Dormant seed pods, and other cool things.

Here's a seed pod in its' "latent" phase.

I will always love all things botanical, as today I give special "thanks" to my mom for being there with me, at home in her gardens, speaking their names to me in Latin or French whenever I wanted, (because she wrote her Master's dissertation in French way back in the early 60s, as one of the few women at her university to major in science), and for my deep, abiding love of all plant life. I think Springtime is so exciting, while we wait for life that was once dormant to burst back into riotous life. I know can't wait to see the show. Here we go again!

Up close and personal with nature!

Two seed pods are better than one!

A different view reveals a nautilus shape. Cool!

Can't wait for the "big show" to start! Gotta love Springtime.

P.S. - For a special bonus round of "good clean fun", try reading the photo captions aloud to yourself in a strong "New Yawk mutha's" type of accent. 
I dare you to not laugh while you do it!

Gardens and Green Walls: Landscape Design

Landscaped garden in Pearl River, NY.

There are many aspects to country life I enjoy, and access to beautiful landscapes is definitely one of the finer things in life. A sense about natural beauty has informed every major aesthetic I have as an artist and designer. I couldn't imagine my work without them as influences, so high do I hold them up on my list.

I've spent time gardening as a kid, helping my mom with her vegetable garden, and sporadically as an adult, growing herbs in a small backyard space, and it gives you an enormous sense of accomplishment to grow your own food. I've read a saying recently that said it's like growing your own money, and that's true. It is a freedom.

Beyond the undeniably practicality of a kitchen garden, a lush space enhances the home and surroundings in every way. A lovely garden enriches your soul, making you feel good. There's a reason we turn to nature for solace and inspiration: they form the center of every great abbey that's been built, so closely do we tie it to our spiritual health.

I can't imagine New York City without it's great cultural institutions of parks and public gardens, because they serve as essential counterpoints to all that human (and fallible) construction. Even when there's artifice behind the design, the benefits of breathing cleaner air is incalculable to our physical health. Make sure to spend some time outdoors this week, if you can. You'll be the better for it.

See my board on Pinterest for more gardens and green spaces:http://pinterest.com/mariedoucette/gardens-and-green-walls/

Small Town America: The Butterfly Garden

 

 

Scenes from The Butterfly Garden in Nyack, New York.

Around the Way: Goodbye to Autumn

Community Gardens

Community garden on 5th Avenue

Urban centers for living are oft depicted in popular culture as towering babels of doom and gloom. Those of us who remember New York of the 1970s would agree—streets with bombed out wrecks of cars burned and pillaged, entire neighborhoods decimated by crack and crime, lost wastelands from a seemingly post-apocalyptic horror.

But times do change, and we can learn from mistakes of the past. Cities now have mixed residential laws that prevent entire blocks from becoming a ghetto during a fiscal crisis. Public buildings, businesses, and private homes occupy the same street, creating an economic diversity that's necessary to the health of any town.

One of the biggest trends right now is urban farming. Ever had a neighbor who had more tomatoes to give away than they could consume? You would see the benefit that gardening would have on a population: the cost benefits alone make any investor thrill. The investment in seeds and a plot of land versus food output is almost impossible to capture in a spreadsheet, it so outstrips any typical outlaying of cash. The need for food stamps would almost dissipate.

We already have beautiful community garden areas. Why not devote a corner to food production? Every week of the growing season (and in the Mid-Atlantic states it's a lonnnng season), gardens would give away a portion of its' growth by block assignment, much like the recent gas rationing in place after Hurricane Sandy. European countries already have their population on a car system for petrol rationing. In Germany, some blocks drive Monday through Wednesday, some have car use from Thursday to Saturday, and the entire community gets Sundays off. Gas consumption goes down, carbon emissions are reduced, the whole population reaps the health benefits of cleaner air and biking to work on their non-driving days. Trains are outfitted with bike racks for commuting to and from the station. Problem solved.

For food production, block assignments would work the same way as gas rationing. Blocks 1-3: pick up the gardens' tomatoes, if that's what's available. Blocks 4-7: OK, probably more tomatoes, but you see where I'm going with this. Each block would have its' week assigned for picking up whatever produce was available from the garden that week until food production ended. Our current system of "Haves" versus "Have Nots" is an artificial construction anyway that needs to be dismantled. There is sun, wind, air, soil, water, and seeds, and these belong to everyone. As we grow as a society, then so we shall grow together.  What ideas for growth do you have?

the garden encroaches

The Last Days of Summer

Indoor garden at the Hyatt Regency - Old Greenwich, CT. (photo © Marie Doucette)

As we drink up the last rays of summer sun, many of us turn our minds towards what is perhaps the most beautiful and celebrated season in all the world, Autumn in the Northeast.

Cool, crisp, clear nights, with a hint of woodsmoke in the air from long-dormant fireplaces, a riot of colors from trees of every kind that is unparalleled elsewhere in nature, let's look forward to the beginning of another glorious season on this fair planet.

We have a lot to be thankful for.

Greenwich Point Park - Old Greenwich, CT. (photo © Marie Doucette)