image from strainguide

iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iGrow?   The latest fashion in gardening can be found at a newly opened superstore in Oakland California.  It’s called iGrow and it is 15,000 sq ft of retail space dedicated to all things related to growing marijuana.  Just marijuana; they haven’t ventured into helping customers grow other things, but the ‘Grow Squad’ (this place seems bent on ripping off other companies branding) will spend up to 3 hours with you -  helping you set up your system of fans, lights, and hydroponics….maybe traditional garden centers should think about this level of customer service?

I am about to lose countless happy hours to my new favorite blog.  It is called Fennel and Fern and it an amazing collection of posts from some of my favorite garden bloggers.  It is written by a gaggle of of writers and designers, but was founded by Isabel Eyre.  Her helpers, Debbie of Carrots and Kids, Chris and Harald of vegalicious, Kathy, Sarah, Ryan of Ryan’s Garden, and Susan pitch in to cover everything from rare plants to recipes to gardening with children.  It is really a great mix and makes for an exciting blog after my own heart.

Isabel is a fan of the inspiration board too and I am really enjoying this potager (Kitchen) garden and the “raffish” garden below.

Image credits, from left to right: Martine at http://www.banlieusardises.com/; Oscar de la Renta’s vegetable garden, by Richard Felber at Domino Magazine; cat among nasturtiums by Microsoft; artichoke by Karen; Dorset Cereals Edible Playground Garden at Chelsea 2008, courtesy of the RHS; Oscar de la Renta’s garden, as above; potager design by Michelle; forcing pots in West Dean kitchen garden by Andrew; potager design courtesy of Country Living; Oscar de la Renta’s garden as above; designs for Oscar de la Renta’s garden, as above; Gardens of Plenty by Marylyn Abbott; Potager design by Sylvie Guillem; Marigolds and dahlias in potager at Growing appetite; Rural garden by Moser’s Maroon; potager by Noisy Sound.

Coincidentally, when I found Fennel and Fern I noticed the terracotta rhubarb forcers in the above board….I have been researching rhubarb since last year; my own installation of three plants is, I think, probably not going to make it through the winter.  I love the stuff and dream of having it grow wildly out of control as my mother did when I was a kid, so I need to sort out what went wrong…my research introduced me to rhubarb forcers – though not probably the answer to my problem, I am wondering why I cant find a US based outlet for these lovely garden implements?hmmm…. And – any rhubarb tips would happily be appreciated.

What defines a “Celtic Garden”?  Well, from these pictures – a show piece of an appropriately named garden design firm in Michigan, I would say, a rustic elegance, old world stonework and lots of green.

Celtic Gardens has created Irish inspired gardens all over the world and their signature is stonework with a unique style that gives a garden a sense of antiquity and old world charm.

This sunken garden is pretty in its own right, but I have to wonder if this was a great way of dealing with a removed swimming pool?

The Celtic style garden is meant to evoke the spirit of the Celtic lifestyle and the relationship that the Celts had with their natural surroundings.  With a reputation for having open homes and an out going nature,  the Celtic Christian community, created gardens that showed their sense of journey and adventure.  They sought to welcome visitors, give them a place to rest, reflect and make music so that they could resume their journey nourished and refreshed.

I am not sure that I have thought of a garden having such a noble sense of purpose but I like the sentiment and think I will keep it in mind when designing future gardens.   Do you think of your garden having a purpose like this? If so what is it?

How about some innovative ideas to wrap up the week?  This one comes from French company B-ton Design.

How many times have you shied away from a table because it is already occupied by one person.  Some people are comfortable and others feel like it is perhaps intrusive to plop yourself down next to a stranger at a typical picnic table.  By design, this attractive picnic table seems to encourage singles and small groups to intermingle and use the furniture.

Europeans are also quite forward thinking when it comes to bike-able cities (at least as compared to US cities).  This is a lovely accessory for city bikers.

found at like cool.

It is simply for holding onto while waiting for the light to change.   It is located in a Copenhagen traffic circle. When I visited Floriade years ago (outside of Amsterdam) we biked from the city to the garden show.  We got a little lost and those flat distances are farther than they appear but I always remember how welcoming the city was to those on bikes.  The foot rest reads: “Hi, cyclist! Rest your foot here… and thank you for cycling in the city.”

And here is another interesting concept….

Seems futuristic perhaps, but it is actually a quite well thought out concept By Bulgarian architect Martin Angelov.  It is called Kolelinia.  Click trough to see more of the design details.  What I think is exciting about this concept is that the tree tops would start to take on a greater interest in urban settings.  While they would continue to provide shade at the street level and carbon reduction throughout, the bike lanes would ride along at canopy height, giving a whole new way to view some of our urban landscaping and surely exciting evolutions in design.

also found at like cool.

This daily garden was created by Mindscape in a residential garden in Japan.

Thankfully a picture is worth a thousand words, because, the entire site is in Japanese.  But if you read Japanese and want to know more about the project, click here.

It seems to me that there are a plethora of ideas to take away from this design.  I have a penchant for stripes, so organizing a design in this fashion is always appealing to me.  Filling the extra wide gaps between the concrete with colorful stone is interesting.

I am also quite drawn to the straight stemmed mini trees against the fence.  They are so airy, so straight stemmed and orderly.  Does anyone have an idea about what they might be? What is your favorite part?

Have you seen this video?

I have now watched it and a couple others in the same vein about 50 times as I am preparing an article for Landscape Middle East on the subject of ‘greening the desert’.   I am curious what you think? I am learning so much about permaculture right now and am quickly becoming fascinated with the subject.  I am curious what you know about all of this?  It all sounds too good to be true, which gives me pause.  Is there really such a simple answer?  what gives you pause or are you a permaculture champion?  should we, as gardeners, all be talking incessantly about natural gardening?  Can we really save the world?  Let’s discuss.