garden Archives - Page 3 of 5

Why You Need To Grow Blueberries Right Now

April 10, 2012/4 Comments/in GARDEN, Gardening How-To, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

Blueberry shrubs are easy to grow, attractive year round—and, of course, produce delicious berries.

GROW YOUR OWN | Blueberries thrive in our little corner of the planet—they love our climate and generally acidic soil—so if you want to grow something both good to eat and attractive to look at (what can I say, I’m married to a garden designer), you might want to leave room for a blueberry bush or three in your garden or grow this yummy fruit in tubs on your balcony. Read more

How To Make A Spectacular Pot Garden

March 23, 2012/0 Comments/in GARDEN, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

How the late, great British designer Sir David Hicks used easy-to-come-by Plain Jane planters to create a spectacular pot garden at his home in England.

WHAT THE PROS KNOW | Garden ornaments can be expensive for sure, but they don’t need to be. Witness the clever way the late, great British Interior and garden designer Sir David Hicks employed ordinary available-in-every-garden-centre containers to create a particularly eye-catching pot garden on his own estate, The Grove, in Oxfordshire, England. Read more

Thinking Outside The Conventional Vase

February 6, 2012/2 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

It’s not the flowers, it’s the unusual containers that make these arrangements pop.

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS | In early February, when thoughts turn to hearts and flowers, it’s easy to think that a dozen red roses are the key to a woman’s heart. Not necessarily. In the floral department, sometimes something both ordinary but imaginative will do the trick. It’s not the flowers, it’s the original containers that make these arrangements pop. Read more

Get Nood Now: They’re Closing In Canada

January 27, 2012/3 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

With prices slashed in a closing sale, these New Objects Of Desire are flying out the door.

STEALS & DEALS | —27-01-12—Nood, the New Zealand/Australia-based furniture and housewares retailer known for good modern design at reasonable prices, is shutting down operations in Canada. Their killer closeout sale is currently underway with everything in their two Metro Vancouver stores at 50 to 75 percent off the regular price. Though Nood won’t close its doors permanently until early March, we can’t imagine there’ll be much left to purchase by then (maybe its fabulous in-store hanging light fixtures?). Stuff is flying out of there really fast.

Here’s what we like best of what’s left. Read more

Tropical Plants Are Great In Arrangements

January 12, 2012/0 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Add fresh drama to your home in winter with long-lasting—and inexpensive—cuttings from supermarket tropical plants.

By this time of year, when the garden is devoid of flowers, the florist shop is not the only source of plant material to put in an attractive vase. Cuttings from a potted plant purchased at your local supermarket or corner store can take their place.

Ingredients For Tropical Punch Read more

Origami Boxes Cover Coloured LED String LIghts - Casey Phaisalakani

Make Easy Origami Cubes For String Lights

December 5, 2011/3 Comments/in DECOR & DESIGN, HOLIDAY, Holiday, HOME, Home & Garden, View All Home Stories /by Editor

Easy to make origami boxes add depth, elegance and fun to LED and other string lights.

BEAUTIFUL & EASY | We’ve used a combination of origami light cubes and bare LED bulbs (in a ratio of 1 boxed light to three bare bulbs) on every Christmas tree we’ve decorated in the last dozen years. The origami boxes produce beautiful, diffuse squares of light, something you don’t normally see on a Christmas tree. Some years we’ve chosen to box only white string lights, but mostly we box multi-coloured ones. To make our boxes, we worked with vellum squares (available at art supply stores or online) that deepen and intensify whatever colour light they cover. Read more

Find Eco Friendly Christmas Trees

December 1, 2011/0 Comments/in HOLIDAY, Holiday, Home & Garden /by Felicity Stone

Here’s our 2011 guide to finding the eco-friendliest Christmas trees in and around Metro Vancouver.

HOLIDAY 2011 | While artificial trees come in hues to match your decor, real Christmas trees are green in more than colour. They are a renewable crop often grown on land unsuitable for cultivating much else, they remove carbon from the air while they’re growing, and they can be chipped for mulch after use. Here are three ways to get an eco-friendly green tree this Christmas. Read more

Secrets Of The Stars: Luciano Guibbilei

November 19, 2011/0 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

The gardens of international superstar Luciano Guibbilei are filled with great ideas both for people who love to work in gardens and for people who just love to look at them.

FREE & AMAZING | I’ve collected lots of garden design books over the years, and one of my all-time favourites is a 1971 black and white photo essay on Villa Gamberaia. I’ve never visited this surprisingly sculptural 17th century garden in Florence, and although I’d love to see it, I feel like Hungarian architect Balthazar Korab’s photographs already capture Gamberaia’s startlingly dramatic moods and educate me in ways no single visit ever could.

I pulled Korab’s book from the shelf recently when I realized that several of his photos had been used in Luciano Giubbilei’s 2010 picture book The Gardens of Luciano Giubbilei. Giubbilei, a garden design rock star in England who will be giving a FREE LECTURE in Vancouver on November 19, traces his passion for the style of gardens he makes to a stint in the trenches at Gamberaia and a gift of Korab’s book. Read more

Canada’s Full Of Gilt (.Com)—And Loving It!

November 16, 2011/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Fashion & Beauty, Shops & Shopping, View All Fashion Stories /by Editor

The website that pioneered members-only time-limited shopping now ships to Canada. Woo Hoo!

SHOPPING AROUND | With its crazy good deals on coveted designer products like the Hunter boots pictured here, Gilt used to be one of my favourite online shopping destinations.

But then the trouble of getting my purchases home—Gilt only shipped within the United States—eventually got to me. Besides, we Canadians finally got our own flash shopping sites (CLICK HERE for our story). Still, I’d wistfully check Gilt every so often if only for inspiration. Read more

Choosing A Hedge: Which One + Why

November 14, 2011/0 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Hedging is one of the most versatile and cost-effective green materials you can use to carve up a garden.

MONEY WELL SPENT | Carving up the garden into outdoor rooms has been so popular over the past 20 years that some designers believe it’s time to retire the idea, but I think it still has value, especially for a small plot where a wide-open design has the potential to be anticlimactic. Garden rooms create opportunities for mysterious and surprising moments, and walls made of hedging material are the easiest, least expensive and most natural way to fashion these kinds of spaces. Read more

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