NYC Green

top - protected garden nestled between two tall buildings in the East Village (I think?), bottom - cascading planter outside a shop in Nolita.

Fort Greene, Brooklyn at dusk. LOVE the beautiful Brownstone buildings and leafy trees lining every street in this beautiful pocket of Brooklyn.

Did you know in New York City in the Springtime, there is lush, green foliage absolutely everywhere? Who would've thought a big dusty city like this would be so full of beautiful plant life... creeping for metres up building facades and spilling from so many windowsills?

Everyone seems to make a real effort to maintain their mini-gardens on window-ledges, and entrance 'stoops'(?) - and it seems volunteers even pitch in at various community gardens on vacant blocks all over town.

Immaculate window boxes in the Upper East Side. Love those white / green hydrangeas especially.

Upper East Side - ivy-covered building and Japanese maple.

Flora Grubb on Design*Sponge

Just a quick post in-between posts...

I just had to share this GORGEOUS succulent-wreath over on the Design*Sponge guest blog. It's the work of San Francisco garden designer extraordinaire Flora Grubb.

That can't be her real name. Can it?

Sudell - Melbourne-based outdoor furniture design

Sudell's 'Tablecloth' table - powder coated laser-cut steel, available in white, red, blue, green and grey.

Tina Sudell is a NZ-born, UK-trained, Melbourne-based Garden and Outdoor Furniture designer! Tina's first venture into outdoor furniture design was her 'Tablecloth' table, launched at Melbourne's fringe furniture exhibition in 2007. Since then Tina has been gradually developing this branch of her business. She's currently in the process of designing new work to add to the range.

Tina's concept for Sudell is to develop outdoor furniture that will physically withstand the test of time in the outdoors, whilst maintaining 'artistic flair, colour and passion', and a sense of timelessness in their design. "Big dreams but a long way to go" she says! I think she's well on her way :) In the the long term, Tina hopes to collaborate with others to add variety to her range and achieve these goals.

Tina Says -
My foray into furniture design came about by accident really. It was suggested to me and at the time I thought - "noooo that's not my skill" but the seed was sewn. I was looking around for a piece of furniture for a client and couldn't find anything that met my requirements. It was then that I realized there was potential there for something new. I found that there was a lot of wood, a lot of not so nicely designed but very cheap furniture from China and some lovely but very expensive designer outdoor furniture. There wasn't a lot of colour, a lot vibrancy or anything particularly interesting. So I decided to take the plunge.

I couldn't agree more with Tina about the lack of well-designed, reasonably-priced outdoor furniture on the market! Of course I love the work of the big names like Patricia Urquiola... but I really don't have the budget to fill my garden with that stunning Canasta furniture range! I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes next from Tina Sudell!

In Melbourne Tina's work is sold through Kif & Katast in Prahran. Sudell will be exhibiting new work at Design Made Trade in Melbourne in July. Tina also has a blog here.

Helium balloon outdoor canopy by Gustafson Porter

After the success of our Christmas/Hanukkah stylised party in the park in December (and all your lovely comments about the photos! Thankyou!)... event styling in all its forms has been catching my eye :)


How's this gorgeous idea for a loose, flowing outdoor canopy? LOVE IT! So simple and effective. And cheap!

The design is by London landscape architecture firm Gustafson Porter, for the Venice Architectural Biennale.

via Apartment Therapy

Thankyou!

The streets of Darlinghurst are so green and full of lush plant life. I love these cascading planter boxes - aren't they stunning? ....got me planning all kinds of garden renovation when I get home!

Just a quick THANKYOU to all the Sydney folk for your wonderful suggestions and recommendations... had a fabulous day in Surry Hills / Darlinghurst today checking out all the good interiors shops (many of which were recommended by you!). Many photos and a little shopping guide to come next week! (would love to post it whilst I'm here but those shopping guides really take a lot of my time!).

Anyway, thanks again... I am here til next weekend so keep 'em coming!

Tomorrow you can look forward to some international news... just to shift the focus slightly :)

vertical garden anticipation

This beautiful little kitchen found on we heart it

In anticipation of Patrick Blanc's soon-to-be unveiled vertical garden at Melbourne Central (from July 17th!), I've been dreaming of ways to achieve similar leafy wall coverage on a smaller scale, in my own tiny little garden...

Bit of inspiration here... I'm loving Jeana Sohn's cascading succulents...

Jeana Sohn's succulent collections gets some sun (originally found this via her guest blog on Design Sponge)

Jeana Sohn's 'String of Pearls'

Beautiful terrace windows on Flickr

Pretty sure this one was from Desire to Inspire a while back... sorry to be vague. :(

This one is not so much 'vertical', but a beautiful view through that window... we heart it again

And one more cute one from we heart it (apartment therapy originally)

Roll on spring!