Posted on by susurrus

Month of Squares: Reconstruct and Renew

Glass toadstools and pansies

This huge, glazed terracotta planter was sturdy enough stay entire (enough) to be planted, despite having suffered an accident that many would have deemed unsurvivable. We admired it last month at The Arbor Gate in Texas, one of our favourite places for picking up garden inspiration and some choice plants in the South.

Broken planter with violas and glass red spotted toadstools

Part decoration, part sales display, the planter was filled with violas (let’s prefer the folk names – heartsease or Johnny-Jump-Ups) growing around red and white spotted toadstools made of glass.

Fragments scattered on the compact tier of greenery added to the wabi-sabi effect – ‘nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect’.

I’m adding an un-square version so you can get a better feel for the whole – the new whole, that is:

Broken pot planted in tiers

No longer pristine, if it ever was, this pot is still doing what it was made to do, still making people smile, to my mind, more artful than when it was entire. Long may it last!

Shared for Becky’s May of Squares. If you’d like to join in, her topics for this month are:

Burgeoning – Move Forward – Reconstruct – Renew

I’ve chosen Reconstruct for the planter and Renew for me, to celebrate being back after an unplanned absence from the blog. I’m not even going to attempt to catch up with my post reading, but I hope all my blogging buddies are well. I’ve missed you!

38 Replies to “Month of Squares: Reconstruct and Renew”

    1. Thanks for your kindness, Diane. Everything is fine. I’ve been travelling quite a lot, but am now looking forward to a little peace and quiet – fingers crossed!

    1. I am, thanks, just a bit chagrined I’ve been away so long. I could clearly procrastinate for England, were it an Olympic sport.

  4. It’s so good to see you here again! I have missed you and your writing! Oh, and your photos! And your inspirations, like with this broken pot. It’s lovely how something whole can come out of something broken!

    1. Thanks so much – I’ve missed you too. It’s good to be back, even though I have spotted some WordPress ‘improvements’ for us all to navigate. Not that ‘It’s lovely how something whole can come out of something broken’ could possibly have brought WordPress to mind…

    1. You should! Our big turquoise pot did a Humpty-Dumpty impression recently when a wooden deck was removed. I don’t know if we’d have had a chance to do something similar with it – by the time I saw it, my sweetheart had spread out as a rough kind of mulch. It really needs some ground cover plants adding to make sense of it.

  8. We have all missed you, and I am feeling honoured you have returned with a squares post. This is such a lovely one, a perfect reconstruct and renew – it looks a bit how I feel on good days, so I love it 😀

    1. How could I resist? I was very happy to discover what I had been missing! I’m glad the broken-beautiful pot resonated. May there be room for magic in all our crumbling.

  9. Welcome back! I’ve missed you! And Johnny-Jump-Ups is a new one on me. Just one little joy from your cheery post. Yes, you made a triumph from one of life’s little disasters.

    1. Thank you! I’m fairly sure I would have, before seeing this. Although I do have a non-frost resistant terracotta pot that disintegrates a little more each year. It is dripping with small hardy succulents and still looks kind of OK, but is not as purposeful as this.

    1. The mushrooms are fun and they’ll look good a whole lot longer than the wild ones do, though I am always excited to spot any of those.

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