DEMO — fictional range. Local brief only, NOT SENT. No personal data is collected or transmitted.
POTTING
What the object holds decides less than where it stands.
Most garden objects are chosen by size and shape, and then fail because of where they were put. The four questions below are about the position rather than the object.
The four questions worth asking.
They are asked before the order, because each one changes which object is right.
- Does it stand in the open
- Exposed objects dry out and freeze harder than sheltered ones
- Does the base sit in water
- On a paved surface, water has nowhere to go and the base stays wet
- How much sun
- Ultraviolet and heat decide the colour and the material
- Who moves it
- A planted object is heavy, and weight when wet is the number that matters
Where each decision comes from
| Position | What it decides | What it costs to get wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Open and exposed | Frost resistance and wall thickness | A planter that splits in its second winter |
| On paving | Whether the base is raised | A trough whose base stays wet and fails first |
| Full sun | Coating or glaze, not the base material | Colour that fades in one summer |
| Roof terrace | Weight when wet and wind loading | An object that cannot be moved, or that moves itself |
The expensive mistake.
Choosing by size. A planter that fits the space and stands in water will fail, and the failure looks like a material fault rather than a siting one.
And the one that looks harmless.
Ignoring weight when wet. A dry planter is movable by one person; the same planter after rain often is not.