Plant pots in Liverpool

Wind off the Irish Sea comes first

Liverpool faces straight out across Liverpool Bay, and anywhere from Crosby and Formby round to New Brighton and Hoylake gets the full force of it. In a city garden the wind is the thing that knocks pots over, dries compost out in a day in summer, and tears soft leaves.

So the first rule here is shape before style. A wide, heavy base beats a tall, slim pot every time. If you love the look of a tall planter, weigh the bottom with a layer of gravel under the compost or choose a heavier material. Light plastic towers are the ones that end up rolling down the path.

On the most exposed spots, group pots together so they shelter each other, and put the tallest against a wall rather than in the open. Large garden planters stay put in a way small ones never will.

Salt air and metal pots

Within a mile or two of the shore, salt rides in on the wind. It settles on everything, and on a metal pot it gets into any chip or scratch in the finish and starts rust from there.

That does not rule metal out. It means choosing powder-coated or galvanised pieces, keeping an eye on scratches, and giving them a rinse with fresh water now and then. If you are right on the front, terracotta, glazed stoneware and good plastic are the lower-maintenance choices. Browse metal plant pots with that in mind.

Rain: wetter than its reputation

The Met Office station at Crosby averages roughly 840mm of rain a year, with around 144 days of at least a millimetre. That is drier than the UK as a whole, but it falls little and often, so compost in outdoor pots rarely gets a chance to dry between showers.

Drainage is therefore the decision that matters most. Every outdoor pot needs a proper hole, and every pot standing on paving needs lifting on pot feet so the hole is never sealed against wet flags.

Winters here are mild by northern standards, because the sea keeps the edge off the frost. But mild is not frost-free, and the repeated cycle of freezing and thawing is what splits porous pots. Buy frost-proof outdoors. The winter guide explains which materials survive it.

Soft water from Wales, mostly

Much of Liverpool's tap water still comes from Lake Vyrnwy in Powys, down an aqueduct around 68 miles long that the city built in the nineteenth century. Vyrnwy water is soft, which is good news for terracotta: the white salt crust that builds up on clay pots in hard-water areas appears far more slowly.

It is not the same everywhere, though. Parts of the supply come from the River Dee, and the Wirral and some of south Liverpool are classed as slightly hard. If you live over the water and see white bloom on terracotta pots, that is the likely reason, and a scrub with diluted white vinegar shifts it.

Terraces, yards and the jigger

Streets of Victorian terraces run right across Anfield, Kensington, Wavertree and Walton, and most come with a flagged back yard opening onto the jigger rather than a lawn. In a yard like that, pots are the garden.

Two things help most. Raise every pot off the flags so it drains, and use the walls. Hanging pots and wall planters add a lot of green without using any floor, which matters when the bins live in the yard too.

Front steps and window ledges facing the street are worth a pot or two as well. Just keep anything on a ledge light, secure and well back from the edge.

City-centre flats and waterfront balconies

The Baltic Triangle, the Ropewalks and the new blocks along the waterfront from Princes Dock to the Kings Dock have put a lot of people in flats with a balcony instead of a garden. A balcony brings two extra problems a yard does not have.

Weight is the first. A 50cm planter holds around 60 litres of compost, which is well over 50kg once soaked, and balconies have load limits. Wind is the second, and several floors up beside the river it is a different animal from street level.

So go for several small and medium pots rather than one huge one, keep the tall ones low and against the wall, and secure anything on a rail. Small pots and pots with stands give the most greenery for the least load. Our guide to pots and stands for small flats has more ideas.

Delivery across Merseyside

We deliver to every Liverpool postcode, the whole of the Wirral, and the rest of Merseyside, including Bootle, Crosby, Formby, Southport, Kirkby, Huyton, Prescot and St Helens. Delivery is free on orders over £20, £5.99 below that, and everything is dispatched within 48 hours and arrives within 7 days.

We are an online shop based in Manchester, so there is no Liverpool counter to visit, but there is a real person on the other end of an email. Send a photo of the spot to info@pottyforplantpots.co.uk and we will tell you honestly what will cope with it. Full terms are on the delivery page, and if you are nearer the other end of the M62, see plant pots in Manchester.

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