Some people swear there are green thumbs and black thumbs, people born to bring life from the earth and those who kill everything they touch. I don't know what color my thumbs are because I've never actually tried to grow anything. But I love the idea of having a little urban garden, and certainly some lovely indoor greenery to cheer me up during these chilly winter days. I've also heard that our little green friends help improve indoor air quality substantially by removing the foul toxins that are everywhere in our homes. While I have been hard at work cutting down on the chemical nonsense I bring into my home (via cleaning products, cosmetics, food, and other materials) I know that everything from fabric to furniture is potentially off-gassing like crazy all around me, and plants are about as natural an antidote as there is.
via Chronicle Books
I picked up a copy of the Alys Fowler's Garden Anywhere from the library last week and, let me tell you, it is a great read. A sunny optimist and a candid story-teller, La Fowler is helping me get comfortable with the idea of making things grow. The photos of her at work in her garden are especially charming, and so real that they make gardening seem accessible. She's not out there posing for the camera in full makeup and a fresh blowout, pretending to clip an already-perfect little bonsai. The girl is working. And although she has had years of training and a glamorous career as a TV gardener for the BBC, she makes me feel like I could work it too.
via Chronicle Books
This book is not about spending all your money on fancy plants and accoutrements from the garden center. She is all about the free and cheap solutions, from using old wine crates as planters (restaurants throw them out, but they look so chic in her garden!) to cultivating seeds from the fruits you bring home to eat. Oh, how I would love to have an indoor lemon tree someday:
And so I have set out to welcome some green life into my home. I am starting small. Project number one: trying to sprout an avocado pit. Did you do this in your basement as a child, with the pit suspended in a jar of water? I am trying it in a dark corner of my kitchen. It has been about three days now, and I can tell that something is going on. The surface of the pit has wrinkled a bit and there is a large crack in one side. I wonder if any life will come of it, or whether it is just drying out on its way to shriveling up?
My little pit
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