Hattie the Pot Lady

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Photograph by Joe Coca

ARE YOU LOOKING for imaginative and fun summer projects to help you share your love of herb gardening with children? Here’s a whimsical little pot lady—we call her Hattie—that kids and adults alike will enjoy creating.

Hattie is made from those old or extra or slightly damaged clay pots that pile up in the garage. Once you’ve positioned her in a comfortable spot on the ground among your herbs or on a garden bench, she’ll use her personality and charm to beckon children of all ages into the garden. No, she’s not having a bad-hair day—that’s Roman chamomile growing out of her head.

Easy to make, all Hattie demands is an hour or two of your time and a little rope, a few clay pots, a low-growing herb such as chamomile, prostrate rosemary, or creeping thyme, some potting mix, and sphagnum moss. Paint a face on her, add granny glasses, garden gloves, or an apron, and you’re done. Don’t forget to give her a name. With a little help putting her together, even a child can make a pot lady, and caring for her “hair” might just cultivate his or her interest in herbs.

Materials

Made with the pot sizes given below, our finished pot lady is a little over a foot high when she’s sitting down. Use whatever size pots you like; you may substitute plastic pots for clay ones if weight is a consideration.

3 medium clay pots (51/2 inches top diameter) for body and head
14 small clay pots (23/4 inches top diameter) for arms and legs
Pencil
Acrylic paint
Paintbrush
10 feet, 1/8-inch-diameter rope
Soilless potting mix
Sphagnum moss

Getting started

Gather your materials close to the spot in the garden where your pot lady will sit because she’s awkward to move when assembled.

With a pencil, draw a simple face onto one of the medium pots. The widest part of the pot will be the top of her head. Paint her eyebrows, nostrils, eyes, and mouth. (We outlined the eyes and mouth in black, let the paint dry, then filled in the mouth shape with red paint and the eyes with blue.) You also could use colored permanent markers to draw the features.