public service announcement

I know this is silly and it's old news for most, but Top Shop the best clothing and accessory store for the ladies is finally opening a place in the USA. Unfortunately it's being parked on Broadway in SoHo so it will be a crowd fighting experience which would usually keep me away...but I've been waiting for this day for years. The store opens mid October(ish). In the meantime you can shop their website.

worst assistant ever!

ok...no more cat pictures after this one.

Flowering Dusty Miller

I found this flowering Dusty Miller on a terrace yesterday which caught me by surprise because I only know this plant as purely foliage and the flower spike is nothing subtle and reminded me of an agave or yucca. (It's the silvery plant with the yellow flower.)

cats

i met this cat at a clients house today. He lured me to the stair case and he got these crazy cat eyes and then...pop, he hit me. Unlucky for him, he's been declawed.

conceptual Urban Farming gone mad

So apparently, there's this guy Dr. Despommier at Columbia who teaches the public health graduate program and about ten years ago he and his students made up some fairy tale, futuristic, vertical urban farms. If you read the article above you will see them in the slide show. Not only are they huge, but some of them are made of glass and are supposed to run "naturally" from solar light and wind. He created these because our cities have run out of old fashioned farm land and these towers of food farming will feed everyone locally.
It doesn't take a genius to know that these towers would be insanely expensive to build but they will also be expensive and not practical to run. The glass towers will turn into hot houses and the hydropnic irrigation sounds like you will need a full house of horticulturalists to keep the place in check from fungus, insects and mechanical problems. I would also like to note that there are plenty of empty and bare lots all over NYC that only need some raised beds and some TLC. Does everything have to be such a freaking spectacle of architecture and glam for the public just to simply get it?

Babies everywhere

Today in the garden:

oh hello

in human years, these are about 28 years old and they will be best consumed when they are 80ish in age (and temperature)

This man might be the reason for the yoga and obsessive workout craze!

Of course being active and healthy is important but I hate when people have to talk about it. My least favorite conversation (that will only happen in NY or LA) is the one that involves people talking about "yucky" food that will make then fat or a conversation that involves how much one spends in the gym or a working out. These beautiful scans are from a book my friend Carissa gave to me and Jason. Slim Goodbody used to scare me when I was little maybe because he either has no penis or he tucks in between his legs. Besides that, as I was paging through the book I caught mention of yoga and all the gym class motivational speak that you can catch in your corner NYSports club. I still have more research to do but I think that in 1983, Slim Goodbody and his creepy noodle limbs, was the beginning of the boring and epidemic personal trainer life that this city lives in:

Liberty Sunset recap

I've been meaning to write about my recent visit to Liberty Sunset Garden Center in Red Hook and I've been slacking, but when I got a comment from an anon comment yesterday from old posting about the garden center it reminded me that I need to write about my new visit experience.
About a week and a half ago I had to buy a few perennials and annuals for a client in Brooklyn and I knew that Liberty had expanded but I must tell you, they've expanded into fields of greenhouses and perennials beds FULL of amazing things. It is like a true suburban nursery and the selection I left with was the best I have ever purchased in the city. So city gardeners, landscapers and other freelancers, kiss LI goodbye and definitely go check out Libertys new space. It's about time someone is putting up smart competion against Chelsea Garden Center. (It's not so easy finding the perennial, tree and shrub area but just head towards the key lime pies and if you don't see it by then just ask one of the staffers.) web link above.