Aloe is great to have on hand for those minor sunburns, burns, and scrapes. By growing it in a container, you can make sure you always have some when you need it! Follow along as Lisa provides do’s and don’ts for growing this easy-care plant in a container garden.
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Hi everyone welcome to today’s video I’m Lisa with down to earth gardening and design and today we are doing some container gardening this will be a planting aloe tutorial so in this video I’m going to talk about aloe and its needs and where I’m going to put my nice
Container and then I’m going to walk you through planting in a container and um tell you about what kinds of soil you will need and how to select a container for it and last but not least I’m going to go over after care and that’s that’s going to be pretty quick because they
Are a really easy plant so I’ll probably just go over a couple of don’ts or mistakes that people make with their aloe so aloe is known for its leaves and it’s uh they’re gel filled so it does have medicinal properties but it is also a succulent so super easy
Plant loves full Sun loves dry conditions which means that you can negle be neglectful with your watering you can have this as an indoor uh house plant and it’s beautiful as an indoor plant but if you live in zones 10 or higher it can be outdoors in a container
Year round now it can also be in the ground but today we are doing a container planting and it is really great for this terracotta planter and in a little bit I’m going to tell you EX exactly why so I have this bright Sun location um in a uh dry corner I’m here
In Florida so I’m going to be using this as a year round outdoor container but I inherited this little corner and it currently has a crown of thorns um established container plant which is really beautiful and it loves the full sun there I do zero to it and it it’s
Looking pretty great so I’m going to throw up a little video clip of that but I want to make that corner my own so I want to add another container to that corner and I’ll probably switch out the mulch because I am not a red mulch fan I
Like things to look a little more natural but I’m just going to spruce up the corner by adding another container um and the aloe plant so I did mention that it has medicinal properties it is toxic if it is ingested so it is only for topical
Use and what you do is you break off the leaves and you can use it for sunburns Burns or minor cuts and abrasions so the other reason why I’m excited to have this plant around is because we love to go to the beach a lot and although we
Try to wear a lot of sunscreen sometimes we forget to reapply and also the grandkids are here a lot I love to have them here and so I thought it would be a really useful plant to have here um at the Florida house so I found this little
Aloe vera plant but I do want to say that there are over 500 species of aloe so they come in different shapes and sizes and they will throw out a really pretty flower in Salmon red yellow pink orange but the trick to having them flower is that they have to be a little
More mature so around four years old and they also will be more likely to produce a flower if they are grown outside so I’ve also seen um and I’m going to throw up some pictures of some different aloe um some variegated aloe that’s gorgeous but I found this
6in aloe vera plant pretty reasonably at the hardware store $8.99 you can’t beat that and I’m going to be putting it into this clay pot so I want to talk about the container a little bit more because I do a lot of bike riding around here and I
Rode by this aloe plant that was pretty mature and was definitely outgrowing its pot so I’m going to show you that so in order to not have to pot it up um pretty quick because they’re fast Growers I’m going to use a container container that’s a little bit larger than what I
Probably need now they do like snug spaces they really don’t mind being in a smaller pot but if you do see that the leaves are wilting um or it’s just not doing well and the sometimes leaves will get mushy too and that’s a sure sign
Then you do want to repot your aloe but I’m trying to avoid that but I’m also trying to uh be in keeping with the proportion that I already have in that corner because the other plant you may have noticed is quite large so I don’t
Want a little tiny pot next to a large pot so I want them to look like they belong together so a clay pot is ideal because it is porous and so because the aloe is a succulent it does not want to be sitting in water so the clay is a
Perfect candidate terracotta because it will Wick away any excess moisture so with that said I also want to talk quickly about the soil so you want to use the cactus soil or potting mix because it is fast draining so it will have a different consistency and this is
What the aloe does prefer so I’m going to be using that and then for my other materials I just have my gloves here I have some Snips on hand and uh my potting mat to help contain my mess and again I will put up some links for you
In the description in case you’re interested in any of these materials so let’s get started with the tutorial and let’s get our hands dirty so um first and foremost I want to show you that this container does have a drainage hole that is super important to ensuring that it’s not not
Going to be sitting in water but I want to cover the hole with something just so the precious soil doesn’t sift through but yet we still want the water to be able to drain out now you can go ahead and put a layer of rocks in the bottom
And that will also help if you find that your container is a little lighter because you don’t want it to be Tippy so also an advantage of using this larger clay pot is it’s pretty heavy here but I recycled an old screen and I’ve just been cutting it up and placing little
Patches of it in the bottom of my containers so just doing a little recycling there and then I’m going to go ahead and fill my container with some of the succulent mix okay so we’re going to put a good amount of the succulent mix in the pot now you don’t want to
Tamp it down or pack it down because the roots like to have some breathing room all right let’s test it we’re going to need a little bit more just want to test what I have here okay something like that I’m going to open my second bag here
Okay now to make make this process a little bit easier I like to moisten the plant about a day in advance so I did give it some water yesterday it’s pretty dry here but that will help with um the plant just not falling apart so it’ll
Keep it intact a little bit better so then we’re just going to try to gently remove it from its container can see that it’s a little bit wet here so it won’t be needing water for a while and then I’m just going to loosen it up a little
Bit and make a mess which I’m really good at and then I’m just going to Nestle it in here okay so that’s that now I do also want to mention that the uh best times to repot this is really in the spring because it’s putting on active growth I’ve just
Purchased this that’s another great time to repot something you know bring it home give it some fresh soil and give it a new pot because who knows how long it’s been in the pot and it also gives you a chance to see um what kind of
Shape the roots are in so I’m pretty happy with the health of this plant but the other time s that you would repot it is like I said probably ever every three or four years um if it’s getting really overcrowded or you notice something’s going on with it and it’s just not doing
As great as it should be so now I’m just going to fill around the edges with the soil and that’s it so if it was really dry I would give it um a little bit of water at this point but because it was pretty moist still from me watering it yesterday I’m
Just going to leave it alone but I do want to talk about after care a couple of don’ts but one thing I’m noticing looking at it is this Leaf here um is just about broken off so I thought it would be a fun opportunity to show you
How to harvest some aloe and what it looks like when you harvest it so you’re just going to take one of your leaves and if we were H oh that doesn’t look very good let’s one of your leaves so you just want to harvest it by clipping off a little
Piece and you can see the gel on the ins inside and that’s what you’re using for topical use so let me get a glove off here and I can show you and there’s the gel so remember topical use only that’s it so that’s just a little bit on
Harvesting but for care it uh doesn’t mine a lot of watering neglect in fact that’s how it’s going to thrive so my biggest don’t is don’t overwater it so wait until it’s completely dry and then give it a little bit of water and for me I’m just going to let Mother Nature do
Her thing and let the rain water this aloe and if I notice that we are having a dry spell then I’m probably going to check it um number two is don’t put it in the shade so aloe is a succulent and it loves full sun it doesn’t mind hot
Dry conditions so that’s it for our aloe planting tutorial um I hope you enjoyed this video I love doing these videos for you and if you like this one please go ahead and tap like and if you have haven’t subscribed to our Channel yet please do because we have so many more
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