Flowerpot Inventory

How many flowerpots do you have? And where do you keep them?

Because i give away hundreds of plants each year, i have an extensive inventory of used pots. I keep the nice-looking ones, the hanging baskets, and the terra-cotta pots in the cellar. The run-of-the-mill plastic pots, i hide behind my compost piles for easy access because my usual routine is

1. pick up a pot
2. plop in a plant
3. fill with compost
4. water

My sweetie has object to my helter-skelter collection of pots because it looks messy. "But," i say, "you and i are the only ones who see them because they're hidden from public view by the compost bins, which are themselves hidden."

Yesterday i stacked the whole mess of pots neatly and stored them in the woodshed. The impetus? A tree leaning at a 60 degree angle next to the compost pile is going to be cut down.

I know my flowerpot collection is valuable only to me. If i died tomorrow they would all be thrown in a dumpster, or better, taken back to the recycling program where i got them in the first place.

All our collections are slated for dispersal--our knick-knacks, our housewares, our furniture. Even our collection of friends shifts and changes slightly from year to year as people move away; or we ourselves move or change jobs.

Everything i cherish will change and vanish. Even my collection of flowerpots.