indoor garden

The next time you buy a batch of basil at the grocery store or farmer's market, don't throw away the stems! Leave a few leaves on any basil cutting that is 3 to 5 inches long. Then, pinch off the flowers on the top of the basil, cut a clean, angled end on the basil, and stick it in some water. Place it in a bright location and within a few weeks you should have enough root growth to plant a crop of basil.

Don't want to send roses this Valentine's Day? Then consider giving that special someone a Year of Seeds ($70). Your favorite gardener can grow a windowsill garden year round with this unique starter kit of easy-to-grow seeds. Simply place the included soil pellets and seeds into the pots, add water, and watch the flowers come to life — one month at a time. Seeds include petunias, marigolds, pansies, lobelia, alyssum, zinnias, impatiens, baby's breath, dianthus, cosmos, poppies, and sweet peas, and come with an earthenware pot featuring an etched illustration of the corresponding flower.

Pink isn't the only color that you should decorate your Love Shack with this month. In fact, green is my favored choice for sending valentines. The Heart Garden ($10) is the perfect Valentine's Day gift for that green-thumbed friend of yours. Each heart garden contains a heart-shaped container, creeping thyme seed, soil, and granite drainage medium. It's the kind of fun, simple, and reasonably priced present that will keep on giving months from now — and if you live in a harsh Northern climate, it'll be a fun kitchen window gardening project to tide your gardening friend over until the snow melts.

This indoor fabric garden melds two of my favorite obsessions: sewing and gardening. Part hanging plant, part green art installation, this installation features lovely fabrics and plants, and the hanging containers are fashioned from reused lampshades.

Have you ever tried to make your garden into art?

via Inhabitat

This Sunday, April 22, marks the 38th annual Earth Day and one of the tips that FitSugar recommends to be healthy and green at the same time is to "eat local fruits and vegetables." I'm all for eating locally, but I don't think it gets much more local than your own backyard. I personally don't have much of a green thumb and need all the help I can get (although I actually brought an almost dead tree back to life last summer!). However, I think I've found something that even the blackest of thumbs can manage. This miniature edible indoor garden is just the perfect size and needs little maintenance (just some water). I think it will look so cute on my desk (which is a bonus, because if it's on my desk I probably won't forget to water it). It comes with the interesting structure, four reusable felt pads with seed packets (clover, cress, lettuce and mustard) and a packet refill. All you have to do is provide the water and you're in business. Oh and it'll look adorable next to these little egglings. Happy Earth Day!

Source: Outblush