The Seattle Times has an interesting article about young adventure gardeners
With fresh ideas and techno savvy, a new generation will keep our gardens growing

Pull Quote: While the newest generation of plant savants may not be following in our footsteps, that doesn't mean they haven't popped the iPods out of their ears long enough to comprehend the natural world. Cyberspace is second nature, and the world small and navigable to this new generation of gardeners. They're brewing up an eco-fusion of plants and technology that'll set your head spinning.

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Guerrilla Gardeners: When Push Comes to Shovel

Pull Quote: Although guerrilla gardeners have beautified median strips and other neglected plots throughout the Bay Area - to the delight of neighbors and motorists - their unsought attention to private land is not always welcome. At the core of guerrilla gardening is the stealth factor, albeit often in broad daylight: cultivating someone else's land without asking permission.

Carlos Gardel's House in the neighborhood of Abastos

I just spent a week in Buenos Aires, buying new tango shoes and taking lessons with some tango greats. It was a shoe shopping frenzy with tango filled nights (which, btw, had the added bonus of the movie star sighting of William DaFoe out canoodling with a very young girlfriend. He can act, but he can't dance tango yet. I tried to get Rene to wrench him and the lady apart and ask him to dance. While we both agreed that moment would make an excellent photo, she never did it. Rene and I strolled the streets of this design oriented city, and from the balconies, cemeteries, to restaurants and shops they use plants in ways that make this lovely city an even more pleasant experience.

I went by the botanical garden in Palermo. It's a little disheveled, but a good place to learn the names of the trees. People in Buenos Aires claim they have very cold winters, but from all the tropical and subtropical plants, I tend to doubt it. Maybe very cold for them.

If you're in to feral cats, this is a great botanical garden.. Perhaps it's the Italian influence, but there are prides of cats all over the grounds here.

Pretty residential door in Palermo Viejo.

A nice fountain in the garden of Olsen, a Scandinavian restaurant in Palermo Viejo.

Also at Olsen, this is a simple, nice modern touch.

We never learned what this is--it looks like a shrine of some sort. It's near railroad tracks and at night there's lots of young men hanging out here. We coined them, "The Bad Boys".

A purse store in Palermo Soho--even the stores use backyard plantings and atriums to create nice atmospheres.

We visited the famous Recoleta Cemetery, where Evita Peron was finally buried. It's like a miniature Belle Epoch village. Ferns seem to do very well growing from cracks on the crypts.

And this philodendron is thriving in a tomb.

Lovely window boxes on the streets of Recoleta.

We visited the Faena Hotel and Universe designed by Philippe Stark. We had both heard lots of comments, like the design was "totally over the top", but we didn't think it was all that. Garden-wise, some red impatiens in terra cotta planters aren't so interesting. Apparently, though, the bathrooms have transparent walls--so you can do all your private stuff with a intimate watching. Or if it's just not sexy at all, there's a red velvet curtain you can pull shut.

The Jacaranda trees were in bloom. So lovely!

There's a great park, the Costanera Sur, in Puerto Madero. Right next to rose garden set in geometric rectangles are these wonderful grasses.

They had a skateboarding park for the kids, with grass for padding the wipe outs.

As we made our way to a steak house (yet another), we passed these nice windows. They aren't terraces, rather, they're shutters, draw-bride style that people have put small terrace gardens on.

Etsy is an online emporium of handmade arts and crafts that has a remarkable array of creative things for sale. They just published an essay I wrote on DIY wedding flowers and tips on going organic and local when purchasing wedding flowers.

Also, for Etsy, the City Dirt Store
makes hand stamped "Just Married" packets with wildflower seeds to toss at the bride and groom. The flower seeds are mixed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

Click Here for full article.

A pull quote:

Nobody wants to think of herself as a Bridezilla, but all the details can be daunting -- especially if you're someone who considers her or himself eco-sensitive. Are your wedding flowers filled with pesticides that are polluting the rivers and exploiting workers in Colombia? Does rice thrown for good luck really explode in the stomachs of songbirds? Ahhh, the horror of unintended consequences. Etsy has asked me to make these details a little easier. And since you're here, reading this, I'm assuming you like things creative and a little funky, so let's make this wedding planning fun.

