You Can Do It: Drill a Drainage Hole for your Ceramic Pot

How many times have you had to pass up beautiful potsbecause they have no drainage holes?

Pots without drainage holes will more often than not kill off your plants. This is especially true if you intend to leave these pots outdoors.

The solution sounds simple. Drill a hole.

How hard can it be, right? Well, if you are like me, you would be afraid of just shattering the pot.

Nevertheless, after a quick search of the internet, I realized that it won't be much different from drilling a hole in ceramic tile. Duh..... it's not going to be hard if I have the right tools.

You will need:

Safety Glasses

A nail, or something hard and sharp

Drill

Ceramic Drill Bit

Something to cushion your pot (a towel, blanket, or just use a cardbox board like me)

This is the ceramic drill bit:

It has a tapered shape, that allows it to burrow into the ceramic. You should be able to get this at any hardware store. Mine was a little old, and a little blunt, making the hole a lot harder to drill. However, it still did the job.

Turn your pot upside down, resting it on your blanket or cardboard box, and use the nail to score and mark where you are going to drill. You should be able to make a pretty good dent with the nail. This will prevent your drill bit from slipping and bouncing all over the place.

Here is the hole that I managed to drill:
The hole is a little small, which is OK for this pot, but I think I may need to get a bigger drill for my bigger pots. Pretty neat, huh?

My lemon thyme has a home now....