Reuse not Recycle - Stocking Plant Holders

Frogs on Stockings

Ever wondered what to do with laddered tights and stockings? One idea is to turn them into plant holders for pond and marginal plants. If you have tights, you need to cut them in half so that the legs are separate.

I have found that the best method is to tie a knot about 30cm (the exact length will depend on the size of your plant) from the open end of the stocking. I then loosely fill the stocking with a couple of handfuls of soil and gravel before placing the marginal plant gently in the middle of the opening and filling any gaps with more soil and gravel. The stocking top is them gently arranged around the top of the soil at the base of the plant. This acts as a seal and holds the soil in place.

The next step is to take another two stockings and put one inside the other so that they are toe to toe. Take a stone that would fit comfortably into the palm of your hand and place in the toe of these stockings. You now need to carefully pull these stockings over the first stocking containing the plant. Having three layers will help to prevent the soil from washing through the material in heavy rain, gives the structure more strength and increases the longevity of the plant holder.

Finally arrange the stocking plant holder on the side of the pond ensuring the end with the stone is in the water. The water will wick us the stocking and keep the plant's root damp.

The beauty of these inexpensive plant containers is they are mouldable, soft, plant

Frog on Stockings

friendly and, once arranged amongst a pond border, unobtrusive. They also make fantastic habitats for all sorts of creatures. As you can see our frogs have taken a real liking to them.

With the lack of rain we have had to use so much of the pond water for watering that the level of the water has dropped below the length of the stockings. Fortunately as the sides of the pond are yet unfixed and the plants are not in their finally positions I can shuffle them forward so that they continue to be watered.