Drainage hacks for cheap pots become useful the moment you find a €3 container that looks perfect for your basil and then turn it over to discover the drainage engineering of a soup bowl.
Don't put it back on the shelf just yet.
An inexpensive decorative pot can often work perfectly well for indoor herbs without asking it to do the actual growing.
The easiest solution may simply be:
put a properly draining pot inside it.
Cheap pot saved.
Basil considerably less likely to become aquatic.
The useful drainage hacks for cheap pots all solve the same basic problem:
excess water needs somewhere to go.
Practical options include:
What doesn't solve the problem is trapping all the water inside the container and hoping a layer of decorative stones somehow negotiates with it.
Before planting anything, inspect the bottom.
Does the pot have:
Also check whether the holes are actually open.
Occasionally the most sophisticated drainage repair required is removing the plug that you hadn't noticed was there.
This is a particularly satisfying form of gardening expertise.
Many herbs already arrive in lightweight plastic nursery pots with drainage holes.
You don't necessarily need to remove the plant from that container just because you've bought something prettier.
If the nursery pot is still an appropriate size and the herb doesn't need repotting, it can remain the functional growing container.
The inexpensive decorative pot can simply hide it.
This gives you:
It's the plant-pot equivalent of wearing comfortable shoes underneath a nice outfit.
Nobody needs to know.
A decorative outer container without drainage is often called a cachepot.
The herb stays in its draining inner pot, and the entire inner pot sits inside the decorative one.
For watering, you can remove the inner pot, water it somewhere appropriate, let excess water drain, and return it afterward.
Or, if you water it while it's inside the cachepot, check afterward and remove any accumulated runoff.
The decorative pot doesn't need a hole because it isn't functioning as the actual growing container.
This is often the easiest solution for ceramic containers you don't want to modify.
Sometimes the cheap pot already has perfectly adequate drainage.
Excellent.
Now the problem is protecting the furniture.
Put an appropriately sized waterproof saucer or tray underneath.
It should catch normal drainage without being so small that the first enthusiastic watering sends water over the edge and onto the windowsill.
Check the saucer after watering and empty accumulated runoff when necessary.
A saucer is there to catch drainage, not convert the bottom few centimeters of the pot into waterfront property.
Some inexpensive containers can be modified to add drainage holes.
Whether that is sensible depends on the material and construction of the pot.
A thin plastic container is a very different proposition from glazed ceramic, terracotta or glass.
If you choose to modify a container, use a method and tools appropriate for that specific material and follow relevant tool and manufacturer safety guidance.
Don't improvise drilling techniques on brittle containers.
If you're unsure whether the pot can be modified safely, use it as a cachepot instead.
That's usually cheaper than converting a €3 pot into several exciting €0.75 fragments.
One of the oldest pieces of container advice is to put stones or gravel in the bottom of a pot “for drainage.”
A layer of gravel does not replace a drainage hole.
If the container has no route for excess water to escape, the water is still inside the container.
You've simply given it some stones to sit beside.
If you want the decorative effect of pebbles, that's a different question.
But don't rely on them as the solution to a pot with no drainage.
There's one easy mistake with the cachepot method.
The inner pot drains beautifully.
You congratulate yourself on excellent plant care.
Meanwhile, all that water is sitting invisibly at the bottom of the outer pot.
Check.
Lift the inner container after watering and empty accumulated water rather than leaving the plant standing in it.
Drainage only works when the drained water is allowed to go somewhere else.
A pot technically having drainage holes doesn't guarantee that they're functioning well.
When repotting or checking a troublesome container, make sure the openings aren't blocked.
You don't need to create an elaborate gravel layer to keep them functioning.
The important point is simply that water can move through the potting medium and leave through the openings.
If water suddenly behaves very differently from previous waterings, checking underneath the pot takes about ten seconds.
That's a good return on investment.
Indoor drainage has two customers:
the herb and your furniture.
The herb wants excess water to escape.
The windowsill would prefer that water not soak into it.
Use:
If you keep several herb pots together on a windowsill, a shared tray can make the whole arrangement easier to manage.
Our Leak-Proof Windowsill Herb Tray guide looks at that setup specifically.
Fixing the drainage doesn't mean the container can now be any size you like.
A tiny herb placed into an enormous pot may sit surrounded by a large volume of moist potting medium that its roots aren't using very quickly.
At the other extreme, a badly cramped plant may dry extremely fast and eventually need more room.
Match the container reasonably to the plant and root system.
We'll tackle that decision properly in choosing pot size for herbs.
If you've discovered the drainage problem because the pot is already staying wet for days, fixing the container is only part of the job.
Check:
Continue with Fixing Soggy Potting Mix Fast for the full troubleshooting sequence.
Don't respond by immediately adding fertilizer.
Wet roots do not need a motivational snack.
If you've found a decorative pot with no drainage and want the simplest solution, do this:
That's it.
No stones.
No power tools.
No sacrifice to the drainage gods.
Good drainage hacks for cheap pots don't need to turn inexpensive containers into complicated DIY projects.
If the pot already drains, add a suitable saucer.
If it doesn't drain, consider using a draining inner pot.
If the material is genuinely suitable for safe modification, adding drainage holes may be another option.
And if none of those ideas makes sense, choose a different pot.
The herb doesn't know whether its container cost €3 or €30.
It mainly cares whether its roots have somewhere sensible to live.
If your potting mix is already staying wet, see Fixing Soggy Potting Mix Fast.
If you're choosing the growing medium itself, see Best Potting Soil for Herbs.
For the complete container-care picture, return to Pots, Soil, and Feeding.
Sometimes the cheapest drainage hack is simply letting the cheap pot be decorative.