Looking Closely...

Being a gardener without any real garden to speak of forces one to become reliant on gardening in pots.

Dare I say it? Yes, why not...hey, it's my blog after all!

I loathe being restricted to pots.

Don't get me wrong, I love pots as feature elements in a garden. I just prefer to put most plants in the ground & let them do their own thing as nature intended sometimes gently guiding them to work in with what I want & sometimes not. Besides, gardening in pots is far more work intensive & so very limiting in very many ways.

In other ways it is a good thing. When you are running around on a daily basis hand watering all those 'darn pots' you seem to develop more of a personal interest in the individual plants rather than a planting as a whole. Small things that often get overlooked in a larger planting often bear closer examination.

Before you know it those work intensive pots & their inhabitants have you in their grasp, bending close to look for the small stuff the wonderful details so often missed when they are just part of the crowd.

The beautiful claret veining on the leaves of Heuchera - "Green Spice"

The remnants of a morning dew on Alchemilla mollis.

Ok, so I had to kneel on the ground for this shot!