Alison O'Hara in Action

The gardening season is gearing up; for some people that means starting their seeds and plotting designs. For people working in the industry, it also means, "Will my boots last another season, or should I order a new pair?" There are two different worlds of gardeners--the ones who sweat and get really sore, and the ones who dead head a few geraniums and tend a tomato plant or two. These gardeners can dress like Martha Stewart and wear kaki pants and white tee-shirts while carrying baskets of cut flowers. But more commonly are those who look like freshly plucked vegetables after a day in the dirt.

Perusing comments on garden fashion on the web, most people claim to garden in blue jeans and gardening clogs. Jeans just couldn't be more uncomfortable. When gardening in the raining they get waterlogged and stay wet for days. Even after rains, when water shakes from the trees and bushes as your pruning means deep discomfort. And clogs? We dig up all sorts of nastiness in New York City. Bathtubs, aquariums, bed mattresses--one gardener in Brooklyn claimed to find a car buried in a backyard, and a homeowner on the Upper West Side told me that she found an Irish Shanty town from the 1800's in her backyard. And then there's the city wildlife. I am not poking around these yards in clogs. I want lace up boots with hard soles and stiff leather.

So to research the stylish and comfortable in garden fashion, I don't look to other gardeners, but rather, women who work in the outdoors and know how to layer. Alison O'Hara, owner and head operator of True North Kayak Adventures in Homer, Alaska is a pro. She always shows up to work looking sharp and ready for anything Alaska weather throws her that day. Here are her recommendations:

Alison swears by Patagonia Stretch Capilene Camis and Hipsters
as a first layer. The material is like a second skin, warm but really light and comfortable. They have all different colors and patterns.

As a mid layer she likes the Ibex Shak Jacket, made from a high tech wool fabric. The cut is very flattering and you could wear it to the garden and then out to lunch.

She also likes Patagonia's Women's El Cap Jacket.

As an outer layer she wears a Arc'teryx Velox hard shell

or if it's raining, a soft shell by Patagonia

The best 3 Season outdoor pants are by Prana Tenaya and these can be paired with stretch cap long underwear for colder weather.

Socks are Smartwool Smart Wool everyday.

And when out on the water, Alison always wears the Filson Tin Cloth Bush Hat As she says, " It's the Crocodile Dundee look, but is very sturdy with a wide brim for max sun protection. It also has a chin strap in case it's blustery. Oil cloth material keeps the rain off your noggin too."

For daily sunscreen she likes Nature's Gate Sport 30 because it's not shiny, oily or laden with chemicals.

Gretchen LeBuhn, San Francisco State University associate professor of biology, is soliciting the help of thousands of "citizen scientists" to collect data on the health of pollinating bees. This is the announcement from the website The Great Sunflower

By watching and recording the bees at sunflowers in your garden, you can help us understand the challenges that bees are facing.
It takes less than 30 minutes.
It's easy.
Free Sunflower seeds for planting.
No knowledge of bees required!
Enter your bee counts online or send us your paper form.
We would love to have you join us; let's help our most important pollinators together!

Visit The Great Sunflower
to learn more and to sign up, or call 650-725-9914. Kits are ready to send out to the first 10,000 participants in time for the plants to flower by National Pollinators Week, June 23 to 28.

I've always wondered if the moss milkshake was an urban legend...apparently not.

The Seattle Times

Q: What's a moss milkshake? Is it hard to grow moss as a ground cover?

A: Not if you have shade and acidic soil, as gardeners trying to grow lawn know all too well. Moss milkshakes encourage moss to grow, but they only work if you apply them in shady, somewhat damp conditions. Put a handful of moss (from the garden or nursery) into a blender. Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, a can of beer OR a cup of buttermilk (either beer or buttermilk works fine). Blend until the moss is mixed with the liquid, then spread it over rocks and the ground where you want the moss to grow.

