So yes, it’s hard to live in an apartment. But as I already tasted how a garden feels like, there’s no way I’ll settle for anything less than  a small piece of land that I can call mine. That’s what I tell myself: “Land is the only thing that matters, Katie Scarlett O’Hara“. So I’m already thinking in my house in the suburbs, where I’ll finally have a garden, and hopefully, even grow my own vegetables.

Now, call me a garden-freak, but since I’ll probably won’t have the chance to have a secret garden  (and someone who’ll secretly take care of it) I’m thinking of alternatives to have a place where I can sit and relax – have some tea, read a book, and watch my children play with Moosy.

The best idea so far? A pergola. Not only it’s a romantic spot (yes, I mean Liesl and Rolf’s dance in the glass gazebo) but it’s also a perfect way to enjoy your garden in comfort. Good news:  with Lowe’s advice, you can find some recyclable materials for your pergola, making it both eco-friendly and affordable.

One day, when I went outside in the morning, something didn’t seem right,  it took me a minute to realize that my lovely cherry tomato plant was missing, gone, stolen under the cover of the night. I was somewhat shocked and a bit confused as to who would steal a cherry tomato plant, but in a typical Pollyanna attitude hoped that the tomatoes found a good home and people who’ll take care of them and that it won’t happen again. However, like the characters of a cheesy teen horror movie, all of my plants went missing one by one.

For a while there I lost faith in urban gardening and the human race, but then I watched IdealBite’s gardening competition, The Golden Hoe,  and got inspired all over again. In these videos Hanah, Mike and Heather try to grow vegetables in their different San Francisco home settings: indoor, backyard, and rooftop.  And the Golden Hoe goes to:

In this video P. Allen Smith, the outdoor living expert, takes you to where the giant pumpkins grow:

If you have kids, you’ll probably find that many of your holiday activities revolve around pumpkins: taking a trip to a pumpkin patch, carving some of your finds, turning the others into delicious pumpkin pies and roasting the seeds. Yes, this is probably the biggest holiday for your kids and a great chance to enjoy some quality time with them. In this next video P. Allen Smith shows you how you can safely include even your younger children in the pumpkin carving party:

Except that these days urban gardening is hardly a rarity. Rooftops, balconies and little pieces of earth all over the city seem to get covered by flowers, herbs and veggies.  In fact in the U.S. alone, there are an estimated 10,000 community gardens.  Not to mention today’s ultimate trend setter:  First Lady Michelle Obama who planted the new White House vegetable garden with a group of fifth graders.

And so, just like Barbra Streisand told Ryan O’Neal all those years ago: “Listen kiddo, you can’t fight a tidal wave”, I too have succumbed to this earthy enthusiasm.  Recently I moved into a new place with a tiny bit of earth not covered with cement. This called for some serious action. With a little help from my friends I’m now the proud care taker of some scented mint, sassy lemon grass, shy sage and minuscule cherry tomatoes. If all goes well I might risk it and add strawberries or sweet pea later on.  I didn’t forget a small cactus, because you should never forget where you came from.

Happy Earth Day!

I hated our house, my parents, the clouded sky and the darned sheep that seemed to be everywhere you turned – it was like there were following me, conspiring against me. I was as sad and betrayed as every ten-year-old city boy that has been removed from everything he’d ever enjoyed and knew could be. I wish it was like a Disney story, where I discovered a friendly dragon living in a cave, and befriended him, and then we need to hide him from the local police, but they catch him, and me and the girl whom I’m secretly in love with release him to fly to the stars, and even the cold-hearted Police captain, when he sees we believe in magic, suddenly remembers himself as a little boy and orders his men to put down their weapons, and we all look up to the sky and see him disappearing, turning into a star while I shout “Fly burninator! Fly to the stars!”

Alas, that just wasn’t the case. It was a boring place, with boring kids, and I left it the minute I graduated high school, not a moment too soon. But every cloud has a silver lining. Every November 5th, the British celebrate a very educational holiday called Guy Fawkes Night, when they let the kids go off to start fires and play with firecrackers until dawn (while they feast on a fine example of the British cuisine, the groaty pudding). Sure enough, every 5th of November, our bonfire was the biggest in the village.

To make a long story short, one of these years I stole my father’s chainsaw and went to the nearby forest, where my friends and I had the greatest bonfire this village has ever seen since the Black Plague, and felt very good about ourselves. That’s until the cops came to have a little chat with my parents.
Apparently, I chopped down the entire humble Christmas tree plantation that supplied Christmas trees to our village and the surrounding towns. In my defense I can only say I was a city kid, and hey, it looked like a forest to me. It was a sad Christmas in the village, plastic trees in every home. It took me two summers to pay for the damage in work. I learned a lot about how to pick the right tree, and how it is actually more ecological to use a live one than to purchase plastic trees.

