Oh my.
Miscellaneous
Ethical bouquets
With all the open houses and cocktail parties to attend at this time of year, think twice before you buy flowers for your host or hostess. An increasing number of the roses and other cut flowers we buy have been imported from large flower plantations in Latin America and Asia, where workers, primarily women and […]
A different approach to flowers on the grave
The Human Flower Project, a collaborative, international photo album and discussion of how people live through flowers, wrote yesterday about the Bolivian Fiesta de las Natitas, or, Day of the Skulls. It’s a modern ceremony with ancient roots. Think Mexico’s Day of the Dead, but more, um, earthy. I found this just fascinating: According to […]
Downtown Eastside residents find fulfilling work in gardening
Emerging Hope is a program that empowers residents of Vancouver’s poverty-stricken downtown eastside by providing employment. Many are people who normally have difficulty finding suitable employment due to homelessness and addiction. I spoke with a woman whose life had been changed by this program. She told me that, without Emerging Hope, she’d still be on […]
Leggo my Eglu
I absolutely must have an eglu. Pleasepleaseplease, sweetie? I need it. And so will you, when you check it out. Here’s what the omlet website has to say: The eglu is a coop for the 21st century, featuring spacious open plan living for 2 – 4 medium size chickens or up to 5 bantams, it […]
Seed saving
You Grow Girl, a website dedicated to – you guessed it – gardeners of the female persuasion, has a good blog. What’s neat about it is that it’s written by a dozen or so gardeners from around the world (well, North America, Australia and the UK anyway). The most recent post is about seed saving, […]
The Hundred Mile Diet
Never thought I’d say it, but I’ve found a diet I can fully endorse. Fellow Vancouverites Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon are halfway through their one-year committment to the Hundred-mile Diet. No, it has nothing to do with the town named for the hundredth mile on the gold rush trail (my mom, whose parents dragged […]
Even the world’s smallest balcony…
Wouldn’t this be the perfect this for those teeny Juliette balconies appearing in new developments all over Vancouver? (Yes, Degan, yours too!) The Leopoldo City Vegetable Garden is kind of a modern version of a window box or hanging basket, but waaaay more stylish. I like the double-decker styling, which provides more growing room for […]