Oven Canning 101: Easy Cardamom Flavored Pears
I was one of those Laura Ingalls Wilder girls who grew up trying to churn butter while costumed in my mother's gingham apron. (Perhaps you were a Little House on the Prairie addict, too. Remember tying...
View Article65 Backyard Plants You Didn't Know You Could Eat
For me, foraging for edible plants has always been limited to the few I know best. Wild blackberries until my stomach hurts? Check. Linden in the springtime? Always. Stolen juneberries? Guilty. But...
View Article5 Favorites: Summery Green Roofs in the City
The day is coming when gardens will be a more common sight than black tar on a roof. Here are a few green roofs we've been admiring: Above: Just planted. In a year, the grasses and sedums will grow...
View Article10 Secrets for Growing an Urban Balcony Garden
Raised in South Africa by a mother who is a ferociously good gardener, Marie Viljoen had one non-negotiable requirement when she went apartment hunting in Brooklyn. "I took this tiny, tiny apartment...
View ArticleA Stylish Way to Water Plants While You're Away
Spotted on Anthropologie, a clear glass ball to fill with water to keep house plants happy when you go out of town for the weekend: Above: A mouth-blown glass Garden Water Ball will keep house plants...
View ArticleMust-Have Flower: All About Veronicastrum
Some plants look good at every stage: hydrangea comes to mind, and veronicastrum. Tall airy plants like the calamagostris grass and veronicastrum can work well in small gardens. Nectar-rich flowers...
View ArticleUrban Garden Hangers
Not your mother's macrame plant hangers: Authentic's Urban Garden Plant Bags offer a decidedly modern means to create an indoor garden when space is tight. Above: Made of black coated polyester fabric,...
View ArticleA City Garden With a Spectacular View
When Kim Potter and Bob Miller gaze out the windows of their San Francisco home, they see a spectacular cityscape—and when they peer down into their own backyard, they're treated to an equally...
View ArticleCocktail Hour: A Sour Cherry Rickey
After I bought my first pint of sour cherries at the market this summer, I took them home, pitted them in the afternoon sunlight, and mashed them into one of the more delicious cocktails I've enjoyed...
View ArticleFrom Italy With Love: The World's Best View From a Terrace
In the northern Italian city of Mantova, Diego Cisi and Stefano Gorni Silvestri of Archiplan Studio designed a streamlined terrace on the top floor of a family home originally built in the 1600s. The...
View ArticleIndustrial Chic: Instant Trellis
Here's a clever idea: Metal grid panels used as a trellis. Portland, OR-based Craig Olson and Sean Igo (their shop Canoe is one of our favorites anywhere) recently renovated a townhouse in Scottsdale,...
View ArticleMust-Have: Shiny Portable Planting Boxes
Think of them like miniature raised beds. You can fold up Shift_Design's new lightweight aluminum tiles as if they were cardboard boxes to create a portable garden on a balcony, deck, or rooftop....
View ArticleAnd in the Winners' Circle... Brooklyn's Greenest Block
In the strange way that past events can suddenly become relevant and influential in the present, a filmmaker's groundbreaking achievement 44 years ago helped to propel a Brooklyn block to the winning...
View ArticleIn the News: The Week's 5 Top Posts
What does summer in the city look like? We can report that the fire escape tomatoes are thriving. This week we visited gardens in downtown Antwerp, in hilly San Francisco, on a tiny fourth-floor...
View ArticleHike of the Week: Brooklyn Bridge Park
When New York City temperatures got stuck in the high 90's for a long week in July, sweat and misery seemed to be everywhere. But some people were brave enough to unglue themselves from their air...
View ArticleA Bird Feeder Inspired by a Modern Masterpiece (Lucky Birds)
In 1929, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe changed the way architects thought about buildings with his pavilion for the International Exposition in Barcelona. With a modernist nod to classicism, it became an...
View ArticleTravel Guide: 10 Tips for Avoiding (Other) Tourists
Barcelona is the seventh most popular destination in Europe, a fact that filled me with trepidation before I flew there for an eight-day stay last month. I don't like crowds (I have three children,...
View ArticleLive (or at Least Lodge) Like a Catalonian
For those of us not lucky enough to live in Barcelona, there's a network of rental apartments that will allow us to indulge in a Catalonian fantasy. For availability and prices, go to Destination BCN....
View ArticleTransplanted from London, an 'Unemployable Chef' Finds a Home in Barcelona
Barely three blocks away from Barcelona's tourist-infested main thoroughfare, on a quiet side street in another world entirely is Caravelle—with fantastic coffee and a menu that faithfully follows the...
View ArticleThe Best Secret Garden in Barcelona
Twenty four years ago, Spanish artist and animator Javier Mariscal discovered an abandoned leather factory on Barcelona's rundown east side. The cavernous complex had crumbling buildings, a smokestack,...
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