5 Tips for Winterizing Your Terracotta Pottery
To many people winterizing terra cotta pottery may seem like a completely irrelevant subject for discourse, but consider that you can add this information to your knowledge just IN CASE it ever gets cold enough to freeze. This is an actual problem for people with terracotta pots in parts of the US , which is why you don’t see great pottery everywhere.
There ARE steps that can be taken to help prevent your pots from cracking when old man winter whips through your garden. The goal is to eliminate the possibility of water being absorbed, frozen and thus causing the pot to crack.
- Lift the pot from the ground by placing it on pot feet, wooden blocks or pieces of stone. This will allow air to circulate beneath the pot.
- Seal the pot with a penetrating sealer, such as one used to seal slate floors and swimming pools
- Remove plants and soil from the pot, as the soil will absorb water, freeze, expand and can cause cracking
- Cover the pot with plastic sheeting to avoid contact with water
- Most fool-proof: move it inside
Much depends on the quality of the terra cotta as well. Eye of the Day’s is the highest quality, high fired Italian terracotta, made from Galestro clay. Our pots, manufactured by Terrecotte San Rocco, are guaranteed frost proof to minus 15 degrees. It helps to know that if a pot is high-fired, the absorption rate is lower, and so the risk of cracking in freezing weather is reduced.
You may need this information some day. Maybe.
Photo Credit: Terracotta Pots, Creative Commons, My Container Garden After Winter by Rachel James is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Leave a Reply