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wholesomemendes · 4 years

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Basket Full of Love

Summary: After buying a new house, you and Shawn are at a flower nursery to decorate the outside and lots of love ensues.

Author’s Note: This is literally just fluff. That’s it. Fluff on fluff. I got this idea when I was buying flowers with my mom the other day and all I could do was picture this happening. She’s short (only 1.4k), but she’s sweet so I hope you guys like it. As always, please tell me what you think, any feedback is appreciated!

“Shawn, which one do you like better?”

At the sound of your voice your husband turns his head away from where he was admiring a bundle of pretty, pink peonies and makes his way towards where you were comparing two hanging baskets. He wraps his arms around your middle, letting his head come to rest on your shoulder, “Which ones am I looking at?”

You pointed at two baskets filled with an arrangement of red begonias and other white flowers with hints of yellow in them, “These two right here. I’m thinking of hanging one of them on the back porch next to the birdfeeder.”

Shawn stared at them, examining all of the bright colors with furrowed brows, “But baby, they’re the same thing.”

“No they’re not,” you huffed, pointing at each of them, “This one obviously has more begonias so the color stands out more, but this one seems to have more buds.”

“A-what? A bedona?”

You laughed at his words causing him to squeeze you a little tighter and press a kiss to your forehead, “A be-go-nia is this pretty little red flower right here.” You leaned forward slightly to gently touch the gorgeous petals, rubbing one between the pads of your fingers.

“Oh, a be-go-nia.”

You let out a small giggle at how he was sounding out the word, but still turned around nonetheless and placed a kiss on his cheek, “That’s it, bubs. You’ve got it.” He contemplated his decision for a few more moments before pointing at the one on the right.

“I like that one, the red in it looks nicer.”

“Perfect, then we’ll get that one.” You stood on your tiptoes in an attempt to reach the hook, smiling to yourself when Shawn placed one hand on your waist and reached above you to help grab it instead. You mumbled out a thank you as you kissed his bicep lightly while he put the new basket into your cart.

“Alright, are you ready to go?”

“What? No, we still need to get two baskets for the top of the steps in the front and some flowers to plant in the garden in front of the main entrance and then there’s…”

“Ok, ok I get it, lots of flowers,” he sighed, resting his head on his arms that were on the cart which was already filled with three other assorted plants, “Why do we need so many?”

“Shawn, we literally just bought a house. That means you need to decorate a bit outside, you know, make it presentable. The perennials your mom has in her garden didn’t just grow by themselves.”

Your husband groaned again, lifting his head to face you this time, “Babe, you know I have no idea what you’re talking about when you spit out all of these big flower words.”

“Perennials are the flowers that rebloom every year without you needing to replant them. Annuals are the flowers that die before the winter season.”

“So why don’t you just buy all perenals or whatever the heck they’re called so you don’t have to replant them every year?”

“Perennials and because you want to change it up a little bit! It’d be boring to have the same flowers every year.” Pushing him playfully out of the way, you grabbed the cart and headed towards some of the perennials you wanted to plant in the front garden, Shawn trailing behind you like a lost puppy. One of the flower labels caught your attention a few rows down and you gravitated towards it immediately, “Shawn, look! Daylilies!”

“And…?”

“Andddd these attract hummingbirds! Wouldn’t it be cute to see some hummingbirds around the house? We could even put up a hummingbird feeder!”

A smile broke out on Shawn’s face at your excited state and he placed his lips on top of your head, mumbling into your hair, “That sounds great, love. Anything to put a smile on your face.”

You smiled up at him before grabbing a couple trays of the soon to be beautiful flowers and placing them in your cart. You could tell Shawn was becoming antsy to go home because he was either pulling out his phone more than usual or being extra clingy, a telltale sign of his boredom. “Hey bubs,” you snapped him out of the trance he was in on his phone, “Why don’t you go pick something out? Whatever you want to get.”

“Anything?” he asked, a bright smile taking up his face.

“Anything, just please don’t pick something that will ruin the outside of our house.”

“I won't, I promise, I’ll pick out the prettiest flowers for you.” He placed his hand under your chin so he could peck your lips quickly before he ran off somewhere in the nursery to, what you could only assume was, cause trouble.

Two baskets and a handful of trays later you were satisfied with your cart, the only thing missing being your giant of a husband that was still somehow on the hunt for his special flowers. “Is this flower for sale?” a deep voice whispered into your ear, causing you to jump from the fright. You immediately recognized the voice and bright chuckle as your husband’s and you turned around, meeting his mischievous grin.

“What took you so long, bubs? Pick out anything good?”

“Mhm, but nothing as beautiful as this flower right in front of me.”

You blushed at his words, lightly pushing his chest to hide your red cheeks, but his muscular body didn’t move an inch, “‘M not a flower.”

“You could be though,” he smiled at you, hands coming to your waist to pull you closer to his body, “You’re as gorgeous as one and you smell just as good, too.”

“Oh stop it, I’m your wife now. You don’t need to shower me in compliments anymore.”

“Doesn’t matter, I’m always gonna give you loads of compliments cause you’re my girl and you deserve them.” He leaned in to place a searing kiss onto your lips, gripping your hips tighter to bring you flush against him.

“Shawn,” you mumbled against his lips when he tried to deepen it, “People.”

He pulled away unwillingly, a small pout on his face, “What? I can’t kiss my wife now?”

“You can...back home. Now why don’t you show me these flowers you got.”

“Oh right! Flowers, yes.” Moving to turn around to where he had placed the basket on the ground, he held it up for you with a proud grin adorning his lips, “Ok, so I had to get some help from one of the workers, but I got it. Basically, it’s a basket full of love!” He pointed to a handful of white flowers on one side, “These ones are supposed to symbolize everlasting love, which you know, made me think of us and it’s supposed to represent fertility and motherhood which I think will be helpful for the future.” You looked at him with tear filled eyes, not knowing how the man who wanted nothing to do with flowers earlier had managed to find the perfect array of them that also happened to be so meaningful. “The dark red ones mean love and affection as well and the rest of them in here don’t really mean anything, but I think they’re super beautiful.” You wouldn’t think that the mix of orange blossoms and red carnations would look as pleasing to the eye as they did, but you thought that the meaning behind them made them that more beautiful to you. “So? What do you think?”

