I'm looking forward to a new season of potted plants for my apartment. In preparation this week - the terracota pots are dusted off and the stones are rinsed. I have stones and pebbles that I use to mulch the pots. I've had these supplies for many years bought from random gardening hardware stores in the city, quite a few are from a little store in Chinatown. The stones however have had some special additions over the years as I add to the collection with mementos of different places,
Some are from the beaches at Weekapaug where I spent a few years sharing a summer house. The larger ones from Watchill beach. There are some small green stones from Jade Beach on the California Coast- souvenirs of a road trip along Big Sur with a dear friend. They remind me of us singing along to the radio and that motel on a cliff with the Hollyhocks. There are striped and smooth white pebbles that I picked up in Provincetown during the daily mornings ritual on the beach with my dog, Eti. There's a glass bead that was part of a gift, a pebble from Positano and there are a couple of stones from the site of the old brewery in Northern Liberties close to where I lived in Philadelphia. The largest 'stone' isn't really a stone-I made a couple of them- yes made- as sculptural studies of paper maiche covered in encaustic wax- they were a test to develop the bowl you see in the top left hand corner. Its nice to think that my soon to arrive annuals will be planted with these cherished perennials.
