Planters

The inspiration comes from Tim's gardens in containers front yard and back, the entire perimeter, around trees, hanging from trees, hanging from eaves, on pedestals, on poles, stacked, under porch roofs, in a greenhouse, everywhere except planted in the ground of the tiny property. But Tim is not around anymore to inspire. We were at Tim's house for his reception, Tim offed himself a few days previously. Tim would have also had access to wholesale suppliers, and had I known it, that right there would have been worth pursuing a friendship assertively, plus the living inspiration and access to his vast knowledge. But, no.

Thank you for the inspiration, Tim, a real shame that didn't happen with you still alive. Simultaneously inspired and abandoned this way to my own resources then I had just manage on my own without Tim's advice nor help. Glorious mistakes and waste and all the rest.

I saw that Tim did at his house far more successfully on a much more committed scale, an idea I thought of myself and had only just attempted this year, mixing tomatoes and basil with mint and chives and the like in the same terrace container, peppers with cilantro and so forth. Tim took that to such an extreme you'd think him possessed, but few of us knew any of that. One tiny photo on Tim's vast Pinterest page pointed to a book by Pamela Crawford and that is where I see Tim's inspiration.

Because they match exactly.

I also learned Pamela wrote other books along the same lines so I bought them all and read them. They are now mostly passed along and inspiring others. Pamela cites different figures for different projects but in Easy Combos, Vegetables and Flowers, Pamela states up to that point at the end of ten years trial, trials and errors, mostly errors, some 2,500 ornamental and landscape plants had been planted but not any vegetables, and of those 2,300 are dead. She still views that miserable record a success because she ended up with 200 great plants and I realized right then I had encountered a kindred spirit.

Then on to other books that have nothing to do with containers particularly.

But they must be planted in something.

After all that, not just anything will do. A lot of things will do, but not just anything. It will not be possible to create a unique space using trite, overused, or common items, unless they are changed. Anything purchased from the best places to purchase things will have been seen a million times. Unless something is changed, for example take something plastic and make it look like rock, the elements purchased together at any hardware store. Not everything need be utterly unique, the point is to make them disappear anyway so that they are discovered, not actually featured as if for sale, more like, lucky you, nosy thing, you found it.

On the patio deck at MoZaic I noticed the planters and pitied them isolated like that and lost in their scale and my very first thought was, "Home Depot."

There they are, in a fantastic place, a very nice architectural space, and treating it conventionally. Those lonely undersized planters would be fine but they must be mixed with things that have some kind of interest. 

I buy seeds from eBay and get fifteen notifications regarding the sale. Seeds from any place and you're on their catalog list forever, but not so the Designer Stone Garden Shop. 

The Stone Garden Shop did not do that. They acknowledged the sale with one simple brief recap and that's it. I was thinking, what next? How long will this take. Do they take the money, go on vacation, come back, begin the order? What? *Knock, knock, knock* The UPS guy right at that exact moment of doubt as if I had conjured him. 

Spooky, eh?

These things weigh a ton.

Possibly a hundred pounds. Possibly two hundred. I don't know.

They were packed very well.

These are about 1/3 of the plants started in anticipation of Spring.

It is why I was thinking about containers. There are other pots too. I already own several. Now I can pick up regular things too that blend in and disappear but they must be big. Craigslist in Denver is presently offering this for $75.00, among many other things, I could drive over and buy it tomorrow. I am in container acquisition mode.

This container is the sort of thing Tim had around in abundance. Imagine the whole place lined with containers similar to this.