For a supremely mossy experience, visit the primeval-feeling moss garden at Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island (www.bloedelreserve.org). To see how moss can be used to great garden effect, visit the Japanese Garden in Washington Park Arboretum (www.seattle.gov/parks/parkspaces/japanesegarden.htm).

Last winter I came across an interesting post on The Ethicurean
by a woman who was designing a garden-or rather, a small homestead on her garage roof. She had sketched out raised beds, places for chicken coops and a beehive. Even though this could go very wrong, I admired her vision.

Just last week, an article, Turning a Garage Roof to a Green Roof ran in the New Tribune about a woman who created a green roof out of succulents and broken ceramic and terra cotta pots on her garage to create an elevated landscape.

I'd love to see this become a trend.

Gizmodo comments on the award winning Rake n Take

You'd expect first place in the 2008 Dyson awards to go something totally insane, like a vacuum that cleans your carpet and your colon simultaneously. But it actually went to this deceptively simple gadget designed by Ryan Jansen, the Rake n Take, which takes a lot of the suck out of raking leaves. Pulling up on the handle clamps whatever you're raking, so you you don't have to stoop and scoop. It would also be great for clearing your disgusting roommate's biohazardous socks out of your living room. Check it out in action after the jump.

Go here to see the video: Gizmodo

The question here should be, "Why do my plants always die when I go on vacation?" Here are some solutions from Real Simple.

Question:
Do you have a solution for watering plants while you're away?

Answer:
# If you'll be gone for more than a weekend: Give plants a thorough soaking before you leave. Move plants out of direct sunlight, and group them together in one cool, medium-light area to cut back on their water needs.

# If you'll be gone for four to five days or more: Try DriWater Gel Pacs ($2 each, www.driwater.com for store locations) or Water Maid Wicks (available at plant stores, or $2.50 for five, 800-343-8114, ext. 20). You can also use a very long cotton shoestring. Soak it in water until saturated. Water the plant thoroughly, then place one end of the shoestring into the soil at least an inch deep, making sure the soil and the string have good contact. Place the other end in a 16- to 32-ounce container filled with clean water, making sure to keep the flowerpot at a lower level than the water. The water will slowly wick into the soil as it dries out and keep the plant moist for a week or two. For large plants, use more than shoestring or wick.

# Terra-cotta cones can also help plants get plenty of water. These nifty devices consist of a cylinder with a cork ring on top. Push the top of the cone into the mouth of a plastic soda bottle filled with water. Invert the cone and the bottle and place the cone into the soil of your plant. The terra-cotta will absorb the water from the bottle and release it slowly into the soil. Terra-cotta cones cost $12.50 for three and can be found at Gardener's Supply Company (www.gardeners.com).

Swing by the Green Oasis Garden Sunday, April 13th at 1:00 to learn about honeybees. If weather is permitting, and that means over 55 degrees, then beekeepers will inspect, clean and add food patties. The public is welcome to watch or help.

Sunday, April 13 at 1:00PM
Green Oasis Garden
E. 8th Street (between C & D)
New York NY 10009

Vanilla Honey Bee

If you can't make that, but want to do your part, there's a very easy and delicious option. Haagen-Dazs has created the flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, in honor of the little pollinators. Their other bee reliant flavors include such varieties as Caramelized Pear and Toasted Pecan, Strawberry Cheesecake and Vanilla Swiss Almond. Whenever you purchase any of these, or other bee reliant flavors Haagen-Dazs donates money to bee research at the University of California Davis and Pennsylvania State University.
Visit Help The Honey Bees for more information.

Sunday, April 13th is the second Brooklyn Flea at Lafayette Ave. between Clermont and Vanderbilt Aves. at the schoolyard of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene.
Open 10am-5pm every Sunday

City Dirt will be there selling eco pots and indoor edibles like herbs, meyer lemons and fig trees. Tomorrow, I will have Chicago Hardy figs that can be planted outdoors. They die back every winter and come back to about 2-3 feet tall in the summer. Their fruit ripens in late summer or early fall.

