If it’s broke…

Credit: Carol Pope

Plant it up! Whenever I break a pot, I never worry about it. The broken pieces can still work beautifully in the garden, sometimes even better than the original pot.

When my non-frost-resistant terracotta container of aromatic (and highly deer-resistant) Greek oregano (Origanum vulgare hirtum) cracked into two after a wicked winter, I dug out a shallow hole, popped the bottom half of the root-bound planting into the garden bed, covered it with a little more soil and topped it off with the larger piece, burying the sides ever so slightly.

It’s been happy ever since and is now spreading nicely into the new bed.