The clever hack to take the weight out of your pot plants

There’s nothing worse than trying to move heavy pot plants around, especially after a busy afternoon working in the garden.

But it turns out there are ways to make your big pots lighter and easier to move around.

It’s simple.

Fill the pot either a third or half full with foam packing peanuts.

Apparently, they not only make your pot lighter but they allow for extra space for drainage.

You should make sure you put a round piece of landscape fabric between the soil and foam to keep them separate.

Another trick is to use a light potting mix full of vermiculite and peat moss, it’ll also make your pot even lighter.

Before you use any foam packing peanuts, you should put them in water.

Some packing peanuts dissolve in water and are unsuitable for making your pot lighter.

Read more: Gardening ideas to get your plants growing

Can’t get your hands on some packing peanuts?

There’s other everyday items you could use instead.

Filling half of a big pot with crumpled plastic bottles can also make it easier to lift and move.

The plastic bottles take up some of the space dirt would normally fill, making the pot weigh less.

Having crumpled up plastic bottles in your pot is also great for the environment.

It’s important to keep the lid on the bottles, that way dirt, water and bugs won’t get in the bottles and weigh the pot down.

One important point to make when half filling your pots with something other than dirt is to make sure you only plant things with relatively shallow root systems as some plants such as tomatoes and trees need all the dirt they can get.

Have you tried this before? What do you use to make your pots less heavy?