“What do I think? Shawn, I-” you leaned your head back in an attempt to keep the tears at bay- “I don’t know what to say, they’re absolutely perfect. I don’t deserve you, bubs.”

“Awe baby, don’t cry,” he cooed, wrapping you up in his arms, “I love you, you’re the one I don’t deserve.”

“You can’t say that, you just made me cry in the middle of a nursery.” You sniffled one last time before placing your lips on his, holding him tight against you.

“I thought you said no kisses in public,” Shawn mumbled against your lips, but not making any move to pull away from you.

You detached your lips from his and cocked an eyebrow at him, “Do you not want to kiss me right now?”

“Hell no, get back here,” and with that you melted into his arms, a basket full of love leaning against the two of you.

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botanyshitposts · 5 years

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whats the deal with proven winners?

okay. so. this is actually how i got into botany in the first place; i got an unpaid internship at a greenhouse in high school and realized, very quickly, that we live in a jurassic park hellscape where big companies breed plants solely for their looks and performance, and i found that so fucking weird that i couldnt get enough of it and fell down the rabbit hole. i don’t find them bad per say; i find them weird and how they manage their product in terms of policing their retailers is very sketchy to me, but they’re not like, monstanto-level off the shits (yet). with mother’s day next weekend we’re coming up on one of the biggest greenhouse/ornamental plant industry sales days of the year, next to valentines’ day (which favors the rose industry especially), so this is an exceptionally convenient time to talk about this.

proven winners is one of the biggest ornamental plant companies in the united states, possibly the world. you might know them from their patented white flower pots. they’re centered in california (as, actually, a lot of these large flower producers are) and they manage a HUUUUUUGEEE network of giant industrial flower greenhouses.

like, you have to understand, all garden retailers have to buy their shit from somewhere, and although the centers and local greenhouses selling proven winners stuff are often small and independent (unless ur talking like...flowerama or something), a large portion of the plants themselves, like many things in capitalism, form an industry of their own dominated by a handful of oligarch corporations, of which proven winners is one. small retailers order bulk products from these companies, should it be through full-color paper catalogs (which exist, btw, and are wild in and of themselves to look at; i actually have a few back home that i keep around solely bc they’re incredibly fascinating in a slightly offputting jurassic park kind of way), online, or through a sales representative for their region.

it depends on what they’re ordering, but they can buy seeds, plugs (the black trays of like....tiny plants you buy at garden centers to put in planters? the ones that come in, like, six packs? those are called ‘plugs’), and in the case of perennials, woody plants of various ages, among other things. these plants are bred, marketed, and sold on a goddamn industrial scale. it’s wild.

now....this is where it gets absolutely fascinating to me. this isn’t just proven winners, but proven winners is one of the top contenders of this. some highlights of how plants are actually marketed on an industrial scale:

-plants come out in collections. like, you have horticulturalist designer people who put their names on some stuff and they all go out as like, The New Hot Thing(tm).

-they always promote their top selling stuff, and the plants that won awards, and like, the most popular flower arrangements and stuff. this in and of itself, again, isn’t like.....bad, it just feels weird how plants are marketed as objects rather than living things, you know?

-these plants are 100% bred and optimized for their commercial value and how they look. see the above point about how it feels like they’re treating them as objects.

-every year, there are new plants, which are put at the front of the catalogue and like, show them off as the Hit New Products. these are all part of the year’s collective collection, so like, proven winners has their 2019 collection all ready on their site in a special little tab:

FUN INDUSTRY SIDE STORY: looks like they have some new orange petunias this year, which reminds me fondly of the 2017 purge ordered by the USDA of a ton of illegally GMO orange petunias....

you see, orange petunias don’t exist naturally, so what companies do is either 1. systematically breed orange into them, which can take years, or 2. take red petunias and just put in some coding for yellow from the maize genome, which makes them orange. usually, you have to submit all this paperwork and go through a ton of government red tape to sell GMOs, including required trials conducted by the federal government, but what some of these large ornamental seed companies were doing was just....not telling the government and just kind of...pretending that they bred them. so in 2017, a netherlands team noticed that these were like....kind of Suspicious(tm), and started doing some tests....and accidentally uncovered like, this huge international orange petunia scandal across all these companies, over 30 varieties of illegal petunia being sold internationally. they had to alert the actual EU, which then alerted the USDA, who then gave an actual government order for these large companies to literally burn, bury, or otherwise destroy all their industrial stock of the proven illegal GMO orange petunias.

small retailers who had bought them assuming that they were legal were allowed to keep and continue selling what they bought, but the actual producers were ordered to just fucking. violently destroy everything. the USDA informed these companies that they could sell them again, but only if they were put through the proper government channels and received proper certification. i checked the old recall list and didn’t see these, so i’m assuming they’re like...Legit, but. im 👀 somebody test these lol

AAANNNNYYway that aside, if you would like to see the Proven Winners 2019 Flower Collection Showcase(tm), they have a bunch of......weird kind of ads on their youtube channel showing artsy pics of their new shit. to this day i can’t pin down exactly what about them makes me feel slightly uncomfortable, but you really do get a sense that they’re selling an object to preform, which i guess is the point, but...idk, it’s just a very different view of plants, i think, then i personally have. very sci-fi-y, if you will. all their ads are like this; these video are essentially very similar to what you get from their print sales booklets, but in video form.

youtube

see, last but not least, my biggest beef with proven winners is the weird way they handle their company.

you get inspected by the plant police.

im not kidding. for those not very familiar with plant reproduction, you can grow vegetative clones of plants through a process called taking cuttings, where you cut off a part of the plant and put it in a new pot under the right conditions, and it develops a root system and becomes a genetic clone to the parent. obviously, anyone can do this with a lot of the proven winners plants, especially because PW plants, as i’ve noticed, tend to be bred to be more vigorous.

