How to create your own plant support and repot

Before we bought our own house, we rented an apartment. When we moved in (a long time ago), we got (among other things) a tiny little plant from Chrisje’s grandmother. Somehow it managed to grow, and grow, and grow, and in the Spring of 2014 it had grown too big for the pot and support it came in and with.

The pot didn’t pose any problem at all: when we bought our house, we also inherited an abundance of empty pots, in all different kind of sizes, shapes and materials. We hardly found any support that fitted our needs though, and if we were lucky enough to find one it was exorbitantly expensive.

Disclaimer: I don’t know the first thing about plants. My experience so far has been with mowing the lawn, and that’s about it. However, it’s not something I’m saying no to, I just haven’t gotten around to it. So if anyone can recommend some sources, please enlighten me! Go wild in the comments!

So what do you do when you can’t find what you’re looking for for a price you’re willing to pay? That’s right, you do it yourself.

I knew I had some stuff lying around that I could use: some leftover tube, …

… a remnant of an old fence …

… and a bit of wiring. I started with the fence, seeing how high my tube was going to have to be.

It turned out that the longest tube was slightly shorter than what I needed, so I first chose to add a second piece to it. For this I cut a piece to length and a second piece around 5 cm (or 2 inches). The second piece I then cut along the length, enabling me to shove it over the other two pieces. Then, with the help of a little PVC glue…