Pot help please

[Chuckles]

With the very cold spell we had in winter 2011 and all the wet in 2012 and then the cold spell recently, many of my pots have perished really badly and many plants and shrubs have bit the dust too

As many of you will know from past years I had lots of pots in my garden and in the last few months I've been putting the perished ones on one side in the veg area.  I've gradually been through most of them now and emptied the ones that had dead plants in and smashed the broken ones for using as drainage.  I had far to much to keep for drainage and 7 bags of broken pots have gone to the local tip.

These are a couple of the worst examples that have been sent to the pot heaven in the sky





what I need help with is, has anyone ever succesfully mended pots.  I'd like to be able to save the pots below if at all possible

[Jasmine]

I've never tried to repair pots that have cracked Chuckles but I have 2 pots similar to your last pic (they were a wedding present) so I've just kept them going with the bits missing. I wonder if some sort of waterproof glue would hold them together...something like Marvin (white PVA) but a bit stronger. Then would a coat of varnish help to keep them more weatherproof - yacht varnish type stuff.

[Ladygardener]

Chuckles all of my pots are plastic so I'm no help at all except to say those pots are beautiful it would be a shame not to try something to save them.

[Barbara]

Chuckles I have a very old pot in the front that broke, my hubby made a mortar mix and mended it fot me, but it wasn't terracotta it was a stone one, but maybe you could try a mix like that and colour it, or maybe paint it.

[Auricula]

I tried once, but it just crumbled

[Barbara]

You have to build it up a little at a time.

[Tig]

I've tried several things to mend some of mine, superglue worked for a while but it was a challenge to get the two pieces clean and dry enough to lock together. I bought some modelling clay that air dried and filled the holes with that on a hot sunny day. It worked really well, was the right colour and everything, then it promptly fell off the first frosty night we had

I've been told that the colourless silicone sealant that is waterproof used by builders/plumbers works well if the pieces are not too heavy, although my OH reckoned I'd have to seal the clay first to get the edges to bond with the silicone I've got two terracotta bowls that have been a bit frosted this year and am going to try it on them.

[TeeGee]

Here is a variation on Barbara's suggestion and that is cover them with ' hypertufa' there is a recipe here;

Hypertufa

[Geranium]

My husband drilled holes in one, and bound the halves together with wire - it looks fine now.

[Chuckles]

Thanks for all the suggestions, some good ones. I'll try and see what I can do when the weather picks up a bit.