CasaSugar

Garden Therapy: Inspiration From the Garden Girl

CasaSugar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:00:42 -0700

Two weekends ago I built a new garden box and planted it, and just this morning, my beet and zinnia seedlings were poking through the soil! It was so nice to see some of my hard work start to pay off. Gardening is an exercise in patience, and setbacks such as aphids or bad weather can sometimes frustrate even the most dedicated new gardener.

When I need outside inspiration, I often look to other gardening heroes for a quick boost of garden happiness. If you're feeling the need for a little inspiration, then check out this video from The Gardening Girl, Patti Moreno. She took a parking lot and turned it into a gorgeous urban farm. If that's not inspiring, I don't know what is!

Garden Therapy: Space Conscious Gardening

CasaSugar — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:00:03 -0700

One smart way to take advantage of small spaces when you're gardening is by having plants grow up and not out. Using a trellis and training your plants to grow up it means that you only need a small amount of square footage to grow wonderful crops - including eating or wine grapes. See how The Garden Girl does it in the first part of this series on vertical gardening.

Casa Interview: Patti Moreno, The Garden Girl, Part II

CasaSugar — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:00:57 -0700

Through the rest of the month, as we celebrate Spring and a return to the garden, I'll be screening videos from The Garden Girl. The Garden Girl, Patti Moreno, is an inspiration to aspiring gardeners everywhere. She'd never even touched a trowel until the birth of her first daughter, and now she's established an urban garden paradise at her home in Boston. You can read the first half of my interview with Patti here.

Casa: Are there any plants that you consider no- or low-fail for folks who consider themselves to have less than a green thumb?

The Garden Girl: Mint is pretty hardy and a perennial which means it will come back year after year. I love using mint as a garnish to my lemonade. Last year, mojitos were the house cocktail all summer; I had friends lining up for my summer parties. There are tons of different types of mint. My most prized variety is Chocolate Mint - it's wonderful in coffee and hot chocolate and on ice cream. If you choose something you really love to eat, I think you’ll have more success. Another no fail crop is parsley and oregano. Simple and easy. Like most people, my family eats a lot of lettuce, which is easy to grow in the Spring and Fall, but needs a lot of water in the summer.

Casa: What has been the biggest project you’ve taken on?

The Garden Girl: The biggest project I’ve undertaken was building my new Urban Sustainable Living Garden last year. It’s around 500 square feet and the perfect size to grow enough for a salad at lunch and a vegetable at dinner the entire growing season for a family of six. It was a lot of fun, but the hard part was videotaping the whole process so I could share with others. Adding the video component slowed the process down, because I ended up doing everything at least three times! But I am really proud that I was able to do the whole garden entirely by my self. Ideally, you want to involve your family and neighbors, but I wanted to really show that the system of gardening that I’ve developed can be accomplished, by following through and being committed. I’m only 5’2” so if I can do it, you can too.

Casa: Can you tell us a little about some of the animals you have at your garden?
My bantam chickens are awesome. They’ve become pets of mine. I strongly suggest getting bantam chickens if you are interested in getting livestock. They are about the same size as a pigeon. They are also very trainable. I have Silkies who are perfect for the city because they can’t fly, but my favorites are my Aracauna bantam chickens that lay green and pink eggs. My hen "Rocket" is so cool. She thinks she's an eagle and tries to fly everywhere. Their eggs are delicious and about 2/3 the size of regular large eggs you get at the grocery store and taste so much better. Don't get roosters, it just makes your neighbors angry. I also keep angora rabbits and regular rabbits. I shave the Angora rabbits every three months and spin their fur into yarn, which I make into gifts and hats. My other rabbits just dig and turn the soil for me.

Casa: What are your favorite food crops?

The Garden Girl: Lettuce, lettuce and more lettuce. Growing up I had no idea there were lots of varieties of lettuce. This year I am growing, four season lettuce, bib lettuce, radicchio, kale and arugula. Arugula is so good. It is a huge hit at my mini farm stand I run during the weekends. For herbs, mint and as many varieties of Basil as I can grow from sweet basil to lemon to cinnamon. Fresh basil makes such good pesto sauce that when I entertain I never have leftovers. My other name is the Tomato Lady. I grow mostly heirloom varieties, but my favorite is Mortgage Lifter. Even the name is great. Mortgage Lifter got its name from a farmer who developed it during the depression of the 1930s. It sold so much on his home farm stand that within eight years he had paid off his mortgage. Now that is a tasty tomato.

Casa: What are your favorite flowers to grow?

The Garden Girl: Nasturtiums, which are edible flowers. They add great color to salad and taste peppery. I had a lot of fun with a cool variety of marigolds last year. I love perennials. Peonies are my favorite. I love seeing them bloom and multiply year after year. I have an area in my garden that is a perennial garden that is beautiful all year long. This year I want to get a cutting garden going and be able to have flowers in vases all over my house. I can't overlook my roses though. Not only are they pretty, but living in the city, I have them planted along my fences and under my windows making any trespassers who trespass wish they hadn't.

Source

Gardening . . . in the Winter?

CasaSugar — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:15:43 -0700

While I'm happily indulging in Spring weather here on the West Coast, I realize that the temperatures aren't cooperating in every part of the country. In fact, my mom, who lives in Wisconsin, told me that there was a huge snowstorm just last week! With that in mind, I thought I'd give you some inspiration courtesy of Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl, who shows you how to grow food even in the middle of a snowstorm in chilly Boston! Check out the video to get inspired. You see? You can extend your gardening season even in cold climates.

