I love me a good terrarium, so I’m diggin these beauties from Score + Solder. Matthew Cleland, the “traveling gypsy” behind S+S, hand solders these amazing hanging and tabletop capsules himself before planting and styling. Check out more geometric biospheres after the jump:

- Curt

Spotted on Anthology Magazine

Now that our new place has a yard, I’ve got a way to get my green thumb on. House plants are fine, but they just don’t cut it. If you’ve seen our wedding pics or spent any time on this blog, you know we’ve got a thing for succulents. So two weeks into our place I’ve already brought the succ to the backyard.

This vintage hardwood dresser was abandoned in the garage and I knew right away I could do something cool with it. Check out the process after the jump:

First off, I drilled a bunch of drainage holes in each drawer. Succulents hate sitting in soggy soil. After that, I sectioned off the drawers so I wouldn’t need to fill the entire drawer with dirt, which meant putting in concrete garden edgers from Home Depot and some spare bricks we had out back. As I moved up from the bottom to top drawer the bricks got closer and closer to the front of the drawer.

Project Costs:
- Dresser = Free
- 3 Bags of Cactus & Palm mix ~$15
- 6 Edgers (should have gotten 9) ~$12
- Succulents ~$55

Total ~$82 but I could have easily done it for under $70 if I was more patient about some of the succulents. Target and Walmart always have pretty cheap arrangements I can break up, but I didn’t feel like making the trek.

Most of the big succulents came from Costco. 3 half-gallon plants for $12.95! YOU CANNOT BEAT THAT! Between plants for me and my mom, I think I’ve singlehandedly cleaned out half of the Sherman Oaks Costco’s inventory (BTW this is the only Costco I’ve ever seen sell succulents). So cheap. I bought a few more little succs at the local OSH, only because I didn’t want to wait around for a better deal elsewhere or get cuttings from my mom in OC. And then I may have “borrowed” a few cuttings from the sorely neglected landscaping of the apartment complex next door as fillers. Anyway, it turned out amazing! If I do say so myself.

Here are a couple more sneak peaks around the backyard of the ol’ Bear Cave 2.0. My plan is to have it really tricked out by the 4th of July. We’ll see what shakes out.

There isn’t enough indoor wall space for the painted picture frames from the old bedroom, so they made their way to the backyard and add immediate visual pow!

There’s no irrigation system and a bunch of funky dead stumps strewn about, but in the wise words of Tim Gunn, I’ll “make it work”.

- Curt

Following in the footsteps of vertical garden pioneer, Frenchman Patrick Blanc, Swedish landscape architect Michael Hellgren helping to bring nature indoors. Michael’s Stockholm based Vertical Garden Designs also has offices in Lisbon and Barcellona and is interested in global projects. There’s something powerful about these gardens – they command attention. And when paired with beautifully minimalist scandinavian design you get a wonderful ying and yang of structured form and organic chaos. Check out more amazing installations after the jump:

VGD’s use of mirrors is a great way to magnify their garden’s presence – a technique I think I may try with my next woolly pocket or vertical garden. FYI – our woolly isn’t doing to hot. It took a turn for the worst while we were away in DEN. It’s getting a refresh after the move.

- Curt

Annnnnnd we’re back! The Holiday Haze is lifting. The Douglas Fir is in the dumpster. The suitcases are unpacked. Back to business as usual. I hope Santa was good to you and your loved ones. And now summer is on the horizon, hoah yeah I said it. It’s never too early to dream of warm breezes and eating outside.

I think these amazing string gardens help spurn that summer feeling, don’t you? There’s not a lot of info on this collective, but you can contact them to get your own little hanging gem.

Artemisia is rad. Y’all know how much we love our succulents/air plants/terrariums… and that is what they DO. A whole store filled with all the awesome stuff you could ever imagine putting in a terrarium. We were like kids in a candy store.

Our pictures honestly don’t do the place justice. It was so well designed, with unexpected surprises half-hidden on the shelves and tucked in around the succulent displays.

We picked up a few of those oyster shells, some black sand, and bright green moss. Curt already put our souvenirs into action… I’m sure we’ll have pictures up for you soon. We’re still on the hunt for a big nautilus shell to add to the mix… anyone have ideas on where to look?

A sea fan would look pretty sweet, too, but it was a bit too delicate to try to take back on the plane. There was so much amazing stuff to look at… I think we spent almost an hour in there even though the store was only about half the size of our apartment! Make sure Artemisia is on your list if you’re planning a trip to Portland anytime soon.

- Jessica

Have y’all seen those commercials for the Pepsi Refresh Project? It’s a pretty sweet concept… if you have an idea for a way to make a positive change in your community, you submit it to Pepsi and then collect as many votes as you can. The two ideas with the most votes get $250,000 to turn those ideas into reality! Well, our buddy Miguel Nelson had this awesome idea to create thousands of edible gardens at schools all over the country. Using his Woolly Pockets, soil, and organic seeds, Miguel has already set up quite a few gardens at local schools here in L.A. There’s even a full curriculum so the students can learn about gardening and healthy eating as they watch their fruits and vegetables grow!

Even though our Woolly Pocket isn’t holding lettuce or strawberries, it sure does make our cramped little bathroom a bit more pleasant. You can see the original installation here, and the upgrade here. We LOVE our Woolly and we think it would be awesome if kids all over the country got Woolly Gardens for their schools! If you think it’s a cool idea too, please click here and vote! You can also click here to learn more about Woolly School Gardens and how they work.

- Jessica

- Curt

Japanese artist Koshi Kawachi developed this unique way to sprout veggies by re-purposing old graphic novels. His manga sprouts are on display at in an installation at the Matsuzakaya department store in Nagoya, Japan.

- Curt

found on Polkadot

See that broad leafed plant in the foreground of the picture on the left? Well that plant stinks. Literally. It was a farty smelling plant, so it had to go. It wasn’t just this particular plant; I have since smelled other plants of the same species at nurseries, and they too are gassy. Don’t worry about Mr. Stinky, he has found a nice place in our living room away from our nostrils. It was more that it was in the perfect position to offend the olfactories since the Woolly Pocket is near face level in the bottle-neck that is our bathroom doorway. Anyway, with the addition of a beautiful leafy yellow hanging plant and a variegated bromeliad (which I had always envisioned adding) I think we made quite an upgrade, if I do say so myself.

- Curt

…and I still have my bouquet. It’s grown a lot and it looks a little different, but still… pretty cool.

And that’s why succulents are awesome.

- Jessica