I have garbage cans outside in a corner next to the house for yard waste, and when they are empty, they get thrown around during storms. So you might want to fix it into the ground with stakes.
This will be a dark container which will heat up the soil under it, such that mice and voles will get access to the inside and might live there. You might want to think about putting fine wire mesh on the ground under the can and / or mice and rate poison pellets on the ground under the can. Bernd

Thanks, Bernd.

Should I allow the garbage can to rest level on the ground? Or would that allow it to get too warm in there, with only the 4" U shaped vent for heat dissipation?

Right now I have it suspended about 6" above the ground with the handles resting on 2 stakes. I do not think it will blow around because the fit between the 19" pot therein and the garbage can is too tight to allow much wind to get up and under the can to blow it away. However, I have many heavy black plastic stakes I can tie it down with. Also, I think there may not be enough clearance for voles/mice to get into the pot because the inner surface of the garbage can is too close to the rim of the pot, which is a shiny glazed surface which angles outward. It would be easier to lay screening down on the surface of the 2 pots than it would be to fence in the garbage can.

I did not realize that you have suspended the can about 6 inches off the ground. Reading your description again, you have the smaller pot standing on the 19 inch pot and the garbage can over all, and there is a gap below where air would come up and cool the interior. I can not well imagine it over winter. You probably have not permanent snow cover and that air flow would develop. Here in zone 5 we usually would have a ft of snow.
I read here about someone where voles tunneled into a pot over winter through the pot's drainage hole. This is why I mentioned the wire mesh, also because you might not have frozen ground under the 19 inch pot. I usually am very careful and try to overdesign.
Once you have it set up outside, try to rock the can and imagine a strong storm, and then if needed add 3 stakes and rope.
Good luck! Bernd

Bernd,

We usually get about 2 -3 "big" snows here, and do not have a permanent deep snow cover. I seem to remember having put some pet-proof window screening (some kind of non-metal screening) over the bottom of the 19" pot before I filled it with soil, to keep the soil from running out the bottom when I watered the pot. The drainage holes are about the size of a nickel, as I recall. I have never seen any mice or voles in my garden. I did see a small dead mouse on the first step of my apartment a couple of years ago. When I had the maintenance guys replace the rickety wooden floor in the vestibule with good flooring and a thorough caulking all around the edges, I never saw another mouse. Besides, the anti-rodent squad (my 2 cats) would be only too happy to assist any mice who made it up the stairs into my apartment to their heavenly reward.

To benefit from your advice, I just went out in the rain and installed a 9 x 9" square of 1/2" hardware cloth centered under the 19" pot, by rocking it and slipping the hardware cloth underneath. That should take care of any rodents. I also put tent stakes into the soil with small bungee cords hooked through them and the garbage can handles. Since there is only about 2" of space between the garbage can rim and the soil, I do not foresee a lot of wind being able to get under the garbage can to lift it up.

According to NOAA, NYC gets the following amounts of snow annually:

1" - 21.6 days
3" - 11.8 days
5" - 7.3 days
10" - 1.7 days

So, as I said, I do not foresee a deep snowcover persisting over a long period of time.

Tonight will be a good test, as we are having a big rainstorm with winds supposed to gust up to 50 mph overnight.

I am waiting for the other shoe to drop, and your complex manager says 'hey, that can't be there and threatens to chop it down."

good luck!

dave

Haha, Dave, you're a real card.

Hopefully, Fat Stuff won't venture onto the yard, although he can occasionally be seen with the nasty maintenance man we dub the "Irish Guy" tooling around in a golf cart about the grounds.

I am hoping that the fact that the garbage can is green and is labeled "Winter Plant Shelter" will inform them that it is only a temporary thing. It doesn't look that bad, especially because it's green. The garbage cans we are supplied in which to throw actual garbage are bright blue or grey, and are ugly. In comparison, my plant shelter is not bad looking at all. Of course, logic never applies here, right?

realize, of course ... he is probably color blind.

Perhaps a WARNING BIO-HAZARD label would be better!

ha!

dave

Oh, Dave...

If I put WARNING BIO-HAZARD on the container, he would probably send me a letter (all the way across the street) telling me that the insurance people deem my plant shelter DANGEROUS because it's too pointy and I'd have to put foam tubing along the top of it. Can't have THAT, can we?

esther, that's a very cleverly disguised still you have there.

Ha, that's right jonny, now remember where I had seen that before, in 'Moonshiners' on Discovery channel on cable.

Haha, you guys are cracking me up. Which is good, as I am home sick with a cold and sinusitis. It's still pouring cats and dogs outside. Last night, the winds were HOWLING and the whole building was creaking eerily all night long, punctuated by various loud BUMPS and THUMPS. Hard to sleep!

Apparently, my staking of the still--um, I mean Winter Plant Shelter--was sufficient, as it's still there.

When I feel better and get out-and-about, I will get a couple of bricks to prop the handles of the WPS on, so that they don't sink like the stakes seem to be doing, and the rim of the WPS will be above the ground to allow air circulation.

The staking of the still ...
contains the winter chill ...
Most of us would thrill ...
success from this bitter pill ...

I smell movie, sequel ... perhaps even a trilogy.

ÃÂ.ÃÂ

dave

To the casual eye, it was a garbage can,
Of the type often seen throughout the land.
Only garbage it had not
Instead it was a spot
To keep the precip out of precious pots.