proven winners wants to ensure that there’s no Illegal Plant Downloads taking place, so they literally like....send people out to these small retailers and ask to see their stock to make sure that all the plants are going in the Patented Proven Winners White Pots(tm) with the Patented Proven Winners Information Tags(tm). you MUST plant proven winners stuff in the pots they send you, with the instructions they send you, and they will check you for this. the first time my internship mentor ordered from them, they accidentally planted the plugs in generic brown pots instead of the white ones, and the weird proven winners police rolled in unannounced for an inspection and told them that the next time it happened they wouldn’t sell to them anymore. what they’re worried about happening is that the growers will order a small amount and then just make a bunch of cuttings without paying them, and it’s just......weird. like i get why they do it but that’s always struck me as really, really shady lmao

#this is....wild like idk like???? im just always very :eyes: at them #the ornamental plant industry is off the SHITS #long post #asks #plont asks #Anonymous

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architectnews · 4 years

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Julia Watson fills New York's Rockefeller Center plaza with native American meadow plants

Biodiversity and effects of climate change can be significantly affected by small-scale rewilding projects argues designer and environmentalist Julia Watson, who has temporarily covered New York's Rockefeller Center plaza and ice rinks with native plants with planting designer, Marie Salembier.

Named Rewilding the American Meadow, the project covers the North Plaza and Ice Rink of the Midtown Manhattan complex with wooden pots containing plants from the northeast of the United States.

The designer's landscape and urban design studio Watson Salembier chose plants with a wild American meadow in mind like native grasses, perennials and trees indigenous to the north-east region.

Rewilding the American Meadow has temporarily covered the Rockefeller Center plaza and ice rink with plants

The designers call the scheme a rewilding, which aims to allow natural habitats to recover with minimal human intervention, as a nod to the fact that the area where the Rockefeller Center stands was formerly home to the Elgin Botanic Garden. Watson said at the time it contained 2,000 native and rare exotic species.

She believes that urban rewilding is an example of how to improve biodiversity in cities, bolster pollinators and help provide clean air.

Watson Salembier chose plants with a wild American meadow in mind

"Rewilding the American Meadow at Rockefeller Center's North Plaza and Summer at The Rink are part of an idea we have that envisions entities with significant global property portfolios becoming catalysts for mitigating climate change in our urban environments," Watson told Dezeen.

"By matching indigenous, rare, and threatened plant species to local property portfolios around the globe, these urban rewilding projects could replace the homogenous and predominantly ornamental urban landscapes that form the backdrops of our cities today," she continued.

"By thinking of this as a multi-scalar global project, we can conceive how these ideas become mainstream and could have that explosive, emergent impact towards increasing global biodiversity that we need, while also celebrating local ecosystems, cultures, colours and identities."

They are intended to bloom at different times during the installation, which runs up until November

Watson Salembier chose a range of plants that would bloom at different times over the duration of the installation from July until November.

"I was onsite for both of the installation days and before the gardening team had finished transferring the plants from pots to the planters, we had pollinators like bees and butterflies already feeding on the blooms," she said.

"That's honestly the highest form of appreciation."

Watson said the project will help with pollination of surrounding environments in the city over the next year

While the temporary project is relatively small scale, Watson argues the plants will have many knock-on effects. For example, they will attract animal and insect species like birds, bees and butterflies that will help with pollination of surrounding environments in the city over the next year.

"If you think of these temporary planters as seeding the growth of next year's indigenous plants within the local radius that the pollinators move throughout, that means the summer gardens will have that unknown and cascading effect on the local ecosystem of Central Park and other larger landscape patches throughout the city," she explained.

"These blooms provide the energy for the pollinators needed at this time of the year and another stopping point for the pollinators as they make their way through the city landscape," she continued.

"We will then indirectly effect next year's populations by providing for this year's colonies so that when we design these gardens again next year, we'll provide the same support systems for new colonies."

Watson added that it is these effects of rewilding that make it far more beneficial in comparison to conservation projects.

"Rewilding is so important because it takes an active, rather than passive approach to ecosystem conservation and regeneration," she said. "It works to introduce systemic change that leads to cascading effects that are emergent and open-ended. This is a really fascinating design approach, and one that I bring to my work."

Watson argued that the effects of rewilding make it far more beneficial in comparison to conservation projects

Watson teaches urban design at Harvard GSD and Columbia GSAPP, and is author of LO–TEK Design by Radical Indigenism, in which she argues that tribal communities, seen by many as primitive, are highly advanced when it comes to creating systems in symbiosis with the natural world.

She said the Rewilding the American Meadow shows how these philosophies can be used to change how we design cities.

"This project really speaks to a core concept of LO—TEK, which is, as a species, the vast majority of humans on this earth need to foster a more nature-based culture," she said.

"In my book LO—TEK, I discuss designing with biodiversity and document indigenous technologies from the scale of the module, to the structure, system and infrastructure," Watson added.

"This really means that biodiversity literally becomes the building block for these technologies, just as it becomes the building block for the design at Rockefeller Center and in the processes of rewilding."

Read on for our full interview with Watson:

Marcus Fairs: How did the project come about?

Julia Watson: Rewilding the American Meadow at Rockefeller Center's North Plaza and Summer at The Rink are part of an idea we have that envisions entities with significant global property portfolios becoming catalysts for mitigating climate change in our urban environments.

By matching indigenous, rare, and threatened plant species to local property portfolios around the globe, these urban rewilding projects could replace the homogenous and predominantly ornamental urban landscapes that form the backdrops of our cities today.

In Rewilding the American Meadow, we used tree species like Cercis canadensis or Eastern Redbud, which offer colourful fall flowers that attract honeybees; Oxydendron arboreum or Sourwood, which has a honey that is considered a delicacy; and fruit that persists throughout winter, which is attractive to birds and helps them survive through the winter.

We hope the design of rewilding gardens as forming part of a larger ecosystem

These native trees were underplanted with Asclepias incarnata or Swamp Milkweed, Echinaceae purpurea or Purple Coneflower, and Achillea millefolium or Yarrow, which is a classic but great for a long blooming season and for pollinators.

We hope the design of rewilding gardens as forming part of a larger ecosystem encouraging on-site programmes that would include local seed banking, on-site propagation, farmers markets with educational programs, and seed exchanges.

By thinking of this as a multi-scalar global project, we can conceive of how these ideas become mainstream and could have that explosive, emergent impact towards increasing global biodiversity that we need, while also celebrating local ecosystems, cultures, colors and identities.

