I was wondering if anyone has used cinder blocks to pot plants? I have a pea gravel pad that we installed which is edged in cinder blocks. I was hopping to plant my snapdragon seedlings I started in the cinder block holes.
I filled the holes with potting soil and can't wait to put the plants in. Is it to early to plant these seedlings in the cinder blocks? Right now they are in an unheated 6x8 greenhouse. And seem to be doing great.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Best,
JB

Welcome to RMG—and—the only stupid question around here is the one you don’t ask, so don’t be afraid to ask whatever comes up! There’s always somebody who’s ready, willing, and able to help!

Where are you located? Since you’re posting on RMG, I assume you’re high and dry out here somewhere! If that’s true, the only possible problem I see with what you want to do is that they’ll probably need to be watered pretty often once the weather warms since each individual "pot" won’t have a whole lot of soil, and, if they’re right next to a bunch of pea gravel, the area and the cinderblocks will probably heat up quite a bit. So planting snaps, or just about any other annuals (or herbs) should work as long as you keep an eye on them to be sure they get watered whenever they need it—the same as you’d need to watch a pot.

When it comes to planting them out already, since they’re apparently already hardened off, I don’t think there should be any problem at all. Snaps can take really cold weather. If you’re in the Denver area—or any of the other spots that are currently included in the most recent snow, I’d say wait a couple days till it warms up again—and then go for it! If you want snaps in the same place next year, just let this year’s plants produce seed when they finish blooming and enough seed will drop to reseed them—and if you want to be even more sure that they’ve reseeded, just hand scatter some of the seed from the seedpods after it’s ripened. Snaps reseed very easily, and they’ll come up all by themselves next year—making it even easier than this year. Also, some of them will probably germinate in late summer or fall this year and survive next winter to give you a really early start next spring—just be sure the soil stays moist over winter if some get started by fall.

Glad you found us here! Bring on your questions!

Skybird

Here's a concern:

We'd used blocks to separate the garden from Dad's lawn. I got a couple flats of petunias and planted them right across the yard. They were absolutely beautiful spilling over the blocks once they began to bloom. It became difficult to mow close to them but we just closed our eyes and ran the weed eater along the blocks.

That wasn't the concern. The problem was replanting the blocks the next year. If they are actually cinder blocks rather than sand & gravel, they won't be so heavy but you'll need to find some way in '09 to "punch" the soil and roots out so that they can be replanted. And, the roots will be in there tight!

It was such heavy work and such a bother that we gave up by the 3rd year and the blocks were used to make a large compost bin. Standard blocks weigh about 40 to 50 pounds.

digitS'

JB - if you choose to join us at the swap, I will have pics of what I am doing. Maybe it will help you.

Billie