Touch of man-made beauty

For me, Nature is king (queen?) in the garden. I'm not talking about a "natural" look to the garden, as if you've stepped off a hiking trail somewhere, or discovered a hidden glade or meadow. I'm talking about the things in the garden: I want them to be provided primarily by Nature: plants of course, but also stones, rocks, boulders, tree stumps, logs -- essentially plants, stone, and wood. At the same time, I think there is definitely a place for man-made objects and materials in the garden too: glass, metal, fabrics, concrete, and ceramics.

One of the most important uses of ceramics is in glazed pottery. I think a nice, colorful pot can do so much when used in the right way in the garden, and to allow gardening where there is no soil (like on a deck). I really love a big, heavy, beautiful ceramic pot, and recently I received what is probably the most beautiful pot in my collection.

***

I mainly like pots with colors that are "earth tones", and this one is mainly brownish-green, or greenish-tan -- something like that -- "goldenrod" maybe?

It's so hard for me to tell what the overall color is, since there are blue-green (how about "aquamarine"?) splotches all over the place too:

Although these look great from some distance away, up close they become fascinating:

The crystalline pattern is really incredible! I love the way it looks like frost, and I'm really curious what process was used to create this effect.

The dark edges of the splotches are perfect too, and I suppose that the chemicals that produced the "frost" pushed the existing glaze color along in front of it as it expanded, creating a dark "shoreline". I could be completely wrong.

One side of the pot has very small sploches, and they get more dense as you move around the pot, until there is almost no "goldenrod" showing at all.

The problems with a really beautiful pot like this are: 1) finding an appropriate plant that doesn't overshadow the pot, and 2) putting it someplace very visible.

I'm thinking a bamboo with large, dark-green leaves would look great in this.  As for location, it will have to end up on the deck or patio somewhere for sure...

It's probably too large to put in the middle of the small table on my deck, but in that location I could sit and stare at it in comfort for as long as I wanted.

Wherever it ends up, I'm glad to have this incredible man-made object as part of my garden!

.