So if you too want get yourself a live tree for this Christmas, the Green House is here to the rescue with an excellent video on how to get one.

They peak at a relatively young age and for a while get to be the center of attention, live a life of glitz and glam, loved and adored by everyone watching them. But what happens when the lights go out? As soon as the show ends, we just cast them aside without ever giving them a second thought. They have served their purpose.

Yes, it’s a cold world out there for a Christmas tree come mid-January – where will it turn? What will become of it?!?

Well, just like a middle-aged ballerina, your Xmas tree should consider a second career. It can be recycled: turned into mulch and used in gardening or chipped and used for hiking trails and paths. Christmas trees can also be used for erosion control and provide habitats for fish and birds. Can’t stand the thought of chipping your old tree? Why not replant or donate it? Show your tree that life begins at February!

As a child, my favorite flower was the poppy. Red paper poppies. The red poppy on the green pinafore was the only accessory we were allowed to wear, so each November, when they came with the poppy baskets, I always ran to get mine.
It never crossed my mind that wearing or not wearing the poppy was such a sensitive topic: Camilla Parker-Bowles,  Lady Diana’s not so popular successor,  removed her poppy claiming that the pin kept on catching in her scarf, causing a negative response on war veterans who saw this as an “insult”. Others prefer to replace the poppy for a peace symbol in Remembrance Day. And although wearing the poppy is a personal decision and therefore you could do it all year long, doing so before November 1st or after November 13th might be considered pretentious. Also, if you’re a soldier in uniform, don’t even think about showing off your poppy while shopping in Harrods: you might be offending the other customers.

My advice? Wear your poppy with discretion, keeping in mind the real meaning of it.

As these poppies aren’t the opium ones that will make you fall asleep while trying to get to  Oz nor will produce morphine or  heroin, hurry up and get yours, as this is the perfect time to do so. And don’t worry, if you get there late, you can always grow your own:

Despite living in the middle of the city, I’ve been lucky enough to rent an apartment with two huge porches that happen to get quite a healthy does of sunshine, so slowly but surely Dave’s gardening videos and DIY spirit began to call out to me like a siren song – and I had to pull on my gardening gloves and get to work.

To me, gardening always seemed like something that requires a lot of time, plenty of research before planting anything, and of course, something that is surely to go awry on the hands of a city girl such as myself. But after raising my first crop of organic root vegetables in a raised bed on my porch, which yielded yummy root vegetables that kept my kitchen full all winter long (I think I tried almost every recipe for squash soup out there), I feel I am ready for my next challenge – flowers, or rather bulbs.

Surprisingly enough, right when the gardening season seems to be winding down to a halt, it’s the perfect time to get out there and plant bulbs, for an amazing zap of color come springtime. So this weekend I went a little crazy and headed over to the local market to pick up a stash of bulbs – daffodils, freesia, tulips and iris, all now tucked in my fridge for a brief blast of cold to wake them up before planting day.

It was quite hard to pick which bulbs to go with – with such a large variety of colors and aromas available for most temperate climate zones, the array is endless and tempting. One of my sure bets was the Narcissus, however, since I like the Greek mythology background this flower boasts – according to myth, this plant first reared its head where the Greek Narcissus had died, after having become so obsessed with his own reflection in the water that he gazed at it until, by some accounts, he fell into the water and drowned, and by other accounts, starved to death motionlessly.

If you find yourself working up a green sweat of envy while reading this, relax – you can unleash your inner green thumb as well, with minimal effort. In order to show off a hypnotizing color palette in the spring, you’ve got to put in your work now, and plant in the fall. Generally speaking, it’s recommended to plant bulbs in early to mid-Autumn, about 4 to 6 weeks before the first frost in your area. Since I reside in a relatively sunny climate where an Indian summer is the rule and not the exception, the local nursery experts recommended giving the bulbs I bought a cool shock by storing them in the fridge for a week prior to planting. Typically, bulbs prefer sunlight and moist (but not wet) soil. If you’re unsure about where to plant bulbs in your garden or yard, look for a place that gets at least a few good hours of sunlight, and make sure to perform a soil test to check on the PH levels. One of the best things about growing bulbs is that they can continue to light up your garden for several seasons – you can plant the leftover bulbs when the next season rolls around, meaning sustainable and reusable beauty for garden, indoors or out.

If you plan on using pots or containers to grow your bulbs, make sure that these containers have holes that allow water drainage, otherwise your bulbs will suffer from moisture overkill. One of the greatest advantages to growing your bulbs in pots or containers is that you will be able to move them around when needed, as opposed to planting them directly in the ground.

So what does it take to actually plant these babies? Take a cue from Dave and Growing Wisdom: