I've been away for the holidays--visiting family in El Paso, Texas and taking a road trip through West Texas and Hill Country. Although the desert wasn't in bloom and many of the botanical gardens and nurseries were closed for the holidays, I still went out looking at plants--I love winter in the desert: the blue-sky, dry chill, and cactus, yucca, and dried grasses look even more architectural and minimal this time of year. Morning doves and quail coo in the evening, and the mountains in the distance change shades of purple at sunset. And at night the stars are a marvel.

This week I'll be posting some pictures and notes from Texas.

The Home and Garden sectionof the New York Times recently published an article on nearby greenhouses to visit for a dose of the tropical. It's accompanied by a slide show of some of the green houses at Wave Hill in The Bronx and the Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Boylston, Massachusetts.

The January/February issue of Veranda Magazine has a stunning photo essay of the country estate of Chauncey Devereux Stillman in the Taconic Hills of Dutchess County, New York. Unfortunately, it's not published online. It's really inspiring in the use of globes, cones and rectangular plants to create deep winter interest.

In Texas hill country, just outside of the lovely town of Fredericksburg is Wildseed Farms
This is a destination in itself that can take the better part of an afternoon. They not only cultivate wildflower seeds, but you can also stroll the native butterfly garden and sit near a fired-up chimenea and try local beers and wines. As well, they sell the usual garden shop fare, like ornaments, birdhouses, planters, pots and grills.

Some xeriscaping...a word that came in very handy during holiday Scrabble games.

I love these stone planters for this kind of landscape--very organic.

And if you were wondering, yes, you can get a Virgin of Guadalupe fountain here.

These little bird houses are great for cottage style gardens.

In the event you might forget you're in Texas while bar-b-queing, you can get a grill with a state-shaped cut out, or a lone star. These are not for dabblers.

Not sure why this one is mounted, except maybe too many wine and beer tasters nudged into it and burned themselves.

Again, these benches resemble rocky outcrops; they're very natural in this setting.

The seed selection here will make you swoon. They not only have wildflowers, but lots of seeds for lawns that use native and drought tolerant grasses.

In this same area there are lots of wineries--the best is Becker Vineyards and it's surrounded by fields of lavender, which they make chotskies out of. (For whites try the Viognier and the best red is the '05 Merlot) unless you like really sweet wines; you can find lots of these along this wine route; and if you're up for encountering a French vintner who kisses one cheek, the other, then swoops in for a slobbering open mouth one right on the lips, one local vineyard is known for this. I won't tell you which one that goes on at--think of it as a Texas Hill Country surprise.

I was in Austin for New Year's Eve, and unfortunately lots of stuff was closed for the holidays, though I did poke around the outside of the LadyBird Johnson Wildflower Center, and even this time of year and from the periphery, it was beautiful. Mrs. Johnson founded the National Wildflower Research Center as an organization dedicated to the preservation and re-establishment of native plants. Now it's a seed bank, and has several native gardens. Along the highways through Texas Hill Country wildflowers have been planted, and springtime is supposed to be just amazing. Locals predict the splendor of the blossoms by rainfall, etc., but I imagine if you've never seen them, you'd be impressed regardless. I'd like to go back to this area in the springtime, when the flowers are in bloom

This picture is from the path along Town Lake. Not only are the flowers in bloom in the springtime, but the bats return to their roost near Town Lake. Every night people gather to watch the 1.5 million bats head out into the nighttime. These critters not only chose one of the trendiest spots in the country--as they hang under Congress Avenue Bridge--but Austin is also home to Bat Conservation International, so they chose a safe spot as well.

Here are some airplants that are ubiquitous in this area, but not free in NYC. I found a few clinging to branches scattered on the ground and gathered them for gifts.

So we had no wildflowers or bat viewing, but there was still B-B-Q and Tex-Mex, not to mention music, dancing, bike routes and friendly, attractive men in Austin.

I found this link on Brooklyn Based . I'm going to try to make the January 15th lecture on green roofs, rain collection, and then later this spring, one on "spring greening" from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Check out their courses at City Tech Division of Continuing Education (www.citytech.cuny.edu/academics/continuinged)offers a range of courses including fantastic design and DIY repair classes for Brownstone Brooklyn and beyond. On JAN 15: Greening Your Home covers rain collection, green roofs and more (HHT 075, $40); FEB 20: Get an overview of Interior Design Basics (HHT 072, $40); MAR 6-27: Learn about design, plans and sourcing in The Art of Home Décor (HHT 070, $125); MAR 11: Contractors teach Basic Home Repairs in City Tech's Home Lab (HHT 077, $40); APR 12: Lecturers from Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Bettancourt Building Supply and more discuss "spring greening" in Spring Spruce Up (HHT 031, $20); APR 17: Learn Low Impact Living basics including green furnishings and geothermal heating (HHT 076, $40). Call 718-552-1170 to register; email dsalomon@citytech.cuny.edu for more info.