Marcus Fairs: How does it relate to your other projects and your book?

Julia Watson: This project really speaks to a core concept of LO–TEK, which is, as a species the vast majority of humans on this earth need to foster a more nature-based culture. The tenets of that culture could be universal, but the manifestation should be inspired by the diversity of local cultures.

In my book LO–TEK, I discuss designing with biodiversity and document indigenous technologies from the scale of the module, to the structure, system and infrastructure. This really means that biodiversity literally becomes the building block for these technologies, just as it becomes the building block for the design at Rockefeller Center and in the processes of rewilding.

This is all part of a grander scheme to champion the regeneration of threatened plant species

In LA I'm working on a project for the City of El Segundo to redesign the Gateway to the City, where we're taking that idea of the spectacle of LAX airport and enhancing that sensory experience by introducing an ecological runway, for butterflies and other photoreceptive insects, to the Pacific Ocean.

The ecological runway will manifest as a diurnal photoreceptive pollinator corridor designed to regenerate the indigenous habitat of the threatened, native El Segundo Blue Butterfly. While in the Cotswalds, we're working on a rewilding master plan of a sheep farm that's be regenerated and will house an artist's residency program in Warwickshire.

Marcus Fairs: Why is it important to use native plants in projects like this?

Julia Watson: With my design partner Marie Salembier, a horticulturist and planting designer, we've been envisioning ways to bring the language of botany and biodiversity back to the city as an educational experience.

This is all part of a grander scheme to champion the regeneration of threatened plant species, which are connected to habitat loss and the mass extinction of our pollinator populations, which form the basis of our food webs.

Marcus Fairs: How has the project been received by both people and local wildlife?!

Julia Watson: Tishman Speyer has been a great Client and everyone has commented on how fantastic the greenification looks. The Rockefeller Center gardening team is incredible and they're been very gracious through-out this collaboration and receptive to new ideas. The local tenants of the restaurants around North Plaza have been featuring the rewilding in their social media and people seem to really appreciate the beauty and biodiversity, which isn't always the case when using natives.

Rewilding is so important because it takes an active, rather than passive approach

I was onsite for both of the installation days and before the gardening team had finished transferring the plants from pots to the planters, we had pollinators like bees and butterflies already feeding on the blooms. That's honestly the highest form of appreciation.

Marcus Fairs: Rewilding is becoming a hot topic – in your view why is it important?

Julia Watson: I've been outspoken in my criticism of Conservation in LO–TEK. Rewilding is so important because it takes an active, rather than passive approach to ecosystem conservation and regeneration.

It works to introduce systemic change that leads to cascading effects that are emergent and open-ended. This is a really fascinating design approach, and one that I bring to my work.

Landscape architecture is a unique design profession in that it offers the ability to interact with ecosystems by opportunistically amplifying specific conditions, creating symbiosis, or catalyzing interactions that set up an evolving scenario. As a designer, I can envision parts of that evolving scenario and the alternative future, but not all of it.

We redefine rewilding as a radical revision of urbanism's taming of nature, towards a new wildness in localism

In working with dynamic and living ecosystem interactions, there is a wildness and a beauty in the unknown of a future that's still to evolve that you've helped to create. It's that richness and potential that is nature, which we as designers are still trying to understand and grasp in our work.

Elizabeth Meyer wrote a fantastic essay a couple of years ago about finding that beauty in the design of sustainable landscapes. I feel we're having a revival at this moment, in which we're re-exploring traditional, technical and ecological aspects within design that are redefining our conceptions of beauty along the way.

Marcus Fairs: Can this kind of project really be considered as "rewilding"? Can the term really be applied to temporary projects with plants in containers?

Julia Watson: Typically defined as restoring an ecosystem, in our studio we redefine rewilding as a radical revision of urbanism's taming of nature, towards a new wildness in localism. We envision biodiversity as becoming the building blocks of diverse, local symbioses between species, peoples and place.

As for temporality, that's a cyclical phenomena that's characteristic to nature.

The planting palette for the summer gardens at Rockefeller Center is designed with a staggered flowering cycle, so different blooms will be continuously present from July to October.

Pollinators have their own life cycles geared towards the spring summer and autumn seasons. These blooms provide the energy for the pollinators needed at this time of the year and another stopping point for the pollinators as they make their way through the city landscape.

Think of these temporary planters as seeding the growth of next year's indigenous plants

We will then indirectly effect next year's populations by providing for this year's colonies, so that when we design these gardens again next year, we'll provide the same support systems for new colonies.

We're also indirectly increasing the life supporting systems for ourselves. This happens as native flora attracts the native fauna essential for pollination. In turn, these species assist in the reproduction cycle of the plants.

If you think of these temporary planters as seeding the growth of next year's indigenous plants within the local radius that the pollinators move throughout, that means the summer gardens will have that unknown and cascading effect on the local ecosystem of Central Park and other larger landscape patches throughout the city.

The plants we are bringing to the summer gardens are also assisting mature in cleaning the air we breathe and the pollinators they attract are helping to grow the food we eat.

Marcus Fairs: How can architects and designers help increase biodiversity and tackle climate change through their work (particularly in urban areas)?

Julia Watson: When we ask these type of questions we're really directing our responses to a few urban environments that we're very familiar with, have probably lived in or travelled to. For those, we have a modest set ideas for how we can tackle climate change. But our profession is informed by a legacy of industrialization and modernism.

This legacy limits our understanding of what technology is, what innovation is, and what our cities could become. For so long we have all believed that high-tech and fast growth is the future. I don't think many of us have really, deeply negotiated a radically different alternative future.

Seriously and strategically tackling biodiversity and climate change at a global scale is not going to happen by applying a one size fits all approach designed by affluent cities to be applied to the diversity of ecosystems across the globe. This approach is inconsiderate of the resource availability and economic feasibility of individual cities and their communities. In looking for solutions for the whole planet, we cannot follow the current mythology of technology that calls for a scaling of costly, high-tech, and hard infrastructural strategies.

Designers will have the most impact on climate change by collaborating with local communities

Designers need to look elsewhere – at effective responses that are symbiotic with specific environments and the availability of resources. Communities in developing countries can still leap-frog the typical model of progress that ends in the displacement of indigenous diversity for the sake of homogenous high-tech.

