Why Do Gardeners Put Pots On Sticks?

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Gardens are often a mix of aesthetics and practicality, with purely ornamental plants and cute garden decor next to pragmatic trellises and food crops. So it's understandable if you had assumed that when you see pots, often terracotta ones, placed upside down on top of sticks and stakes, that it's purely for added whimsy. And while these do often look charming, they serve practical purposes too. The pots can help to prevent accidentally poking your face or eyes on the stakes, can make the sticks easier to notice so you don't trip over them, and in some cases can even help with pests.

It gets visually busy in the garden, especially during the height of the growing season. With so many gorgeous blooms and healthy veggies to focus on, it's easy to barely notice the stakes that are encouraging your plants' healthy growth. And often that's what you want. The stakes aren't the stars of the show, after all. But when you lean down to pick some beans and almost get stabbed in the face by the plant's supports, or stumble over a stick that is helping to hold up your peonies, you might wish this infrastructure were a bit more visible. That's where the pots come in. By putting small pots on top of the stakes, the stabby top of the stick is now blunted, and the entire structure is easier to see. Terracotta pots are especially good for this, since not only do they still look cute, but they also are fairly weighty and unlikely to blow away or fall off.

It might be hard to believe, but the terracotta pots you're using to make your garden stakes more visible can also help with earwigs in the garden. The pots are perfect for turning into earwig traps. Just fill the pots with damp crumpled newspaper and maybe a drop of soy sauce as bait before putting them onto the stakes. When you check them the next day, they'll likely be full of earwigs. You can then dump the pesky bugs into a bucket of water and dish soap. Regularly checking and rebaiting your earwig traps should help to keep these pests from eating your garden.

The ideal pot size for adding to the top of your garden stakes is likely only around 3 or 4 inches, so they're fairly affordable and easy to find, even if you need to purchase a lot of them. TKSCUSR 22-piece 3-inch pots are available for only $20.99 on Amazon. And many other stores also have excellent deals on these small but mighty containers. And if any accidentally break, don't toss them, turn them into adorable succulent gardens!