From left: Flickr photos by lakeborgne and Jayme 28
Guest Post by Katie Elzer-Peters of Garden of Words
Turn on the Today Show at 9:00, sharp, and you’ll be treated to their daily “Wise Money” (or something like that) segment. Even Vogue magazine has sections on shopping thrift. For Vogue, that means spending $200 instead of $600 on jeans, but for some of their readers, that’s economizing. Gardeners, writers, and media types blog constantly about how to garden, decorate, gift, and exist without spending any money, or very little. That’s all well and good. However, most of the ideas forwarded to the public involve gardening with whatever is around-beauty or not. That’s perfectly fine, depending upon your aim: Need to grow food, fast, without benefit of special equipment? Want flowers to grace your table, but you’re low on cash? Need just a bit of green and life outside your balcony? Cuttings, rooted in takeout Chinese soup containers will do the trick. But, there still must be room for art.
During this recession, I think there has been a race to the bottom of design taste and a whole-hearted embrace of dull. And, I ask the question: is that race to the bottom really necessary? And, is it good for the bottom line? The future of gardening? I would argue, no.
The Invention of Lying
Bowl made from recycled washers
A couple of events precipitated this blog. 1) I had a conversation with Jayme Jenkins, owner of aHa! Modern Living about the place of pretty garden products in the current economy, and 2) I went to see the movie The Invention of Lying, written by and starring Ricky Gervais. Jayme and I discussed a feeling of unease after reading many different gardening blogs lately. The militant stance regarding “the way to garden,” on many blogs seems to look down on the spending of actual money on anything. Money is, in our opinion, portrayed as the root of all evil, particularly in gardening and garden marketing. A weird thing to ponder if you own a garden shop, no?
Here’s where Lying comes in. I liked the movie. It provided much food for thought. In particular, I noticed the lack of art in the sets. Drab colors, no paintings, no movies, no novels. Movies are simply scripts describing actual events, read by on-screen personalities (though that word seems a bit strong), sitting in velvet easy chairs. The conceit posits that “making art” means “making things up” which means “lying.” So, there’s no art. There’s only dreary reality. No metaphor, no finger paintings, no stained glass windows that look like the ocean. I would hate to live in a world without art.
by Etsy artist ghiland
Who doesn’t like to dress up their refrigerator with photos of friends and family, cute and cuddly pets, grocery lists, stupidly silly cartoons and provocative newspaper clippings? I’ve always been drawn to magnets that express my style, interests and personality. These Floral Magnets, made of lucite cabochons (many of which are Japanese vintage) by Etsy.com artist Gina Hiland, are the perfect magnet to express your flair for simple, modern style and love of the garden.
A Great Gift Idea
My readers know I fancy anything garden related that oozes modern style. These floral magnets may be vintage but I think the colors and simplicity add a hint of modern.
- Garden Lover great as a stocking stuffer for the holidays, birthdays, or simple “I appreciate you” gift moments.
- Teachers delightful gift for any teacher who loves nature. What teacher couldn’t use a cute set of magnets?
- Magnet Lover this may be a new group of gift recipients but I’m a sucker for a cool set of magnets.
- Mothers Day this is the perfect gift accompaniment for any mother to post photos of family or precious grandchildren
Apartment Therapy is a great source for simple, stylish projects for the everyday do-it-yourselfer. Check out this modern succulent wall made of 12″ cynderblocks by Annette Guttierez with Pot-ted, a nursery and patioscape shop based in Los Angelos. This wall would also look great planted with various kitchen herbs or cut-and-grow lettuces. Whatever the size your balcony or patio may be, you can easily make this planter wall any size to accommodate any outdoor space. Keep the wall at about hip height to avoid the wall falling over without supports. Safety first!
How fabulous is this idea? DWR (Design Within Reach) sent 5 of their outdoor planters to 5 different landscape designers throughout various gardening regions in the United States. Each of them were asked to design a modern planting scheme using native plants from their region. Explore each designer’s planting project and get ideas for your own modern outdoor or indoor spaces. Click on each photo to learn more about each designer’s planting choices.
Flora Grubb Designs
read more…
I have been a huge fan of Apartment Therapy for quite some time now (see the link on our Resources page). I was pleasantly surprised, okay, I freaked when I saw my Do-It-Yourself Modern Trellis on their website. I am currently thinking of a way to celebrate my excitement with everyone, so stay tuned for some sort of giveaway details.
What’s so cool about Apartment Therapy?
Design inspiration galore! They have teams of contributors from major cities across the United States including New York, Los Angelos, San Francisco, Chicago, DC and Boston, the find the most unique stores, products and room designs. I personally love the slant towards modern and contemporary decor styles, easy decorating tips, easy on the reading (you won’t find long blocks of text on this site!), and an over abundance of my favorite obsession…RESOURCES.
Have a fellow garden buddy with a summer birthday or someone else deserving of a thoughtful gift? Why not put together a veggie basket instead of buying flowers and a card, or worse yet, a gift certificate they’ll most likely end up losing.
Summer is a great time to harvest some really colorful fruits and veggies. A nice deep, purple eggplant adds even more color options, along with various shades of fresh snipped herbs for arromatic accents.
Do you hate watering? Then dive into the succulent family for easy maintenance and cool plant textures. Oscularia deltoides is a unique-looking plant ideal for hot, sunny rock gardens. The plant only reaches 4 inches in height making it a great ground cover in front of the border.
Oscularia creates a dramatic color contrast planted beneath black plants, like this Euphorbia ‘Blackbird’, with its grey-green leaves and pink blush stems.
Check out my cute little eggplant baby, first one of the season. Well, technically the second, because the first one rotted. I hadn’t realized it was hidden under some big leaves in the middle of the plant. Since eggplants need 60 – 95 warm days to produce worthy fruit, and yes, it’s technically a fruit, I chose the ‘Dusky’ variety for it’s purple fast-maturing characteristics.
I’ve pricked myself a few times on their thorny little branches, which makes pruning a pain (no pun intended). However, I must say my little frenchie named Leo hasn’t given it a second look after taking a prick in the schnoz.
Oval fruit varieties can grow quite large, up to 4 feet, and need staking when their heavy fruits start weighing down the branches. Plant a Japanese eggplant if your tight on space or limited to a small patio or balcony. Great for growing in containers. Knowledge is power. Pass it on!
Photo #1: Our herb garden is planted at the front of our southwest perennial border and consists of Thyme (Thymus ‘Aureus’), Purple Sage (Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurea’), Onion Chives (Allium schoenoprasum), Green Sage (Salvia officinalis), Oregano (Origanum vulgare) and Cilantro (Coriandrum). We love cilantro on salads, in burritos, Cilantro Lime Rice, but my absolute favorite is Cilantro Pesto Grilled Shrimp on the BBQ.
My New York designer friend and blogger for Garden Bytes from the Big Apple, Ellen Zachos, invited me to enter their blog’s first photo contest Blue Ribbon Herbs. So take out your camera and snap a few photos of your favorite herbs. You might just win a special something. Below are the rules, but be sure to check out her blog for prize info and photo ideas.
Looking for natural pest control products for your garden? Well, I just bought Aphid Chaser by Oak Stump Farms at a local garden center. The company guarantees to “disrupt Aphid colonies and ward them off” by using powerful pheromones.
I haven’t had the chance to test the product, but the idea is very intriguing. I plan to attach to my euphorbias and blog about the results later. Has anyone used a product like this before?