In LO–TEK, we find nature-based systems that symbiotically work with the environment. These nature-based systems act multidimensionally, for example not only for the purpose of food production but also as resilient infrastructures that may survive industrial agriculture, as seas rise and climates change.

They are ecologically-intensive, rather than energy-, chemical-, or capital-intensive. They are technologies that already embody the construction techniques, climate, soil quality, precipitation levels, and seasonal understandings of the local culture and the ecosystem that evolved them. They amplify ecosystem services rather than erase them.

Designers will have the most impact on climate change by collaborating with local communities and taking the time to understand the intelligence of local knowledge, practices and technologies. They can assist in the scaling and systematic expansion along with development of these LO–TEK systems.

In return, the profession will also be expanding the toolkit of available resilient technologies that could be adapted, hybridised, innovated in consultation with these communities. As we look for ways to design resilient technologies in the face of climate change, we must look at systems that are proven to work, as Dr Eugene Hunn puts it, "tested in the rigorous laboratory of survival".

Marcus Fairs: How can cities help encourage biodiversity and mitigate climate change?

Julia Watson: Cities can explore nature-based infrastructures that are active, adaptive, and productive, involving co-existences of many species, and using biodiversity as a building block - thereby harnessing the energy and intelligence of complex ecosystems. This is how humans have been dealing with the extremes we now face for millennia.

Nature-based technologies align with today's sustainable values of low-energy, low-impact, and low-cost. Climate change is showing that our survival is not dependent upon superiority, but upon symbiosis - and cities must shift how they develop in their second and third growth rings towards integrating these symbiotic technologies.

Marcus Fairs: What do you think will be the long-term impacts of Covid-19 on the design of cities?

Julia Watson: Historically pandemic has transformed cities. The bubonic plague led to the Italian Renaissance, one of the greatest epochs of art, architecture and literature in human history. The Spanish flu championed the City Beautiful Movement, introducing parks, wide streets, and clean water, remaining at the forefront of urban design for many years. But the current pandemic in the context of climate change is different.

The response to Covid-19 must displace the homogeneity and monoculture of globalism and urbanism

Hopefully today's response will not be limited to sanitation and beautification because there are ecological explanations that connect reduced resilience to pandemic. These include habitat encroachment causing zoonotic transfer, reduced biodiversity causing single species dominance leading to increased incidence of human contact, and reduced environmental resilience in the face of climate extremes, leading to poverty, risky behavior, migration which all increase the incidence of viral transmission.

So the response to Covid-19 must displace the homogeneity and monoculture of globalism and urbanism that is crippling our cities and agricultural landscapes and making our systems vulnerable. Design must lead us toward the rediscovery of resilient localisms.

The pioneers of nature-based design and technology are indigenous communities, whom are often seen as primitive, but in reality are highly advanced when it comes to creating systems in symbiosis with the natural world. Having studied indigenous communities across the globe for twenty years while training as an architect, landscape architect and urban designer, the evolution of design towards integrating these nature-based technologies and the eventual change this integration could have on the way we design cities, is now within our reach.

Photography of Rewilding the American Meadow is courtesy of Rockefeller Center.

Project credits:

Project team: Watson Salembier, Anna Karlin Studio, 2x4 Workshop

The post Julia Watson fills New York's Rockefeller Center plaza with native American meadow plants appeared first on Dezeen.

#Architecture – Dezeen

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cessanderson · 7 years

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Getting outside http://ift.tt/2qJtnLG Sara @ Russet Street Reno Last summer we redid the majority of our landscaping in the front and sides of the house.

I wasn't sure what to do to the back of the house, since we planned to get a new deck, and possibly a shed...and I wasn't about to plant things before that happened. However, there was this area in the back corner (behind my soaked hubby) that was fair game. It had a pretty boring shrub that was overgrown, and a bunch of random lilies we had brought from Minnesota and planted in haste when we moved in.

Last fall, I got my annual hoard of catalogs from Brecks, White Flower farm, and all kinds of other bulb peddlers. I decided to make this a lovely sun garden area, with the huge shrub removed, a nice mix of smaller shrubs, perennials, and bulbs.

The back has a tall maiden grass, flanked by two silver reed grasses. Pink phlox in the middle, a trio of dwarf fountain grasses in front, orange lilies on either side, then a golden barberry on the left, and a blue star juniper on the right. All the rest of this area is filled with around 45 lily bulbs in varying heights. I was so pumped for this area because I LOVE lilies. I even bought fresh mulch to protect it all, and sprayed pest spray all over everything to deter the horrible little squirrels from digging it all up. WELL. Everything was fine until the stuff started coming up this spring.

YOU GUYS. I forgot there were a bunch of random tulips and hyacinths and other spring flowers the previous owners had planted here. Even though they are clearly visible in the photo I added above.

Check out these stupid tulips completely surrounding my poor grasses! And, I couldn't even get them out without removing everything I planted, that is how deep they are. That makes sense, since I didn't even see them when I dug the holes last fall. The final insult is that the single tulip shown is the ONLY one to survive the horrible rabbits that ate absolutely everything in this area.

I mean, I came out as soon as I could and sprayed everything with Repels All, but it didn't do a thing. Literally, 90% of the bulbs and phlox I planted are gone. Everything marked in red is gone, and this is just a part of this area:

So, I've noticed that the phlox is coming back, but the bulbs are done. I know they will come back ok next year, but in the meantime, this whole area looks terrible! At least the transplanted lilacs are doing great.

They obviously need to be trimmed and reshaped, but the blooms are great, and all three shrubs lived through being moved! I love walking past here and smelling them.

The rest of the landscaping fared well. All the hydrangeas are looking great. We added a skyrocket juniper to the front corner of the house to block the view of the ugly gas meter, and keep some color during the winter on this side.

Our big leaf hydrangea is so special to us, we've brought it all the way from our Russet street home, and it is still looking awesome! I also added four new 'Angelina' stonecrop at the end to add more color. The center planting area is still my favorite, with the pom pom in the middle, and all the creeping phlox and yellow sedum surrounding it. The phlox was amazing a few weeks ago!

