Plants make our balconies look more appealing and colorful, but sometimes harsh climate can disturb a peaceful balcony full of plants. So, how to stop balcony plants from tipping in the wind?
Here are 7 easy ways to stop your potted balcony plants from tipping over:
- Fill Your Plant Pots With Enough Soil
- Use Plant Pot Stabilizers
- Put the Plant pots Against the Wall or In a Corner
- Use Balcony Planters
- Grow Your Plants in Heavy Containers
- Screen Your Balcony
- Tie The Plant Pots To Something Sturdy
The use of potted plants on the balcony is a way of decorating and keeping your house look hospitable to guests. However, they are exposed to harsh climatic conditions. These include wind, a lot of rain, and too much heat from the sun among other conditions. One of the most common ones is windy conditions. Windy conditions are known to do a lot of damage to the potted plants.
When heavy winds blow over the potted plants, there is a big chance of them tipping over. This can cause damage to the plants as they may fall out of the pots but also can destroy pots that are made of a fragile material. The winds should not frustrate you and discourage you from keeping or growing potted plants on your balcony.
This article is aimed at helping you find a solution to this situation. It will provide you with 7 easy methods that you can use to protect your balcony plants against the wind:
Contents
Fill Your Plant Pots With Enough Soil
If your potted plant has little soil, it makes it very light for the wind to blow it. The soil might have been lost in various ways like due to constant watering or irrigation. A part of the soil can flood away when it passes through the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot.
It is therefore important that you keep your plant pots filled with enough soil. If there is enough soil in the plant pots, the pots will ultimately be heavier and therefore it will be harder for the win to tip over the planters.
You can also consider mulching. A mulch is a layer of material that is applied to the surface of the soil. Often times organic matter or compost is used as mulch, but rocks and gravel can also be used as mulch. Keep in mind that rocks and gravel shouldn't be used in very hot climates since it may get too hot.
Mulching will help to keep the soil moisturized and the roots intact. This makes it difficult for the plant to be easily blown by the wind.
Don't put rocks at the bottom of the plant pot, because that will interfere with the drainage of the plant. I wrote a whole article about why you shouldn't put rocks at the bottom of your plant pots if you are interested click here.
Use Plant Pot Stabilizers
These are referred to as plant pot stabilizers. These come in a lot of different forms and sizes and play a big role in keeping the potted plant stable. By making the ground surface of the pot bigger with a stabilizer, the plant pot will be more stable which will reduce the chances of the plant tripping over and pouring soil.
They also help to hold the potted plants in a straight position which will automatically look more esthetically pleasing.
These plant pot stabilizers are often sold by plant nurseries, online on amazon, or make one yourself if you are handy.
Put the Plant pots Against the Wall or In a Corner
Keeping your potted plants against a wall or in a corner of the balcony can also protect the plant pots from being tipped over by the wind. Putting your planter in a place where it can catch a lot of wind increases the risk of it being knocked over by the wind. You shouldn't keep your plants in spaces like this (unless you want soil all over your balcony of course).
It is advisable that you keep your plants leaning against the wall or in a corner.
Use Balcony Planters
These come in various different forms, sizes, and colors. From small pots to bigger pots and hanging vertical garden walls. The bigger the planter the more stable it will stand on your balcony. Smaller balcony planters might fall off the railing or the wall if there is too much wind.
When searching for balcony planters, always make sure it has drainage holes in the bottom of the pot. This will prevent the plant from drowning in too much water.
The rail balcony planter in the picture below can be bought from Etsy (click here to check out more of these planters!).
Grow Your Plants in Heavy Containers
Some people opt to have light potted plants over heavy ones. This is because the light pots are easy to manage and are portable. They prefer using plastic pots because of their lightweight. If this is the case, you can best use a special balcony planter or put your plastic plant pots in raised garden beds.
However, this doesn't always look clean, when there are plant pots in plant pots.
When you don't want your plants to get tipped over by the wind, you should use pots made of heavy materials. Materials like clay, concrete, and metals among other types. These pots are very heavy and hard for the wind to blow over. You can find more of these plant pots and stands in my shop!
There are many videos of DIY projects that show exactly how you can make your own heavy plant container (or raised bed). Below is a video of how to make a modern planter.
Growing your plants in such containers keeps them resistant to the wind as they are too heavy to be blown over.
Screen Your Balcony
You can choose to screen your balcony to avoid wind from blowing over your potted plants. You can use the balcony railing to attach a windshield to it. These shield the plants from being exposed to the wind and act as a guard between the wind and the potted plants. These also give a little bit of privacy, which is sometimes a good thing.
These windshields come in various forms. You can have one made out of glass if you have a big balcony, but you can also use a cheaper windshield made out of reed, plastic, wood, or other materials.
You can get a windshield at your local do-it-yourself store,
garden center, or click here to purchase one from Etsy.
Tie The Plant Pots To Something Sturdy
For this method, you can use zip ties, a rope, or iron wire. The idea is to tie your plant pot to something sturdy like a balcony railing or another heavy planter.
You can do this with a rope, bundling the small plant pot to something heavy or you can use a drill bit to carefully drill a small hole at the top of the plant pot. After the hole has been drilled, you can put a zip tie, small rope, or iron wire through the hole and tie the plant pot to the balcony railing.
This is one of the easiest ways to protect your potted balcony plants from tipping over by the wind. However, drilling holes in a plant pot is something not that easy and the plant pot is prone to break if you don't use the right drill bit.
Conclusion
Potted plants are a beauty to our balconies and they help keep our homes looking good. But if we want to keep them on our balconies, they are sometimes exposed to harsh climatic conditions. These may include the heavy winds that may cause the potted plants to trip over and fall causing soil loss and a messy balcony.
However, taking some measurements like using heavy pots made of clay and adding some soil to the plant can be of great help. These and other methods can keep your plants standing and resistant to the wind. Hence, you can use the above-given ideas to keep your plants safe and your home looking beautiful.
Which of the above methods do you use and why?
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