Casa Interview: Patti Moreno, The Garden Girl

CasaSugar — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:00:50 -0700

CasaSugar Can you talk about how you were first inspired to garden?

Garden Girl Gardening is a great way to exercise and after the birth of my daughter I needed to get active so I started gardening. Going to the gym can be a chore in itself; with travel time and everything else sometimes it doesn’t seem worth it. I found that once I related my gardening to exercise and the notion of supplementing my family's diet with healthy organic food, it all came together for me. It took a while to develop my green thumb; my first couple seasons were pretty depressing.

CasaSugar Does your daughter garden with you?

Garden Girl She does garden with me. The other day she had a play date and they planted their own seeds. It was pretty cool. I love bringing children into the garden; it is part exercise and part science project for children. She’s great with the rabbits too.

CasaSugar Are there any community gardens in Boston that you recommend residents check out?

Garden Girl Community gardens are such a great resource for people that want to garden, but don’t have any space. It’s also a great way to get to know your neighbors. In Highland Park, where I live, there are quite a few community gardens, in fact from Google earth my neighborhood has the most canopy cover and community gardens in all of Boston. I would suggest taking a tour of community gardens around your city or town. They are everywhere.

For more of the interview, just read more.

CasaSugar A lot of people associate gardening with very rural areas. As an urban gardener, what are some of your greatest joys? Greatest challenges?

Garden Girl I think some of the most beautiful landscapes can be brick buildings with ivy growing on it and window boxes with wonderful flowers dripping down. In the city, raised bed gardening is the way to go. You never know what was in the soil, so building a garden up is easy. In just 64 square feet you can grow enough food to feed a family of three a salad at lunch and a veggie at dinner for the entire growing season! Combining industrial cityscapes with nature is a great joy. Using plants that give food brings the whole experience to the next level, I personally want to start gardening on roof tops, I think green roofs are the coolest things. My main challenge is that my New England climate does not allow me to do as much as I want all year long, but I still grow all year in mini green houses!

CasaSugar If someone is a beginning gardener, what’s an easy way for them to start gardening?

Garden Girl I always say start off small and expand gradually. But the key to success is getting everyone in your family involved in the process, and understand that it takes a season or two to find your "inner green," and read and research. Learn from other peoples mistakes, like mine.

Patti has a lot more advice and stories about gardening, so tune in later this week for more of the interview!

Introducing The Garden Girl

CasaSugar — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:15:50 -0700

If you're intimated by the very notion of gardening, take a deep breath and relax: it's easier than it looks. This month I'm going to be highlighting videos, tips, and advice from a city girl who used to have a thumb that was anything but green: Patti Moreno, aka, The Garden Girl. I'll be interviewing Patti about gardening ideas later this month. For now, find out how this city girl got her gardening start by watching this video.

Before and After: From Eyesore to Eye Catching

CasaSugar — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:00:20 -0700

One of my gardening heroes, You Grow Girl, recently shared a smart idea for prettifying container gardens. You Grow Girl, aka Gayla Trail, often upcycles five-gallon buckets for tomatoes. While these buckets are very inexpensive and very good for planting, they aren't the prettiest, as you can see from this picture.

To see Gayla's solution to this eyesore, just read more.

Using twine and wicker curtains, she wrapped this natural exterior around the plastic bucket. While the solution may not last for much longer than a year or two, these materials can then be composted. Great solution!

Source

Inspired: The Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum

CasaSugar — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:30:18 -0700

The Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum in London is a new $78 million scientific research and collections facility that opens to the public on Sept. 15, 2009. In this photo, a projection of butterflies shows on the hand of an employee. Besides the butterfly projection, the museum also houses a collection of 17 million insect and three million plant specimens. Inspired by the butterfly projection, I decided to see what other fluttery creatures the home lepidopterologist might love to add to her house.
For an absolutely magical addition to your garden, consider this Neiman Marcus Butterfly Bench ($2,500). Made of steel with a galvanized zinc and epoxy finish, it will stand up to the elements, as well as any little girls that are eager to climb aboard this fanciful, fluttering bench.

Check out my other favorite butterfly finds below!

Link Time!

CasaSugar — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:00:15 -0700

Tour this pretty Austin home. - Design*Sponge
Learn how to make rag-quilt letters. - Craft Zine
Escape to an eclectically styled DC hotel. - AT:DC
Do you agree that these are the most adorable bookends ever? - PointClickHome
Check out the science behind toxic and nontoxic home products. - Re-Nest
Learn more about keeping your garden well watered. - You Grow Girl
Check out the data behind data dishware. - Dwell
I love this garage makeover! - Sunset

Link Time!

CasaSugar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:00:00 -0800

Learn how to make a faux zebra hide rug. - Apartment Therapy
An ode to the delicious dining rooms of Domino's My Deco Files. - SF Girl by the Bay
Show:room is a new online marketplace for independent designers. - Decor8
Finding beautiful new uses for flower-filled eco resin. - Daily Danny
Nick Olsen of Domino starts a new blog. - Nick Olsen's Blog
What are your wildest home-decor dreams? - Simply Stated
Send a felt and fabric love letter to your valentine. - Craft
How climate change could affect the weeds invading your garden. - Forecast Earth