We also added this honeysuckle vine last fall, in an attempt to cover as much of the ugly railing as we can. I've already scraped and primed it, just need to paint it black again before the vine really takes over! Side note - why is 'rusty metal' primer the color of rusty metal?

The other sides of the house are mostly unchanged, we added a few new perennials and a mid century style metal art above the large pot. Yes, it's for indoors and it's from Target! It's gold and mostly blends in to the brick, so I'm considering changing the color...not sure what I will do yet.

So far, we only lost two plants. A perennial that didn't come back, and one golden arborvitae that basically disintegrated. What a goner!

One major change to the front of the house since last year occurred a few weeks ago. I finally picked out new lights, and got them installed. I couldn't be happier!

It's exactly the simple modern style I was looking for. The lights I purchased are Progress Lighting cylinders, I decided to go big (18 inches!) on the main porch light, because it was directly behind the railing. I am very happy with the purchase, even though the only option for the garage was much smaller. I love the difference from last May!

Now I just need to finish painting the railing, and make a decision on a mailbox and house numbers to complete the makeover. We are also awaiting our delivery of mulch, and excited to buy some new tropicals for our pots this year.

I hope you are all enjoying the return of warm weather, we definitely are!

#Russet Street Reno

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thomasreedtn · 7 years

Text

Incremental and Lasting Change: Create New Systems and Safety Nets Before Summoning Destruction

Today’s post is actually a comment I left when Ines, the writer of the blog post “Starving the War Machine ~ Let’s Try This Again,” privately emailed me to challenge me to advise people to crash the financial system en masse. Her post throws down the gauntlet to “Hundreds and thousands of people in the Alternative Media and the great researchers, truthseekers, wanna be gurus and Cult leaders that come from all walks of life [and] pride themselves for the knowledge/information/intel they acquired” who continue to operate in the financial system. Apparently, one of my readers, Anthony, suggested in the comments section that Ines contact me, which she did. You can read her post by clicking through the above link. Here are my own thoughts on her ideas:

Thank you for emailing me Ines, and Anthony, thanks for the suggestion. While I personally spent many, many years starving the war machine and then later trying to get our community set up so that it could survive the kind of financial chaos Ines is championing, I have found that a) most people are not interested in self-sufficiency or even resilience; b) this sort of widespread chaos is exactly what the PTB are hoping for; and c) it takes money to get things in place as a safety net.

This is not an excuse. I have poured thousands of dollars into rehabbing land and creating a food forest, which I’m turning over to 5 other people when we move. I also use these gardens to make bumper crop food donations to local food banks, feed neighbors, friends and impoverished people I encounter. I address the issues in the most practical ways I find, which includes doing my best to get local communities to do what you, Ines, and I and others are personally doing: taking responsibility for ourselves, growing our own foods, using plants to heal, focusing on energetic as well as community resilience.

In America, we are nowhere near the level of resilience where I could in good conscience recommend people try to crash the financial system in a week. Right now there are not enough safety nets in place. We are moving to a city that has many more of these nets in place — several public food forests, many, many community gardens, an ethic of “Community Capitalism,” where those who do have money voluntarily funnel it back into local projects that support people and the earth. I forget where you live, Ines, but the level of poverty and dependence on welfare of some sort is off the charts right now in the US. Even the so-called “Middle Class” is living paycheck to paycheck or going into debt.

After nearly a decade of starving the system, I eventually realized that it takes money to plant food forests, create community gardens and turn lawns into farms. I barter for lots of things — literally tons of things if you count four years of free wood mulch to enrich the soil here — but it has still taken money for garden tools, purchasing more mature fruit trees that can produce in 1 year instead of 4-5 years, and getting unusual perennial vegetables that will produce for decades. It has taken money to make this yard so incredibly beautiful that people who otherwise had no interest in gardening have torn up their own lawns to grow flowers and food, or have joined community gardens because they feel so inspired.

A rag tag yard would not have done that, because while some people are motivated by pain, others are motivated by beauty, joy and love. Isn’t that what we’re aiming for in the New Earth? As Anthony says, the trauma and chaos may arrive anyway. No need to summon it faster than the “elites” already are. If you really want to make a change, imho, if you’re already self-sufficient, then radiate that outwards by getting gardens into your community, teaching your community how to heal themselves with herbs, how to use energy to shift their opportunities and health.

Once we’ve done this at a critical mass level, then I think your idea of crashing the system could have merit in that the system could easily become obsolete. We are nowhere near that point yet, although I continue to plant fruit and nut trees, turn gardens over to new people and plant more. I know others doing the same thing. First things first.

People will do pretty much ANYTHING if they see their children starve. Research the connection between high food prices (or no food on the shelves) and revolutions. I agree we need a change, but not all change is good. If we don’t want the “elite” swooping in with their “Solution” to the Problem and Reaction, then we had better have solutions already in place and easily replicated. Otherwise that revolution will just usher in a new level of slavery and/or the eugenicists’ dream of massive population cull. If people really want to take action, then get the new food system in place for your local community if you already have it in place for yourself. See the Ron Finley Project or Will Allen for details on how this is the real revolution.

I feel your heart is in the right place — and again, I don’t recall where you live. In the US, though, the masses are not ready for the next French Revolution, even though we’re being prepped for it, guillotines and all. A true, positive, lasting, sovereign change will involve a new kind of safety net that preemptively makes the system obsolete before recklessly crashing it. Since the “elite” plan to crash it anyway, we might as well prepare for the best, which also allows us to prepare for the worst. No brainer, imho.

Peace and love to you, Laura

from Thomas Reed https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/05/05/incremental-and-lasting-change-create-new-systems-and-safety-nets-before-summoning-destruction/

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primaryideasuk · 7 years

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The Best DIY Projects of 2016

You know, it’s funny: when I think back on 2016, I really, honest-to-God struggle with thinking of it as a good year. Between a bad romantic relationship and subsequent breakup, a shitload of writer’s block, and good, old-fashioned* stress, my immediate response is to think of it the way a lot of other people seemed to: as a raging dumpster fire that only the crisp wind of a shiny new year was going to put out.

But thankfully, that still happened.

