This Baylor’s (of Lila B Design) garden.  Baylor is a floral and landscape designer and she lives in San Francisco.  Her small (500 sq ft) deck was an opportunity for her to put into action some of the green advice that she gives her clients.

Many of the containers, storage, and decorative elements were sourced from a nearby “creative reuse center” called San Francisco Scrap Metal and working on a tight budget, others were street finds.   My favorite parts of the design are the succulents planted in the shutters and green roofed dog house. What are yours?

Found via Bob Vila.

So you might remember a few weeks ago that I mentioned re-working my blogroll — well I have been struggling with what I want to do over on that page but I have finally sorted it out — at least in my mind.   I find that my blogroll has become too long, a bit un-interesting and simply overwhelming.   So, I am going to make it a regular monthly feature and round up a small collection of blogs that I am really into at the moment — which isn’t to say that I am not into those that are currently on the list — just that I need to focus and I am guessing you might appreciate that focus too. I am saving off all those that are listed and I promise that everyone will be back again in time, but only bit by bit and as I reconnect.  So before the month is out…here is my collection for March 2010.

I miss House and Garden and I miss Dominque Browning but now we have her back in blog form and I am enjoying it immensely.

Mary Jo’s  own words about her site explain my obsession — “When you trust your style, you’re trusting your heart.”  It’s  a celebration of fashion, art and design + all the people who trust their own style.

Kevin writes about the art of ‘putting up’ – or, what you might call canning or preserving.  I am planning my garden seed purchasing with an eye towards what I can put up later this summer.

Rohini and her team of editors are inspiring the heck out of me….this is one of those sites that I am sure everyone will be reading soon.

Home Grown is the Farm Aid blog and I enjoy it as a designer as well as in my other role of Farmers Market Manager.

Yolanda is a mom after my own heart.  She’s hip, she writes, and she travels the world dragging her daughter along with her.

Alexander always intrigues me with his insight on Landscape Architecture.

I love checking in with Alexa – her photos are beautiful and she is the best hometown (for me) Colorado garden blogger.

Silly. silly. British men…..but I like the whole set.

So now my only problem is to figure out how to make wordpress display them as I would like — it’s typical that my technology doesn’t quite do what I want it to do — at least not without a little arm twisting…so that blogroll page is still a mess, and it’s coming down soon (hopefully next week – so take one last look).  And as soon as I can figure it out, I will get it reorganized with my monthly collections of great blogs – my deadline is for this is this time next month when I will share April’s list.

A little obsession I must share with you:

Tiny seedling sized  glass bell jars — at £3.00 for 3 jars, all I need to do is figure out if they ship to the USA.

I am so happy to see the arrival of daffodils and tulips where I buy fresh cut flowers.  Photographer Rachel Warne captured the origins of these sweet spring bunches in this beautiful set of images.  It certainly puts me in the spirit of the season, how about you?

Rachel grew up on a flower farm in England and now is a garden photographer.  I know that everyone’s lives really aren’t that different,  and we all have our stuff, but somehow that sort of childhood holds a certain grass is greener on the other side sort of appeal for me.  Her personal history certainly shines through in these images don’t you think?

I’m jumping on Patti’s (over at Liberty Post) bandwagon.  I quite agree that these inexpensive, earthquake resistant Styrofoam homes should be a serious consideration for places like Haiti.  For that matter, lots of other places.  Created by International Dome House Inc. which is based in Japan, these homes boast ultra thermal insulating properties, easy scalability (by adding more modules), fast and easy assembly, lightweight transportation and a starting kit price of only $30,000.

But here is what I like most about these houses.  They are obviously no McMansions – these rounded quaint quarters seem to beg for neighborhoods that have front doors facing every which direction, and paths between each.  All of it, on a normal human scale, and it would seem to encourage walk-ability in neighborhoods.

I think a lot about the 10 lbs I would like to loose.  I have had 2 children and had no issues with loosing the post baby weight — but the sack of potatoes that I carry around…it came from when I moved from London back to America.  It is good ‘ole USA fat – and it comes from the fact that my everyday life is so much more sedentary than my London life was.   Even if I had lived in the country in England, I would have more reasons to traverse rambling paths to get to my local pub and other neighborly places.  But here in the USA we are forced to rely too heavily on cars and our communities are poorly designed and give us NO reasons to walk.

I have been watching Jamie Oliver and his TV show about kids, how terribly they eat, and how poorly educated they are when it comes to vegetables and good food.  I admire Jamie for stepping up to the plate for his industry and demanding that we do better, pointing out how his own peers are letting down a population and putting a spotlight on the problems in order to start to make change.   But, I have to say, I think we fool ourselves to think that the American obesity epidemic is purely food based. It is also hugely caused by the design of our communities.  And for that I think that we in the Architecture, Landscape, Civil, Urban, and Garden design world need to start stepping up and taking responsibility. I am wondering who in our world is going to stand up for all of us, shake things up a bit, and start pointing out that we in the all the land related design industries haven’t been building communities that support a healthy groups of people and we too can do better?

Maidenhair  Ferns have some sort of magnetic quality.  I am so overwhelmingly attracted to them,  like a moth to a flame, an aardvark to and anthill, a crack addict to…. whatever….I have purchased and subsequently  killed more of these plants than I care to admit.  I have a fatal attraction for Adiantum capillus-veneris that started in London after seeing it presented as a viable houseplant (well, not in my house) in a posh garden store. It’s a cruel and unforgiving addiction and I am thankful that Boston doesn’t have too many hip outlets offering it.

1. Maidenhair at Montreal Botanical Garden, 2. Adiantum jordanii California Maidenhair Fern, 3. Maidenhair Fern – Adiantum pedatum ‘Japonicum’, 4. Maidenhair Fern

If I lived down south though, I would surely be a sucker for this delicate beauty again, but here, I have learned my lesson.  I simply look longingly when in the fancy floral shop and feel sorry for the poor fool who parts with her money to try it at home.

But In my imaginary southern (Kentucky?) garden I would have a beautiful waterfall feature with damp limestone ledges that would be the perfect place for my Maidenhair to thrive.   Or perhaps a a damp north facing hillside that I can walk through and enjoy the ethereal feeling of being amongst these airy, graceful plants.

I adore this plant combination of Gentians and Maidenhair Fern taken by Kay and Dave.  Do you have a fatal attraction to a plant?  Or perhaps you have no issue or even success with the maidenhair fern….I would love to hear about both.