Urban Gardens

Boing: Here’s a container garden ready for spring, or for springing. Philadelphia University Industrial Design student, Elana Lopez, repurposed the inner spring of a mattress to create this portable container garden for submission to Real Simple magazine.

I’d love to … Read More...

Metal topped tables with driftwood feet

When I think of driftwood, I think of a hideous glass topped driftwood table that graced some of my friend’s homes where I grew up near the beach in California. This was before anyone … Read More...

Palo Alto, California manhole cover

When I come across a beautiful sewer drain cover, I feel a little flicker of joy seeing an object covering a not-so-pleasant space bringing a bit of beauty to the environment.

Matsimoto, Japan

In Japan … Read More...

What started out two years ago as the whimsical project of Fedor, a Dutch fellow about whom nobody seems to know much, has blossomed into a series of string gardens: planted hanging gardens that are a variation of … Read More...

With 110 transparent plastic food containers filled with leaves, branches, and a lighting source, “Packaged Vertical Gardens” climb the walls in Madrid, an urban vertical garden installation as commentary on the scarcity of available public green space.

In seeking to … Read More...

“We may be going back to the land, but lots of us are bringing our smart phones and laptops along,” comments Destin Joy Layne, director of the Eat Well Guide, a free online directory of fresh, locally grown and … Read More...

Primroses are literally blooming on the streets of Oxford, England. “If we planted one of those in every hole, it would be like a forest in the road,” says Britain’s self-proclaimed pothole gardener, Pete Dungey. Guerrilla gardening efforts such … Read More...

It can’t help you cross the street, but EYE is a flowerpot through which you can view a plant’s root system. Why would you want to do that? EYE can provide information about soil humidity and conditions, light level, and … Read More...

Line Clone, Tubular Steel, 2010, Onur Mustak Cobanli

Italian design studio OMC has a portfolio of cool bench designs that I can easily imagine gracing an urban landscape, either public or residential. The designers offer production and materials suggestions and … Read More...

Barn owl photo from 50birds.com

My Dirt du Jour newsletter arrived today with this wonderful live video feed of a mother owl sitting on her eggs. While her mate, McGee , is out hunting food for her, mama owl Molly … Read More...