I happened on this lovely antique shop, Antiques de Provence recently. It's on 623 Royal Street in New Orlean's French Quarter. The olive jars, fountains and furniture are from Provence, c. 1800's.

Date: Saturday, April 19th
Time: 3-6 pm
Place: Eyebeam Gallery 540 W. 21st Street (between 10th & 11th) New York, New York

This Saturday the programming around the sustainability exhibition, Feedback, will have artists and community environmental groups giving demonstrations. Leah Gauthier will have a sow-in where you can help her plant and distribute 100's of rare seedlings.
Brooke Singer will conduct toxic tours, Matalie Jeremijenko will lead a surface-level noPARK action, and the Lower East Side Ecology Center will be demonstrating worm bins.

These are nice little lounge spaces outside of Hotel W in New Orleans. Simple and chic. Though I'm not sure how much street side lounging I'd want to do in a city with such high crime rates...

Here's a frightening story about a pharmaceutical company that is patenting and buying up seeds. World domination of food sources? Read the full story here: Monsanto's Harvest of Fear

Pull Quote:
Monsanto developed G.M. seeds that would resist its own herbicide, Roundup, offering farmers a convenient way to spray fields with weed killer without affecting crops. Monsanto then patented the seeds. For nearly all of its history the United States Patent and Trademark Office had refused to grant patents on seeds, viewing them as life-forms with too many variables to be patented. "It's not like describing a widget," says Joseph Mendelson III, the legal director of the Center for Food Safety, which has tracked Monsanto's activities in rural America for years.

Gardeners will throw away an estimated 200 million pounds of plastic pots this year. Bonnie plants is trying to change that by using a biodegradable Bonnie Plants Peat Pots that you plunk right into the ground. They dissolve into compost and the plants go on their way.

The farmers around the country might be laughing that people are actually buying pots made of cow manure, but it really is a good idea. Cow Pots are biodegradable planting pot made from composted cow manure. Created by a dairy farmer in Northwestern Connecticut.

Here's an interesting article on Mulch in The Daily Times

by Laura D'Alessandro

Gardeners asked to avoid using cypress mulch

OCEAN CITY -- Gardeners should avoid purchasing cypress mulch to help protect Gulf of Mexico's wetlands, said representatives of the Assateague Coastal Trust on Friday.

"Worcester County and the Pocomoke River watershed are the most northern cypress swamps in the nation," said Joe Fehr, past president of Assateague Coastal Trust.

Fehr said in Maryland, cypress trees are protected from clear cutting though many of them were destroyed a century ago before the law was enacted.

"Since the cypress tree has such a specific habitat and is slow to germinate, they were replaced with maple and gum trees," Fehr said. "And contrary to popular belief, cypress trees are not a sustainable product because they are so hard to grow."

Cypress trees are not protected in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida where they are clear cut for mulch. Fehr said this further destroys their sensitive habitat and prevents new trees from taking root.

Read the full article here: The Daily Times

There's a great essay in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine by Michael Pollan. It's a little depressing and scary as environmentalism tends to be, but the primary solution to our problems he cites as starting a vegetable garden. Gardening is not only is exercise, but it's also better for your body, good for the planet, and it changes our attitudes as it connects us to a process outside of our specialty. To go to the full article click here: Why Bother

Here's a pull quote:

But the act I want to talk about is growing some -- even just a little -- of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don't -- if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade -- look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it's one of the most powerful things an individual can do -- to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.

I had a table this week at the Brooklyn Flea with an ipe window box and an aluminum planter, both with flowerless plantings to try and get New Yorkers off the impatiens-in-plastic planters look they are so fond of.

A guy across the way from me, Mohawk Studios welds furniture out of found objects. He also makes ants, wasps, scorpions, and crabs out of metal objects. A couple from Park Slope bought a bunch of them, and explained to me that birds loved them. The glinting of the metal attracted lots of birds to their backyard garden.

At another booth, not far away, at Olde Good Things, this antique garden table and chairs caught my eye.

