Spotted at @communedesign, a compelling idea for an impromptu plant stand at @hotcactus_la: stacked bricks. It reminded us of a story about bricks we saw in Apartamento years ago. What if we drew on some of THESE beauties from the vast and surprising world of bricks?
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Every time I see this photograph of a garden festooned with vintage rugs, I want to beam myself there Star Trek-style and lounge, reading, drinking tea, napping, with friends or alone. It reminds me of Morocco where the hot, dry weather encourages making outdoor environments with rugs. We can create them too. at least for a party’s worth of hours.
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Worry and overwhelm are common emotions these days. This morning, we found two simple things that shifted us out of them.
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Piet Oudolf is an artist who uses plants as his medium. He changed how we see landscapes and the possibilities of our own gardens.
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Artist Coco Capitan’s silver gelatin print, “plants framing plants”, got us thinking about the wonder of the frame, and ways to use it outdoors and in, as photographer Maria Robledo so brilliantly improvised.
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One of the best ways we know to create outdoor lighting magic in warm months are with Shoji Solar Lanterns…
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Walking along the overgrown path near the Snow Leopard’s lair in the Central Park Zoo, I found two bricks inscribed with a poem, nestled into the dirt …
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In NYC’s hidden landmark, Amster Yard, is an extraordinary optical illusion: a mirror framed inside an overgrown arch to evoke expansive garden beyond. An idea to steal.
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E. Jean Carroll, the longest running advice columnist in history, lives alone on a small island in the woods of upstate New York.This short video profile gives us a glimpse of a pure original whose carved out a completely original life, in the mainstream, yet completely OUT.
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We were happy to find a lot of do-able, you-don’t-have-to-have-a-million-dollar-estate projects in Gardenista: The Definitive Guide to Stylish Outdoor Spaces. We used our x-ray vision to cool ideas applicable to all sorts of venues.
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Last night, we found ourselves sitting in early 20th century French architect and designer Pierre Chareau’s garden in Paris, looking at a leafy wall, and at the lovely pattern of flag stones, after we’d wandered through his extraordinary Maison de Verre. We advise going there right now. Here’s how.
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My conversation with JC Miller yielded a remarkable lesson about creativity and healing. It came via his mentor, Robert Royston, one of California’s foremost Modernist landscape architects.
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I was about to chop a bunch of chives from my CSA when I noticed it was full of pink flowers and buds. I stopped dead, realizing I almost missed the little gift hidden in plain sight. Dinner could wait. I culled the flowers from the bunch… …and snipped their ends to make them last longer… …arranging them…
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When a friend tasted the wild plum that had been fallen in pine needles, she “got” plum and pine and by association ROSEMARY. I’ve used the technique of tasting foods that sat side by side “just to see” for many years to discover new and often unlikely flavor pairings. Here are 10 favorites, including a Plum and Raspberry Crisp with Lavender.
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On the heels of our post about Staging a Summer Party with Modest Means, frequent contributor Susan Dworski sent this email about Shoji Solar Lanterns, an essential, inexpensive, mood-enhancing element that are, in her words “Pretty damned lunar at night”: Ironically, I just replaced my tattered red Shoji solars yesterday with the familiar bluebird ones. They are…
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Now that it’s getting to be THAT time of year — the trees will soon be in bud, and warm weather upon us —we yen to hang out on stoops and stairs. We’re smitten with this StairChair that solves the problem of back support or needing a wide enough surface to lie down and snooze…
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The folks of Beaver Brook, “a forest preserve shared by a community of friends in Sullivan County, NY,” have put a creative twist on the traditional woodsy escapes we so lust after. Check out the wooden hot tub overlooking everything… …and the curvaceous little skate park flanked by acres and acres of trees… Everything communal and…
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In a recent ramble around New York, we came upon this classical iron fence, transformed by grapevine. The fence acts like a loom or structure through which someone wove grapevine in and out to make for much greater privacy and a warmer, more organic feel. And of course, that got us looking up grapevine (which…
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Photographer Virginia del Giudice has been sending us sightings from her travels in Amsterdam of random brilliant “everyday” improvisations the Dutch have come up with. Here’s a favorite: numbered tiles formed into a hopscotch grid and placed permanently on the sidewalk, for a quick spontaneous skip and jump on your way to do an errand or go…
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Five years ago we began profiling an intrepid group of urban farmers, all of whom have the day job of taxi driver. They’ve “borrowed” pieces of unused open land in various corners of New York City and turned it into bread and butter – or rather into corn, beans, tomatoes, grapes, herbs and whatever else they can…
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