Do you know the proper name for this?
The proper name for it is “Potting Tidy”.
I love having a potting tidy because it makes the whole business of potting up plants neater than say, laying out some newspapers and dumping potting soil on the papers.
Really, potting soil on newspapers? How very uncivilized. You are gardening, not trying to make a mess. Do the right thing and get yourself a potting tidy.
A potting tidy makes potting up plants indoors a positively pleasant proposition.
Not to mention how fun it is to say “potting tidy” around other gardeners and it is especially fun to throw out the phase “potting today” when talking with non-gardeners. Try it. You’ll see.
Potting tidy — as much fun to say as it is to have.
Hi Carol – I've been doing tidy potting for a long time, but I just called it recycling the cat box 🙂
I have been wanting to do this for so long! I have been waiting until my garden shed was free to be used as a shed. You know, instead of a storage unit. Haha! This year!
~Angela~
It does look quite tidy. Mine is usually in a garbage can but that needs to be done.
I just use a five gallon bucket.
How tidy of you to have your potting soil in a pan.
I have never been notably tidy – in any area, but I am looking forward to my new potting table in my new shed. Which has a dirt floor.
Tidy potting is one Martha Stewart behavior that hasn't found its way to C and L! But, I do agree with you~it's a great phrase and I can have a lot of fun introducing it to our non gardening friends! xxgail
I have my potting tidy containers from a relative's hospital stay. If you see people running around a hospital snatching plastic wash basins, you can bet they're gardeners!
I have one of those!!
Eureka! I've searched online to buy one of these in the past and had to just keep trying different terms for the actual item. Very happy to finally know the proper term. Where did you get yours?
I'm also looking for a larger version that I've woeked with before and love. The sides are thin green metal and it slides onto a wooden base? I tried to locate it by the name stamped on the side (which I don't recall) and found zero results. Pretty sure it was manufactured in the UK. Any ideas?
Hi,
Potting tidy! Well, they are certainly civilised, assuming you're not lazy like me and know you'd still end up using newspaper! lol.
I have a potting table, and yet instead it's full of plants in the pots and nowhere left to pot anything up, so I still use the wall – which is at the perfect height to do such work!
You can take a horse to water…
I've never seen it except on your blog, but I remembered the name.
It's a pity I've never seen them for sale anywhere, but at least now I've got a corner where I can set up a permanent potting table.
Ooooh! Any old rubbermaid container would do the trick too! I always put off repotting things because of the mess I have to clean up after… but as a result things die and I kick myself EVERYTIME. Im going to get tidy this year!
Potting Tidy indeed! I shall commense at once. Splendid idea.
You know I want one.
Hey, I have one, and in fact used it just the other day. Had no idea what it was called, though… I just call it a potting tray. Got it at Lee Valley Tools. Not from the catalog (or I'd know it was called a "potting tidy") but from wandering around their store one year. Can't leave Lee Valley without buying *something.*
I love my potting tidy, mainly because I am so bad at tidying up after myself when pricking out etc, and was leaving trails of compost everywhere… I got mine as part of a deal, with a sieve, stool and stand for the tidy, all fitting neatly into the end of my little greenhouse. Heaven.
I have got to have one. The Potting tidy will go on my list of garden tool must haves for this year..
Thanks for sharing.
Oh you know I think I have one of these in the shed and I need to bring it to the garage for winter. Would keep my workbench much cleaner!
Here's where an old-house-dirt-cellar really comes in handy. I do all my potting down cellar where spills just add to the floor. :<)
My husband, who loves neatness, bought one of those for me a number of years ago. Sometimes I remember to use it, sometimes, not. I like to spread out, putting potting soil in several pots at a time. Plus, I am not planting as many smaller pots these days.