How to plant a concrete pot so it drains well and lasts

You have brought home a beautiful concrete pot, and you want it to look that good for years, not crack apart after one winter. The reassuring news is that a well made concrete pot is genuinely tough, and the odd cracked one you hear about almost always comes down to how it was planted and looked after, not the pot itself. Get a few small things right at planting time and it will outlast the plants, the trends, and probably the patio furniture.

Here is how to plant one up so it drains well, sits stable, and stays crack free.

Why concrete pots crack, and why it is avoidable

Concrete is strong under pressure but it does not like two things, water trapped inside it and hard knocks. Almost every crack you see traces back to trapped water. If a pot has no way to drain, water collects in the base, and on a cold Highveld night that water freezes, expands, and pushes the pot apart from the inside. Same story if the drainage hole clogs, or the pot sits in a saucer of standing water all winter. Solve the water problem and you have solved most of the cracking problem. The rest is just handling it with a bit of care, since like anything cast, a heavy knock on a hard edge can chip it.

Start with drainage

This is the whole game. Your pot needs a drainage hole, and if it does not have one, make one with a masonry bit before you plant. Water has to have a way out, because a sealed pot is a slow death for both the plant and the pot. Once the hole is there, keep it doing its job. A small piece of mesh, a broken bit of pottery, or a few larger stones laid loosely over the hole stops the potting mix washing out while still letting water through.

One myth worth clearing up while we are here. You do not need to fill the bottom third of the pot with gravel or rubble to improve drainage. It sounds sensible but it actually works against you, creating a soggy layer where the mix meets the stones. A single drainage hole and a good free draining mix do far more than a deep layer of gravel ever will.

Lift it off the ground

Raise the pot slightly onto pot feet, a couple of tiles, or bricks. This one small move does a surprising amount. It keeps the drainage hole clear so water always escapes, it stops the pot standing in a puddle after rain, and it lets air move underneath. In winter especially, a raised pot cannot sit in freezing water, which is exactly the situation that cracks concrete. It also saves your paving from the staining a pot left flat on the ground tends to leave.

Use the right mix, not garden soil

Fill the pot with a proper potting mix, not soil dug from the garden. Garden soil is too heavy for a container, it compacts, and it stops draining, which brings us right back to trapped water and unhappy roots. We go into exactly why in can garden soil be used in pots. Match the mix to what you are growing, gritty and free draining for succulents and lavender, richer and more moisture holding for leafy plants, which is one of the real advantages of growing in pots. There is more on getting the mix right in the best type of soil for plants.

Leave room to water

When you fill the pot, stop a few centimetres below the rim rather than right to the top. That gap gives the water somewhere to sit and soak in when you water, instead of running straight off the surface and over the sides. It is a small thing that makes watering far more effective, and it stops soil washing out every time.

Looking after it through the seasons

Concrete pots ask for very little, but a bit of seasonal care keeps them looking new. Before winter, tip out any saucers and make sure nothing is trapping water around the base. Give the pot a wash once or twice a year to lift the green film and dust that builds up on any outdoor surface. And every few years, a fresh coat of a suitable sealer renews the water resistance and brings the colour back up. That is really all it takes. There is more on this in how to choose pots that last and keep them looking new.

The short version

Make sure it can drain, keep a stone or two over the hole, and skip the gravel layer at the bottom. Raise it off the ground so it never sits in water, especially over winter. Fill it with a proper potting mix, not garden soil, and leave a gap at the top for watering. Do that and a good concrete pot simply lasts. If you are still choosing, our guide to choosing the right pot for your plant will help, and the full range is in our concrete pot collection.

If you are still deciding whether concrete is the right material at all, our honest guide to concrete pots answers the cracking, weight and drainage questions in one place.