tapered is surprisingly difficult in Ireland - I wanted cylindrical terracotta ones and haven't found any. Anyway, add rocks at the bottom and/or find a larger pot with a non-tapered base.

edit: my plan B is to screw a square wooden base through the bottom of the planter and bury it under the gravel under the planter.

dawanda

thanks for your reply. I don't know anything about drills, just hoping to find a cheap one. Do you think the Simple Value 500W Drill would work? With the masonry piece (sorry, I'm not allowed to post links here).

Plan B won't work in my case, no gravel here, but I'll try the rocks - thank you