But then, I took a step back. I looked through my post archives for 2016. I thought about the things I’d accomplished. And I realized: as far as this house and blog were concerned, it may have been one of the best project years I’ve had to date.

The Office

New Decor

I found a few fun things on Etsy to add some personality to my office bookshelves. Aren’t they cute?

Window Casing (in the office & everywhere!)

I also added casing to all of the windows in the entire house. It may not seem like a lot of work at first, but having literally every room finished with trim was a pretty big accomplishment!

The Kitchen

Light Fixture (Knock-off)

I added a new glass pendant light fixture to the kitchen that wound up being one of the coolest DIY projects I’ve ever worked on. The whole challenge to turn a bunch of random objects like a salad bowl and a wooden bun foot into what it became has got to be one of my all-time favorite activities.

Upgraded Drawer Dividers

Once a renovation is complete, organization becomes the next big priority for DIY kitchen projects. Tasks like painting cabinets, installing new counters, etc. had been completed in previous years, and it began to dawn on me how important staying organized was going to be for truly enjoying my new space. These DIY drawer dividers (for $10!) were made in a single afternoon and have paid off ever since! (Confession though: I still need to work on organizing the other drawers and cabinets.)

Less Pet Mess

Charlie got a little more organized as well thanks to her new custom-made, no-slip DIY dog feeder.

A New Place for Contemplation

The final wall near the breakfast nook had been blank for ages, so I made the space far more useful, complete with a breakfast bar to match the butcher block in the rest of the kitchen and industrial bar stools. This year, I’ll need to add some artwork to make it look more complete, but I really like having my morning coffee here!

And The Kitchen Sink (literally)

Even though the sink and faucet were installed in previous years, I’d never really covered the details about them. This year, I crossed that item off my to do list and recapped how I decided on each. I also shared a few cleaning tips and source info for how I keep this space tidy.

The Exterior

This was a HUGE year for my exterior progress!

Mailbox Flowers

In previous years, I’d always just added some seasonal flowers to the mailbox area. This year, I changed things up a little and added some perennials that I have admired while jogging around various other neighborhoods. While one of the plants died off in the late fall, the other three are still going strong and will hopefully bloom bigger and wider this coming spring!

Cascade Stump Planter

I have/had an old stump in my front yard. I figured I could either get rid of it or try to make it look more decorative. I chose the latter and picked out some cascading flowers to turn it into a beautiful front yard feature.

Hiding My Air Conditioning Unit

It took several weeks (and a lot of sweat), but changing the ivy- and pine-needled A/C unit area with decorative stones and foliage added a great amount of color and organization that I can maintain easily. I also added a screen to hide the unit from the street while still making sure that I followed the recommendations to keep air flowing efficiently!

Outdoor Furniture

As a way to keep the decorative progress going, I started building and staining outdoor furniture that will eventually go in the back yard. Premature? Yeah. But sometimes you just get excited to go ahead and work on something. In a way, projects like these give me more motivation to work on the projects that I need to complete in order to use them (such as a new deck or outdoor entertaining space — coming this year I hope!).

The Enormous Backyard Leveling Project

And, last but not even a little bit least, parts 1, 2, and 3 of my DIY journey to fill in a sinkhole and level out the back yard was started and finished in less than a week! I didn’t manage to get grass in before winter (I tried but failed), so this spring will need some DIY efforts to get things green again. Still, having the ability to walk around the entire back yard without running into vines, sunken holes, and overgrowth has been such a HUGE change! And that backhoe was a lot of fun to ride around on, especially when I invited friends over to help rip out some stumps.

The Laundry Room

I know that most of the details I shared about the laundry room makeover weren’t posted about until 2017, but technically, this project was the last big thing I accomplished in 2016. A fully completed room? Not a bad way to end a year! (Sidenote: I’ll be posting more answers to some of the questions you guys asked from that reveal soon!)

I also had a number of other goals and projects completed, such as fixing my furnace, my sliding glass door, and hiring a landscaper to help me take care of some of the pesky stuff I hate (because it then allows me to concentrate on more upgrades!). But to really cover everything, you’d just have to scroll back through my 2016 archives. There’s a lot more to be found!

I’d like to take this time to also thank the sponsors that helped me complete some of these projects, such as Swiffer, Scotch Brand, Liquid Nails, Angie’s List, Compact Power Equipment Rental, National Hardware, and more. It’s always nice to find companies I enjoy working with and really “get” what this blog is all about: DIY projects and helping you guys find some great ideas for your own homes.

Of course, that also brings me to you guys: I big fat puffy-heart love all of you. Even if we don’t see eye to eye, even when you think my decorating decisions are weird, or even if you come here just to take a break from chaos and read about someone else’s comedy of errors that has become my blog life. It’s because of you guys and your support of this blog that I get to do something I love every single day. I get to write, I get to share, I get to teach, I get to be inspired, I get to make sense of a crazy world by connecting with so many people I’ve never met in person… and then sometimes, I actually do get to meet you, and you’re so awesome and thoughtful that I wind up blushing from my awkwardness.

For me personally and emotionally, 2016 was a really rough year. But a lot of you guys reached out, and I was deeply touched by that thoughtfulness (erm, not in a gross way, but you get it). I will have a post about some of that coming very soon, how I got through it (I hope some of it helps any of you who might struggle with similar), etc. And it’s pretty cool to look at these archives and see exactly how this house becomes such a big part of my story. From 2015 to 2016 alone, there was a greater transformation than I even realized until writing this post — so, as much as I look back at the year and get overwhelmed with how emotionally exhausting it was to experience, it appears I may have done myself a huge favor and channeled it in the best way I know how.

And just like that, I’m ready for a new year of change all over again. Bring it on!

*Random factoid: I also discovered this year that I like old-fashioneds. And new-fashioneds. As usual, it popped into my head after using food-related words in my posts.

The post The Best DIY Projects of 2016 appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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sherlocklexa · 7 years

Text

The Best DIY Projects of 2016

But thankfully, that still happened.

The Office

New Decor

I found a few fun things on Etsy to add some personality to my office bookshelves. Aren’t they cute?

Window Casing (in the office & everywhere!)

I also added casing to all of the windows in the entire house. It may not seem like a lot of work at first, but having literally every room finished with trim was a pretty big accomplishment!

