Ever since I’ve started getting into gardening, I just can’t get enough of terracotta pots… so much so, that I’ve started specifically building my garden functionality and layout around them.
There’s something I just find so magical about them, especially the vintage ones – I love the fact that you can purchase them for next to nothing at the local garden centre, plant in them; and within six months the salt and minerals from the water fed to the plants develops this gorgeous patina on the outside, giving them a beautiful aged look.
I’ve seen people on the internet use things such as natural yogurt to age their pots, but in all honesty I really don’t think it’s needed, you can just use the pot for its intended purpose anyway… and literally within a few months nature will have done the hard work for you (also find the whole smearing yoghurt around them thing a bit gross… but maybe that’s just me).
Whilst aged pots are magical, something I find even more magical is the vintage pots, especially the little thumb pots – reclamation yards and fairs usually have them by the bucketload, and there’s some really good instagram sellers that I like to purchase mine from; I also find Etsy useful when my usual sellers are short stocked – though the Instagram sellers and vintage fairs tend to be the less pricier option.
Whenever I can I stock up on them, and my preference is to use them for potted violas, particularly as I find the green and purple look so stunning against the terracotta itself, and don’t need to be moved from the actual pots, but you can also use them for starting seedlings off in their earlier life – though it seems such a waste of a vintage pot to me.
Regardless, they are the most magical thing in my garden, and I’d class them as one of my favourite indulgences in life, up there with losing yourself in a good book, a slice of really rich chocolate cake, or a lazy midsummer early evening.
