Pablo's Chair

"The reference to Pablo is twofold," James explains. "It's my chair, and it looks as though it was created by a famous artist with the same name. Naturally, it's not a Picasso (figure B), but it's a cool chair, don't you think?"

James creates a frame from galvanized steel mesh (figure C). With the frame sized to fit the scale of the seat, and formed to hold roughly three inches of potting mix, he places a cocoa liner, sized to fit, within the frame along the base (figure D). He stuffs the interior rim of the frame with moistened moss (figure E), which will not only hold the potting mix in place but also prevent it from drying out too quickly. With the moss in place, he adds the potting mix.

James chooses two different plants for the chair, a dwarf mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus and a moneywort known as creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia). Both plants prefer a fair amount of shade, and both are shallow rooted.

Once the plants are in place, James gives the seat a thorough soaking. James warns that plantings like this require regular watering, perhaps as often as every day, as well as weekly douses of compost tea.