Pot hunt

Capacious and pretty. Worth ten quid to anyone

My distaste for gardening is well-known. Yet daughter PB and I spent last week happily engaged in a garden-related pursuit. How come? A brain storm? A Damascene moment on the patio? A horticultural visitation from On High?

Each weighed a ton. Utterly hurricane-proof

None of these. Let’s go back two decades. In 1998 we moved into a newly built home. Luxurious by our standards except for a pathetic strip of lawn at the front. Flush with having sold a house within 12 miles of London we had the lawn replaced with a fancy brick-laid surface surrounded by fancy railings. For decoration, plants in largish pots.

Hand-crafted at £6.50 each

As years rolled by it occurred to me that these randomly placed pots could hardly be regarded decorative. There was no plan, there weren’t enough of them, and many just weren’t big enough. I had looked into this earlier and reeled away in shock. The prices of simple pots that suited my purpose were ridiculous. I have dough but I simply hate being taken to the cleaners.

Sleek matching pair; cost us £30

But PB had a solution – Facebook’s Marketplace. A source of reasonably priced, garden pots, admittedly secondhand but then pots don’t show too many signs of wear. Straightaway I saw Pot One – typically retailing at £50 - £60 – going for a tenner. And, for £45, a collection of five or six pots made to the owner’s specs.

But it wasn’t just price. We travelled round and about the lovely Welsh Marches (Bartestree, Monmouth, St Briavels) paying what was asked and briefly enjoying the company of people who were relieved to be treated as human beings which is apparently not always the case with online transactions. Later I enjoyed an exterior design moment: less (ie, fewer clusters) is more. So the pots will be gathered like Biblical sheep. 

The finished layout will be shown.