Alert reader Kevin pointed me toward Loll Designs after my last post on a recycled-plastic Adirondack.

Described as “outdoor furniture for the modern lollygagger” (love it!), Loll makes recycled modern outdoor furniture that is as environmentally-friendly as it is good looking.

I especially like the Go Club chair, above, and the Cubby bench, below. The Cubby’s description is prefaced with, “Every time you look at your pile of shoes by the door, the Cubby Bench is the innovative piece of furniture you wish someone would think up already.” Um, are they talking about me?

While I’ve never had an appropriate setting in which to place an Adirondack chair (lakefront cottage pending), I have always appreciated their comfort and practicality (built-in drink “tables”!).

Room & Board’s Emmet chair and ottoman is a pretty sweet take on the original. Sleek and sexy – and made from 100 percent post-industrial recycled plastic. Guess sometimes you can improve on the classics.

Stumbled upon a cool site today that aims to help people beat their lawn addiction. Need a reason to kick the habit?
Here are a few good ones.

Ready to commit? Less Lawn can help you do it, either in baby steps or whole hog. There are lots of great articles – from methods of lawn reduction to low-maintenance lawn replacements.

I love the look and tactile nature of letterpress printing, and I’m fascinated by old herbal remedies. So it’s only fitting that I love these Notes to Grow On by Lizard Press on Etsy.

Based on botanical illustrations from the German incunabula period [1450-1500AD], the cards come with a small packet of seeds.

Lovely!

I apologize for the lack of posts lately; like many gardens at this time of year, I’m feeling rather exhausted. Time for a long nap.

Anyhoo, just wanted to share this article I came across in the Globe and Mail this weekend. In it, Canadian gardening guru Marjorie Harris writes that, “Horizontal strips of wood have a much more modern feel than traditional vertical fencing. Combining wood screens with greenery is an elegant way of blocking unwanted views without sacrificing light.”

All the photos in the article portrayed minimalist gardens using these horizontal slat-type fences. Well, I guess I’m on trend, I thought at first, having just installed a similar fence just weeks ago.

Then I started thinking about what makes this look “modern.” Is it just that traditional materials are used in a new way? It looks sleek and modern to me, but what makes it so? Why does “modern” always equate with minimalism?

Harris suggests that modernism “is something that is both a bit harder (the materials) and a bit softer (the plants).” I think that’s part of it — but does that sum it up, or is it just the tip of the iceberg?

Is this horizontal slat trend already starting to get stale? What IS modernism? Why does Marjorie Harris always look so angry? The People want to know!

Lipstick that’s good for the environment? Sign me up!

Check out Cargo Plant Love, lipsticks with packaging made out of corn and flower seeds. When your lippy is all used up, plant it and wait for a bouquet of wild flowers to grow. Love it!

Via Daily Candy.

Right now: Loving Welcoming the Flowers by poet and performer John Giorno, a set of screenprinted poems in 18 parts. Although I feel a need to defend some of les fleurs, (why are lupins self serving and unkind?) I love the bold, cheerful colours in constrast with the somewhat morbid sentiments expressed.

Via MocoLoco.

A perfectly kitschy campfire tealight holder. Because even those little chimineas wouldn’t fly in my tiny backyard.

US$19 from Park Life.

Via Mighty Goods.

There are a lot of dirty jokes you can make about zucchinis, to state the obvious.

But somehow it escaped my attention, until very recently, that zucchini plants have male and female flowers – of which the male flowers (above) must pollinate the female flowers (below) in order to make babies.

Now, I’ve grown zucchini for years – never successfully, mind you – but year after year I planted seeds, nurtured the plants, watched the little phallic fruits grow… and shrivel and die. And I would shrug it off, blasting the gardening gods for being against me again that year. It was only this year that, faced with another shriveled yellow curcubit, I dragged myself to the Internet and discovered that I was dealing with sexual disfunction in my garden. Or at least a lack of bee action.

This just goes to show you that a) Gardening is an ongoing learning process and b) I’m stubborn, lazy, and dumb as sh*t.

I am capable of learning, thank goodness. Armed with an article on zucchini blossom end rot I learned that rotting baby zucchinis are usually a result of lack of pollination. IE: if bees don’t pollinate your zucchini, you have to do it yourself.

And thus, in what was probably the closest thing to my experimental college days, I decided to intervene in another couple’s sex life.

Hand pollinating feels kind of illicit (at least to my dirty mind). Basically, you locate a male flower (one with a slender stem), open it up and, using a cotton swab, gather some of the yellow pollen from its central pistol. Then you find a female flower (one with a swollen, baby zucchini-like stem) and gently roll the pollen onto its inner stigma. And just like that – we’re in the baby business. You can also forgo the cotton swab and just break off the male flower and nuzzle it into the female’s business.

It’s easy, but yet somehow feels wrong. But as long as my now-pollinated little zucchinis “set” and provide me with chocolate zucchini bread for months to come, I guess I’ll get used to the idea.

Seems like this is the week of Before and Afters (ie. I am finally getting my act together in my own garden). Last year, our third-floor deck was a complete embarrassment due to a lack of access to water. This year, after installing a drip-irrigation system and some raised beds, we’re in business.

You can’t see it all in the photo, but I’ve got six heritage tomato plants, zucchini, basil, shiso, cilantro, edamame, purple bush beans, mixed lettuces and some ornamental perennials — and let’s not forget the fig tree. Now it’s such a lovely place to come and sit in the evening; breathing in the heady mix of tomato leaves, basil and fresh soil.