And I loved these mirrors framed with pressed tin.

at Lafayette Ave. between Clermont and Vanderbilt Aves. at the schoolyard of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene.
Open 10am-5pm every Sunday

I had a second take outside the Midtown New York Public Library. At first I thought these were abnormally green vines, then that they were plastic, and upon closer look, realized they were stone walls painted with vines and evergreens.

EDINBURGH, Scotland, April 20 (UPI) -- Garden allotments have become so popular in Scotland that waiting lists are approaching a decade in Edinburgh and Glasgow, an official said.

The allotments, patches of land where people who live without yards can grow flowers or vegetables, dropped in popularity after World War II, when even public parks became vegetable gardens. The yearning for organic produce has made them popular again.

Clickhere for full article.

Farmlabs latest Junker Garden is a transformed 1990 Mercedes Benz 300s, planted with Australian tree ferns and irrigated by a misting system.

Sprout Home is having its one year birthday party on Sunday May 4th from 11am to 7pm. Come enjoy food, drinks and music by TapirDJ. Sponsored by Dokebi Bar and Grill.

We will be offering special discounts that day only!

Please feel free to invite others.

Sprout Home
44 Grand Street
Brooklyn NY 11211
718-388-4440

www.sprouthome.com
nyinfo@sprouthome.com
Open everyday 11-7

On Earth Day, a friend gave me a bottle of cologne that literally smells like dirt. Fresh, fertile, newly turned spring dirt. As if I wasn't always trying to wash off that smell..but really, it's pretty amazing.

A description from the Demeter website about their Dirt Fragrance.

Dirt is Earth and Earth is Dirt, not all Earth and not all Dirt are created equal. The ancient philosopher Empedocles explained the nature of the universe through the interaction of two governing principles, Love and Strife, on four primary elements: air, fire, earth, and water. Earlier philosophers believed that the quality of matter depends on the quantity of a particular element. Empedocles argued that the quality of matter depends exclusively on the ratio of its elements. A stone, for example, is stone because of a unique ratio of air, fire, earth, and water. Ratios and combinations are also the essence of Demeter's Dirt fragrance.

Can a lawn mower be sexy?

Neuton® Battery-Powered Mower by Design Within Reach

From their website:

"The EPA estimates that of the 800 million gallons of gas used to fuel lawn mowers in the U.S. every year, about 17 million gallons are spilled, which can contaminate ground water. However, your "it's bad for the environment" excuse for not mowing the lawn is about to end. The Neuton Battery-Powered Mower (2007) is a smart alternative to loud, gas-guzzling machines that are difficult to start. It runs on a rechargeable battery, and in place of a pull-cord, this mower starts by turning a safety knob and squeezing the handlebar. When the handlebar is released, the blade stops spinning. The Neuton Mower produces no CO2 emissions, and the 24-volt battery gives you enough juice to mow for 45 to 60 minutes, or approximately a third of an acre per charge. Included with the Mower are a Mulching Plug, Bagger, Side Discharge Chute, Battery and Battery Charger, Safety Key and two wrenches. There are no spark plugs or air filters to replace, and the Neuton never needs a tune up. The cutting height is adjustable, and if you're still looking for an excuse for not mowing the lawn, here you go: Longer grass tends to have a deeper root system, and needs less water than shorter grass."

National Wildflower week is May 6th-11th

Bluebonnets in Heaven signed photographic print of editorial by Ben Sargent

One of the most comprehensive resources for information on wildflowers is the Lady Bird Johnson Center
in Austin, Texas. Their website is a wealth of information with Native Plant Network, Regional Spotlights from around the United States and Canada, as well as "Ask Mr. Smarty Pants."

This non-profit is having a silent, online auction to raise money.Images like this painting, Swallowtail's Dream by Austin based artist Ana Zanic and this photographic print of a vintage cartoon by Ben Sargent are up for auction.

Ben Nadler of Kinetic Carnival talks to some of the folks at Surfside Gardens in Coney Island about the future of their community garden as development plans threaten to convert their beautiful garden to low-cost housing.

Click here to see the video.