The Kitchen

Light Fixture (Knock-off)

Upgraded Drawer Dividers

Less Pet Mess

Charlie got a little more organized as well thanks to her new custom-made, no-slip DIY dog feeder.

A New Place for Contemplation

And The Kitchen Sink (literally)

The Exterior

This was a HUGE year for my exterior progress!

Mailbox Flowers

Cascade Stump Planter

Hiding My Air Conditioning Unit

Outdoor Furniture

The Enormous Backyard Leveling Project

The Laundry Room

And just like that, I’m ready for a new year of change all over again. Bring it on!

*Random factoid: I also discovered this year that I like old-fashioneds. And new-fashioneds. As usual, it popped into my head after using food-related words in my posts.

The post The Best DIY Projects of 2016 appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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from car2 http://ift.tt/2kOrM28 via as shown a lot

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chocdono · 7 years

Text

The Best DIY Projects of 2016

But thankfully, that still happened.

The Office

New Decor

I found a few fun things on Etsy to add some personality to my office bookshelves. Aren’t they cute?

Window Casing (in the office & everywhere!)

I also added casing to all of the windows in the entire house. It may not seem like a lot of work at first, but having literally every room finished with trim was a pretty big accomplishment!

The Kitchen

Light Fixture (Knock-off)

Upgraded Drawer Dividers

Less Pet Mess

Charlie got a little more organized as well thanks to her new custom-made, no-slip DIY dog feeder.

A New Place for Contemplation

And The Kitchen Sink (literally)

The Exterior

This was a HUGE year for my exterior progress!

Mailbox Flowers

Cascade Stump Planter

Hiding My Air Conditioning Unit

Outdoor Furniture

The Enormous Backyard Leveling Project

The Laundry Room

And just like that, I’m ready for a new year of change all over again. Bring it on!

*Random factoid: I also discovered this year that I like old-fashioneds. And new-fashioneds. As usual, it popped into my head after using food-related words in my posts.

The post The Best DIY Projects of 2016 appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

Website // Subscribe // Advertise // Twitter // Facebook // Google+

from mix1 http://ift.tt/2kOrM28 via with this info

#mix1

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bespokekitchesldn · 7 years

Text

The Best DIY Projects of 2016

But thankfully, that still happened.

The Office

New Decor

I found a few fun things on Etsy to add some personality to my office bookshelves. Aren’t they cute?

Window Casing (in the office & everywhere!)

I also added casing to all of the windows in the entire house. It may not seem like a lot of work at first, but having literally every room finished with trim was a pretty big accomplishment!

The Kitchen

Light Fixture (Knock-off)

Upgraded Drawer Dividers

Less Pet Mess

Charlie got a little more organized as well thanks to her new custom-made, no-slip DIY dog feeder.

A New Place for Contemplation

And The Kitchen Sink (literally)

The Exterior

This was a HUGE year for my exterior progress!

Mailbox Flowers

Cascade Stump Planter

Hiding My Air Conditioning Unit

Outdoor Furniture

The Enormous Backyard Leveling Project

The Laundry Room

And just like that, I’m ready for a new year of change all over again. Bring it on!

*Random factoid: I also discovered this year that I like old-fashioneds. And new-fashioneds. As usual, it popped into my head after using food-related words in my posts.

The post The Best DIY Projects of 2016 appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

Website // Subscribe // Advertise // Twitter // Facebook // Google+

from The Ugly Duckling House http://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/best-diy-projects-of-2016-the-recap/

#The Ugly Duckling House

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noambouzaglou-blog · 7 years

Text

The Best DIY Projects of 2016

But thankfully, that still happened.

The Office

New Decor

I found a few fun things on Etsy to add some personality to my office bookshelves. Aren’t they cute?

Window Casing (in the office & everywhere!)

I also added casing to all of the windows in the entire house. It may not seem like a lot of work at first, but having literally every room finished with trim was a pretty big accomplishment!

The Kitchen

Light Fixture (Knock-off)

Upgraded Drawer Dividers

Less Pet Mess

Charlie got a little more organized as well thanks to her new custom-made, no-slip DIY dog feeder.

A New Place for Contemplation

And The Kitchen Sink (literally)

The Exterior

This was a HUGE year for my exterior progress!

Mailbox Flowers

Cascade Stump Planter

Hiding My Air Conditioning Unit

Outdoor Furniture

The Enormous Backyard Leveling Project

The Laundry Room

And just like that, I’m ready for a new year of change all over again. Bring it on!

*Random factoid: I also discovered this year that I like old-fashioneds. And new-fashioneds. As usual, it popped into my head after using food-related words in my posts.

The post The Best DIY Projects of 2016 appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

Website // Subscribe // Advertise // Twitter // Facebook // Google+

The Best DIY Projects of 2016 published first on https://noambouzaglou.wordpress.com/

#home builders #custom home builders #home builders los angeles #custom Home construction #luxury hom

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petraself · 7 years

Text

The Best DIY Projects of 2016

But thankfully, that still happened.

The Office

New Decor

I found a few fun things on Etsy to add some personality to my office bookshelves. Aren’t they cute?

Window Casing (in the office & everywhere!)

I also added casing to all of the windows in the entire house. It may not seem like a lot of work at first, but having literally every room finished with trim was a pretty big accomplishment!

The Kitchen

Light Fixture (Knock-off)

Upgraded Drawer Dividers

Less Pet Mess

Charlie got a little more organized as well thanks to her new custom-made, no-slip DIY dog feeder.

A New Place for Contemplation

And The Kitchen Sink (literally)

The Exterior

This was a HUGE year for my exterior progress!

Mailbox Flowers

Cascade Stump Planter

Hiding My Air Conditioning Unit

Outdoor Furniture

The Enormous Backyard Leveling Project

The Laundry Room

And just like that, I’m ready for a new year of change all over again. Bring it on!

*Random factoid: I also discovered this year that I like old-fashioneds. And new-fashioneds. As usual, it popped into my head after using food-related words in my posts.

The post The Best DIY Projects of 2016 appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

Website // Subscribe // Advertise // Twitter // Facebook // Google+

The Best DIY Projects of 2016 published first on http://ift.tt/1kI9W8s