Also, for environmentally friendly products, there's a sale going on at Tribbles Home & Garden. (217 West Broadway between Franklin and White Streets;(212) 965-8480) announces their first Storewide Floor Sample & Warehouse Sale, which begins on Friday, January 10th and ends on Monday, January 21st. Several environmentally friendly/green products sold by Tribbles Home & Garden are also on sale during their storewide sale Tribbles has emptied their warehouse for a floor sample and warehouse sale with savings of 30-50% off in all departments. A huge selection of unique glass vases and accessories, French porcelain, personal care products, furniture, garden accessories, and more are included in the sale from names such as Arte & Cuoio, Guy Degrenne, and Plata Lappas.

We stayed a night at the Gage Hotel
in Marathon, Texas. There's not much going on in Marathon, but this is the nicest place in the area and a good hopping off point for Big Bend National Park.

The cattle skulls might be a little macabre for most city gardens...but I kind of liked them here in ranch country.

The hotel is rustic Texas and Southwestern style; many of the rooms are located off the central patio.

These rams' heads are nice touches for the pool.

There's a border yuccas of differing sizes surrounding the perimeter of one area, which gives a has big impact for little maintenance.

These simple plantings in earth toned pottery have a subdued charm.

We took a day hike in Big Bend. It was sunny but a cold wind was blowing. Once again, I'd love to come back when the desert is in bloom, but even this time of year it was beautiful. Later, we visited the McDonald Observatory near Ft. Davis and the astronomer went around the room and asked us the first thought we had when we heard the word "nature". I answered "patterns" and he seemed impressed. But he also seemed impressed when my 2-year-old niece answered "monkeys".

These views were pretty constant along the Old Mine Trail.

I just love these agaves. Here they're called "century plants".

They're called century plants because they bloom once every 15 to 25 years (not quite a century), and then die. They're sort of like the salmon of the plant world.

See what I mean about those planters at Wildseed being so natural?

From Brooklyn Based today:

Greenbelt
Proof that condo developers can also be do-gooders, Greenbelt, a sleek 8-unit condo building at 361 Manhattan Ave. in Williamsburg, is the first L.E.E.D.-certified residence in Brooklyn and the first L.E.E.D-certified performance space in the city. The sale of its units will subsidize the ground floor Center for Performance Research (CPR) run by Jonah Bokaer of Chez Bushwick and acclaimed choreographer John Jasperse -- reversing that whole new-condos-displace-artists trend.

A story about Greenbelt will appear next week in the premiere issue of Brooklyn Boom, published by The Brooklyn Paper, but yesterday, the developers announced their upcoming events: a BKLYN Green Drinks meetup Feb. 20; open houses on green design and products the following two weekends from 11-6, Sat-Sun; a panel on green living Feb. 28, 7-9 pm; and CPR's inaugural performance and exhibit March 8. (Prospective buyers are invited to the open house party on Feb. 7. RSVP at 718-384-5304). Greenbelt Brooklyn

Also Upcoming...

Fiskars' Project Orange Thumb Offers Grants to Support
Community Gardening

Deadline: February 15, 2008

Fiskars Brands, Inc.
seeks to inspire and encourage creative expression through gardening with Project
Orange Thumb. To promote sustainable agriculture, horticultural education, community involvement as well as neighborhood beautification, the program will offer ten grants in 2008.

Community organizations, schools, gardening clubs, senior centers,
or other groups interested in fostering gardening within their
community are invited to apply.

Awardees will each receive up to $1,500 in Fiskars garden tools
and $800 for plant materials to cultivate their garden vision.

For grant application materials and additional information on
Project Orange Thumb, visit the Fiskars Web site.

This project, the Ann Demeulemeester Shop in the Gangham district of Seoul is by Korean architect Minsuk Cho of Mass Studies: A pull quote from her description is "This proposal is an attempt to incorporate as much nature as possible into the building within the constraints of a low-elevation, high-density urban environment of limited space (378㎡). The building defines its relationship between natural/artificial and interior/exterior as an amalgamation, rather than a confrontation." For full text go to Mass Studies

Gowanus Canal

I recently met with Andrew Faust, permaculture expert and founder of the
Center for Bioregional Living
for an informal chat about developing garden designs in New York City. Initially we met to discuss the use of plants to clean leads and other metals from the soil. Our conversation veered into discussions on drain water management, composting, planting to keep mosquitoes at bay, and even the art of fruit tree pruning. Andrew is a wealth of knowledge on practical ecological practices and sustainable living so I held an impromptu interview for City Dirt. He's going to be conducting a workshop on Permaculture Design here in New York City that will be held over the course of 11 Fridays and 2 Saturdays from 9am-4pm. For more information on the course go to:andrew@ homebiome

This spring Prospect and
Refuge will be working with Andrew to create city specific designs for using rainwater run-off, helping home owners set up their composting systems, and combining dwarf fruit trees and other edibles with native and perennial plants for beautiful, tasty, bird and butterfly friendly gardens.

City Dirt: What is one of the most important sustainable issues for dense urban areas?

Andrew: Rain water run-off control is probably one of the simplest ways to keep raw sewage from draining into the waterways and city infrastructure. You can create wetlands in the back or side yard of your brownstone, and put that water to good use.

City Dirt: Like a cistern system that traps rainwater?

Andrew: Cisterns are good except for when there's a high flow rain event. Then you want a system to channel and harvest it.

City Dirt: But if you have it draining right into your yard, won't you have a bog that attracts mosquitoes?

Andrew: Absolutely not. You just use plants that have a high water uptake. Bullrushes, wild iris, red maple, red osier dogwood, elderberry and blueberries will all use the run off. Mussolini was known to dry swamps with plantings of elms and eucalyptus. These plants can literally suck up thousands of gallons of water a day. By doing this, you keep sewage from running into places like the Gowanus. It's estimated that 160 million gallons of raw sewage goes directly into the canal a year from rainfall.

City Dirt: Is there any hope for the lavender lake, aka Gowanus?

Andrew: I want to design floating pond remediators. These are rafts will host plants that clean the toxins out of the water. In China they created floating walkways to clean up the open sewage canals. Not only are the plants removing the toxins from the water, but you have a beautiful area for people to stroll through and enjoy the waterways.

City Dirt: If it could work for the Gowanus, then it could work for Newton Creek, right?

Andrew: I don't see why not. What exactly is Newton Creek? Is that a natural waterway or a canal?

City Dirt: I'm not sure, but it dead-ends into industrial wasteland and people are pretty scared of it. So what else can city dwellers do that's relatively simple?

Andrew: Compost. It has been figured that 30% of our waste is actually table scraps. So if you have either access to a community garden or your own backyard, then it's simple to cut your waste being trucked to landfills by a third. And I'm seeing biodegradable cups at places like coffee shops. These you can toss in with your garden clippings and table scraps.

City Dirt: What about rats getting into the outdoor recycling bins. They're kind of our staple wildlife here. And they're savvy.

Andrew: Make them rat proof. Really, really rat proof.

An article in today's Los Angeles Times, Imagine: Rain, Rain Stored Away
discusses gardens in Santa Monica that catch rain water before it can run over cement, washing over oil, gasoline and general filth before spilling into the ocean. The water is collected in the garden design and used by plant or stored for during dry spells. Traditional lawns have been replaces with ground covers and ornamentals grasses.

• Bulbs should be planted about 2/3 way down in soil, with top third showing above the soil (or 1/3 of the way down if you're planting in small rocks).
• Don't overwater paperwhites or bulbs can rot.
• Never let the water rise above the bottom of the bulbs.
• Water amaryllis very infrequently until they start to grow.
• Pack soil firmly at the surface to prevent bulbs from lifting out of the container.
• If bulbs start to fall over, either loosely tie a string around all of them--about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom--or place sticks around them and tie a string around the sticks.
• Don't worry about crowding bulbs--they like to be smooshed closely together.

Instructional Video

You just need some starting materials and a dark and clammy place in your home to grow your own batches of shitake and portabella mushrooms. Gardens Alive sells kits that include containers and pre-inoculated spawn. (doesn't sound so gourment, really). The kits cost almost as much as buying these from a store, but this could be more fun.

