Colour on the Top Patio

Last year I created a mixed display of mainly succulents in pots on the top patio. I really liked the effect that was achieved and had so much fun preparing the display. Inspired by that I decided to do something  similar again. This time bigger, better, more colourful, more vibrant, and more dramatic. 

I love it! I'm in love with it!! And I really, really enjoyed making the display and looking at it!

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Dinner is Served!

Dinner is served!!!

Who needs real food when you have beautiful plants to visually feast on?

Anyone for a second serving?

Although Twinkles doesn't seem to agree. She didn't look pleased with the substitution to her usual grub...

Meanwhile, busy busy times in the garden with so many things to do and so much to be excited with. One of which is the top patio where I'm busy figuring out the pot display for this year.

I'm on a mission to minimise the use of plastic pots there from this year onwards so lots of repotting are being done, including this Nolina longifolia which looks much better now in a glazed pot.

Pot display in progress

However, I'm happy to keep using them for the rest of the garden. Especially black ones that are much easier to blend in.

Mark :-)

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Less Plastic, More Fantastic

Is my dictum for this year, at least for the top patio...

This Agave geminiflora is looking fabulous. It deserves the the dignity of a nicer looking pot.

Last year I did a sort of 'whimsy' style of displaying potted succulents and was very pleased with the result. And as a bonus it received good feedback too. By going with the anything goes style of displaying pots (but actually carefully displayed) I justified to myself that it's ok to mix in ordinary plastic pots in amongst the ceramic, glazed, and terracotta ones. The end result turned out fine and I was happy with the outcome.

However I can't keep denying to myself that those cheap nursery plastic pots don't bother me. Most of the key plants on display then were in those plastic pots and if I'm going to do a similar display again this year I wouldn't be able to ignore/tolerate them this time.

So why did I keep them in plastic pots when replacing them with glazed ones were easy enough?

Answer: because plastic pots are light.

Plastic pots have there uses and many advantages too, one of which is being light hence easy to move. With most of our succulents and xerophytes not hardy enough to remain outside all year round they will need shifting indoors before winter sets in. The bigger specimens are tricky enough as they are to shift and it'll even be more difficult if they are in heavy pots.

Both Agave geminiflora and Agave ocahui will have new glazed pots this year

But aesthetics will win this year and I'm determined to have less plastic on display at the top patio. It'll be more effort to move them later on but I'll cross that bridge nearer the time.

Work in progress

For the rest of the garden however, I don't mind them quite so much and tolerate them far more.

Mark :-)

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Fresh From the Oven!

There was a point that I actually had more succulents that needed a pot than I had...pots. Plus I wanted to beef up our display with more splashes of bright colours. It's amazing how difficult that can be (at least here) especially when you go out there and deliberately look out for them.

On one of our trips out to the shops I had a mission to buy a few more pots that were colourful but still within our taste and scheme (if that makes sense). But on that day I didn't find any. Then an idea spurned, what if those 'things' are not in the garden and decor section? They could be in the kitchen! And so why not add a touch of kitchenalia into the collection. And so we did!

So back into several shops and out I came with things not for the kitchen, but for the garden...

Like baking dishes...

Bottle caddies...

Mixing bowls...

Water jug...

Did I say mixing bowls?

Bottle caddy again... (plus the colour picks on the chairs)

And back to jugs, as some of you may have noticed I have a thing for brightly coloured jugs (the one you pour drinks from, not 'that' jug). The yellow one below I spotted in an antique/bric-a-brac shop in Cambridge last year and instantly fell in love with its bright colour and angular shape. Trouble was, it had a sin. It was a jug that had the logo of a cigarette brand, harking back to a bygone era when smoking was so common and legal in public spaces. Fortunately I still found a way to hide that sin.

Oh, and there were the Japanese soup/rice bowls too. Gotta have them and I love the patterns!

Funny enough, the jugs below were actually meant for the garden. Go figure...

Anyway, the only thing with using kitchenalia is that they rarely come with drainage holes, unless it's a colander. So you'll have to have some drilling to do. And those that were meant to go in the oven have very thick bases and can be difficult to drill holes in. So my suggestion is to use a quality masonry drill bit in the first place and the job will be done nicely.

Have to say I'm loving all the colours, patterns, and shapes on some of these kitchen items. A sharp contrast to what we actually use in our kitchen which are either clear glass, stainless steel, or pure white!

Mark :-)

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Succulent Spotlight

So we've been pot crazy this year. And we've just featured lots of overall and combination shots on a couple of our more recent posts. Now let's take a closer at some of the occupants of those pots, the succulents. And as I focus the spotlight on them, once again feel free to be distracted by the pots...

Dyckia 'Morris Hobbs'

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Pots, Prints, and Patterns

They say I have two passions in life (excluding matters of the heart of course): gardening and shoes. And with last weekend being my birthday one I received items that belonged to both categories and I couldn't be happier. It's nice to embrace superficiality at times!

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Plants in the Blue Pots Update

Funny how a post, like this one can have several working titles. The first one was 'Front of House Plants Update' but it was the exact title we used we we first gave an update last July. Then the second one was 'As I Weed at the Front of the House' but thought...nah! So went with the third.

So how are the plants in blue pots at the front of our house doing? Generally very good. A few changes since July but everytihng that is there now, except for one more recent addition has sailed through last winter fine with no extra protection at all. Being at the front of the house they must be tough enough to not need any protecting during the winter but at the same time reap benefits from what is perhaps the most sheltered outdoor spot in our property (south facing, gets winter sun, and gets radiant warmth from the paving and house bricks).

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With Reluctance I go Terracotta

So I bought some new plants recently and a few more have since arrived since then. They came in small pots and are meant to be re-potted as soon as possible. However it still took me days to do so, not because of lack of time but rather I was mulling over which pots to use.

Aloe suprafoliata

It wasn't that we didn't have any empty pots, in fact we have loads of them stacked in the working area. It was more that I felt I didn't have any nice pots to put them in.

Also, with it being late summer already I was considering whether it would be worth it to put them in nice pots now for display. Or just pot them on into any pot on hand and let them grow more and keep them as pristine as possible during the winter. Then come early next year pot them on into nicer containers for display in the garden.

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Potty for Pots and Pottery

This is sort of a two in one blog, for when I was going through some of the photos we took in Rhodes recently, I was also reminded of something else, from a trip we had many years ago in another country altogether.

As the title indicates, I do love my pots and pottery, especially if it is made from natural materials like terracotta, wood, or stone. Not just for growing on plants but also (or for me, mainly) as a garden accessory. Okay, I don't 'like' it as much as gardening and plants itself, but do like the way how a well chosen pot immediately enhances its surroundings, in more ways than one.

So, as I've said, whilst looking at photos of our recent holiday in Rhodes I felt a sudden wave of nostalgia of a pottery workshop we visited whilst on holiday in the Philippines a few years ago. 

Pots galore! Even the ones that collapsed looks nice.

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