I know I did not invent this idea, but it is way to good not to pass on.
When you are going to pot up new plants in larger containers or repoting old plants in to larger containers. The drainage holes are so large on the Nursery containers, that your soil will run out as you water it in. Solution to the problem is to use coffee filters. The filters hold in the soil media and let any extra water flow right out. This is wonderful for 1-Gal containers, the fit is just about perfect....Larger containers you could use Newspaper....

Great idea...I would only like to add that using recycled coffee filters (brown ones you can buy at the store) insures that you are not getting bleaching chemicals (from the white filters) in your wonderful container soil, thus improving the health of your potted plants.

Great tips guys! My patio floor always has a mess of dirt under the racks that gradually escapes with every watering from big-holed nursery pots. I shall start doing this.
And you have inspired a thought from this tea drinker. How about reserving some used tea bags from the kitchen sink collection (that usually go to the compost) to use in the bottom of clay pots? They aren't too yucky to keep around when dry. Every spring and fall I run out of pot chards and start waiting for the next pot to crash! Where do all my chards go to – same place as those lost socks, huh? ... compost bin?

I love using the tea bags to soak in my water pitcher for my indoor plants too! Are you worried about the tea stains on the patio where the water soaks through and out? If not, plugging up the holes with 'em is a great idea! With all the pots and "stuff" on my patio it wouldn't make a difference but maybe some of you out there have a nice new patio that you won't want to stain --- yet....

My patio is beyond help Gail! But isn't 'new' out? and everyone's tea staining everything for that 'old world' look anyway! I guess that's one concession to aging - everything you have is also fashionably 'well aged'!
Course in the summertime, I use pot saucers to hold the drained water for the next day's drink since 'Standing Water' isn't much of an issue in our summers! The saucers would also keep the tea contained (if we could water 'just right' - ha) and eventually the bag would run clear, yet remain to hold the soil. So I might give it a try - but would have never thought of using teabags to help keep the potting soil off the patio. Great stuff, this!

A bit off the point, but going with the overall coffee/tea theme, I add water to my leftover coffee in the morning and pour it in my flower garden or in the potted plants. Coffee grounds and tea leaves also get "chunked" into the pots or flower beds. I have a lot of chocolate mint that we generally use for tea each day, and the pots that usually get the leaves after brewing seem to bloom better than the others.

As to using coffee filters and tea bags over the holes in the bottom of pots....been there....still there. It works better than anything else I've tried.

Oh good Carolyn, glad to hear someone else uses the tea bags and without problems. I have been a bit worried about the mold that grows on mine while they wait in a pot on the potting bench, till I use them. I know there are good molds or moulds (where am I now?) and bad ones, and have been worried about what the tea mold was going to do inside the pots when planted. Have been meaning to post this concern - so I was glad to hear it works ok for you.
Also, I have been wanting to mention about David's newspaper trick in the big pots ,,, I have been dunking the paper in a bucket of water for just a sec, before setting it in pot, because the wet paper settles in more snug than dry.
So nice to have you join us here today Carolyn and thank you for that sweet note about the swap party.

One more tip.....this is from my mother.She uses the peanuts that you use for packing in her nursery pots to block the holes.The advantage to this is the peanut will be half in and out of the pot.Once the plant has rooted,it will be very easy to pull the peanuts out of the hole.This procedure works very well on the larger pots.

Are you familiar with those little tiny water absorbing crystals you can mix into potting soil to prevent potted plants from drying out too quickly? Last summer during the severe drought, I mixed up some potting soil and sprinkled some crystals in it. Look what happened this morning with all the rain we've had! By the way, that geranium was really pretty until it got nailed by the hail storm.

I think you are forgetting to hit the 'post' button again, after you get the funny yellow text. See if that works.

One more time. But, I'm not forgetting to hit the post button. Nothing happens when I hit the post button.

Bit heavy handed with the crystals there Carolyn. You should have used those in your laundry room.. :-)

Great idea! Why didn't I think of that?

Terry you are so bad!!!!!! You think alot like me??

When you use the crystals in pot plants Carolyn, it is good to soak the pots in water up to their necks about once a week instead of just top-watering them, to reap their full water-retaining potential. That must have been the first time that poor geranium pot ever saw enough water to fill up the little sponges!

or there's lava sand. The last couple of years, I've used 2/3 lava sand and 1/3 compost in my containers. I water about every other day instead of the twice a day routine during the 100 degree days. You might give it a try and see what you think.

My experience with the lava/green sands in pot plants has been the same Gail, but I have learned to be careful which plants I use it with. Those that require excellent drainage, croaked in it! I probably mixed too much into the potting soil. Its fine texture makes such a dense medium - it seems to be a trial and error thing for individual varieties. When I applied just a layer to the top of potted plants soil, it did a terrific water-retention job and the plants also appeared to receive the minerals and other sand benefits from overhead watering. Think I'm on to whole new system here!!