In the prologue of her book, Otherwise Normal People, Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening, Aurelia C. Scott writes: I knew the subject of this book would be the people of the rose world. These are gardeners for whom "Butterscotch is a large flowered light orange climbers, not an ice cream topping: 'Mr. Chips' is not Robert Donat, or even Peter O'Toole, but a hybrid tea that flowers repeatedly in a Tequila Sunrise like blend of yellow, orange, and pink."

If you happen to know and love one of those people, a gift they might enjoy would be to have a
rose hybrid named after them. Each year Select Roses offers 3 roses to be named. This rose is then propagated at the nursery and then sold to suppliers under this name.

But this price for this sort of immortality isn't cheap. The prices for 2007 range from $4000.00 for the miniature apricot-orange bloom (as pictured above), and $8,500.00 for a salmon hybrid tea rose.

FYI: There are less expensive gifts along these lines. One year I adopted a bat for my father through the program at Carlsbad Cavern for $5.00. My father named him Little Willie, and he gets the pleasure of knowing that he's is out in the night sky, keeping the mosquito population at bay.

My spider plants and some bamboo palms. (The figures on the wall are folk art from Cuba depicting the Santeria goddesses Yemeya and Oshun.)

I was having brunch last weekend with some friends, and we started talking about indoor plants. C. had recently moved into an apartment on the Upper West Side that has very little natural light. While not in the basement, the only windows open onto the brick walls of neighboring buildings. She was hoping a plant might cheer things up. I suggested a philodendron because of the low light and they are known to clean the air, but she pointed out that she has a cat, and philodendrons are toxic to cats.

"What about a spider plant?" she suggested. "I hear they also clean the indoor air."

"I have generations of spider plants growing--grandparents, offspring of offspring, cousins," I said. "I'll put some offshoots to root for you."

Another friend, H. chimed in that I in fact had a veritable trailer park of spider plants. She's from the south and has a fondness for trailer parks, so I took it as an endearing comment about my spider plants.

She added, "The one you gave me died in the move, could you start me a new one?"

I have so many little offshoots, that I give these plants away as housewarming gifts and even as party favors. But as I eyed a bunch of little shoots soaking in a bowl of water, I realized that I really wanted a terrarium. During the cold weather, the idea of a tiny, tropical eco-system cheering up the darker corners of my apartment became more and more appealing.


The spider plant nursery.

by Paula Hayes

Years ago I saw an art installation by Kiki Smith called "Reconstructing the Moon" that was just stunning. She had created a natural environment in a gallery--etches of moonscapes, a video of deer running, birds' nests woven from strands glass and large glass balls filled with living plants.

Whenever I see terrariums, I think of that exhibition. I loved it in part because it was fragmented and so each element was self contained. It was also transporting--to a fairy tale or to a forest. That's part of the terrarium's appeal. It's a mysterious little microclimate that makes you think of jungles or deserts. Another appeal is that they are very self-sustaining. The moisture creates it's own "rain cycle" so they rarely need to be watered and many do well in low light.

The earliest versions of the terrarium were known as Wardian cases, as they were created by Nathaniel Ward, an English physician and botanist. They were used to transport rare plants across continents and climate zones.

A contemporary artist who is well known for making the terrarium her medium is Paula Hayes. Using glass with interesting, organic shapes she layers colors and textures to create much sought after tiny landscapes that fetch $8,000.00 to $22,000.00.

But anyone can take artistic license. First, you need to find the right glass container. While an old mayonnaise jar will work, technically, I decided to purchase a few. If I lived around estate sales, I'd hit them. But here are a few options that are out there.

Planted Terrarium at Sprout Home

Cloches at Sprout Home

Wardian Terrarium at Shop at the New York Botanical Garden

Terrariums and Cloches at Shop at the New York Botanical Garden

Covered Terrariums at Smith and Hawken.

We're working on a gardening book/cookbook and are interested in talking to anyone who bucks the notion of a traditional gardener. The only pre-requisites are that you grow legal edibles in an urban environment. We're looking for urban gardeners with an interesting story to tell--either about how you garden, what you garden, or why you garden--the more unusual the better. (Also, think gardens of newly arrived immigrants, prison projects, monasteries, brothels, halfway houses, backyard vineyards, beekeepers, etc.) Tips on edible gardens at schools and restaurants would be appreciated as well.

Contact citydirt(at)gmail.com

Please include your name, city of residence, email, and a summary of what you garden and why, and what makes you unique. If you feel so inclined, please also list any favorite dishes you cook with the veg/herbs/fruits/berries you grow. Feel free to pass this along to anyone who you think fits the bill.

Thanks!