Monday, November 20, 2006

Keeping the rain off . . .


I am a sucker for all the paraphenalia of the vintage garden - stacked up seed trays, piles of terracotta pots, rhubarb forcers and hand written wooden labels. You can always find me cooing noisily and taking masses of photos it the potting sheds and greenhouses of historic gardens.

That is why as soon as I saw these reproductions of C18th Dutch glass cloches I had to buy some for the shop and for the garden. They come in six sizes - from £17.50 down to £2.50 - and are that great, slightly green colour of old glass and have a proper weight to them.

I am using a couple to keep the rain off our thyme plants but I also think that they look very elegant inside in a line along a dresser or broad windowsill. I am planning to have some to put over the bits of nests, shells and cones that the girls collect - transforming their displays from looking like turned out pockets into something more like a Victorian Naturalist's study.

6 comments:

Primrose Hill said...

Hi Jane,

Looking forward to Sunday, it should hopefully be a really nice fair - who have you given your "Golden Tickets" to?!!!
Trying my hardest to get lots of "handmade in Scotland" goodies made but I'll be adding lots of other bits too as there just aren't enough hours in the day just now!
L x

Anonymous said...

I have liked these bell jar type cloches for years but always thought they were hugely expensive. How wrong can you get. Like the idea of using them in the house, super way to keep those little seasonal gatherings safe and dust free.

Anonymous said...

Those cloches are lovely. I love your idea of using them in the house as well as outside. I also love vintage garden things. I'm facinated by old Victorian Greenhouses and all the garden accessories inside them. I have an old seed tray hung on my bedroom wall as I kind of picture frame for some work my sister did at College. It looks really effective. I have to admit that it was my Sisters idea and part of the artwork, but I've been meaning to find more to use in the same way.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Nonnie, the Cloches are beautiful. And I am so glad to have found somebody who likes the vintage garden look too!
Love, love, love your blog!!!!

Jane said...

I fell asleep at 8 o'clock last night and didn't check the blog or post! Too much midnight packaging!

Nonnie I have a pile of those old wooden seedtrays - I bought a lot when the chance came up, intending to resell them - however I've found that they are fantastic for their original use (surprise, surprise), much better than plastic seedtrays, though more difficult to clean. So I am keeping a whole pile.
I am toying with the idea of growing cut and come again salads in the others with customers renting the tray and swapping it for another when the salad has finished cropping.
I love the idea of using them as part of an artwork.

Lisa - my golden tickets went to customers in the area - including a really lovely couple of customers in Kippen who travel 25 minutes specifically to buy flowers from my van in season (but then nearly always end up making a proper trip of it by going somewhere for coffee and cakes). I suspect that golden ticket holders are just going to see my rump as I rummage beneath the stall looking for the sellotape, pens, bags, clips etc that I have mislaid. Oh to be professional!

Anonymous said...

I just found your blog through Nonnie and it's wonderful! These cloches are so beautiful! I have wanted some for so long. I make little nestie pincushions and think they'd look pretty cute under one of these. I can't seem to find any that nice around here (California).