First thought it brought to me was the old Good Neighbors show from the BBC.
On the clay pots, it certainly is going to depend on how they are made and sealed. A local friend has an old clay tile based "cistern" that a tree was planted over decades ago. It does water the tree, but being in a similar area, without digging it, his brick driveway and the tree up, I have no way of proving my suspicion that it is the old septic tank (which were commonly left in when sewers came around in 1940).
I would have liked to see any issues they had with local government over using the front yard for gardening (and maybe where the edible flowers are grown) as I have seen that issue before (think it was even brought up here) I would think part of the fencing and painting might have been connected with that (keeping locals happy).