Plants & Gardening | Offbeat Home

This is Offbeat Home's archive of Plants & Gardening posts.

These posts cover vegetables, flower gardens, houseplants, and the trails and tribulations associated with them.

Most Recent Posts About Plants & Gardening

Photo by Lynn_El. Used with permission.

As I dove into garden-planning season, I came across this breathtaking flower: the Black Parrot tulip.

Now, I know it's too late to plant tulips, but that doesn't stop me from fantasizing about these. They look dangerous and deadly and I looove them. They fill my mind with ideas, which is the storied power of a good garden.

Happily, the Black Parrot led me down a rabbit hole of other dark plants — the kind of vegetation that might convince even the palest of goths to slather on sunscreen and get into the garden.

Y'all ready for this?

When I was in Seattle for the Offbeat-empire-weekend-of-awesome, I commented to Ariel about how impressed I was at the public compost bins. I'm a big believer that one of the best things we can do for the earth is to compost. Then I casually mentioned that I had ordered a Bokashi composter to try out and she was all "Offbeat Home post?" Then I told Cat and she was all "Yes! Please!" Then we became adults again. I swear.

Hanging gardens are SO SO hot right now — and why not? They're easy, gorgeous, and fit in even the smallest homes. We've covered one version of a hanging garden — now you can add two more to your knowledge base.

I've always loved food: I was taught to bake from a young age and can whip up a mean Sunday roast or Victoria sponge. I come from a farming family so I've always felt aware of where food comes from.

Unfortunately, living on a boat makes growing my own a difficult task — but we've finally found a solution.

I cannot tell you what a crush I have on these hanging plants. They look magical and otherworldy, like something you would find if you stumbled upon a pixie's bedroom in the woods or happened upon the backyard of a really cute Martian.

I finally took the plunge and made them myself, using two beautiful methods.

Having fallen in love with urban knitting, I wanted to follow up my previous adventures with a project my husband and I can work on together. I'm no master knitter, but the world needs more tiny gardens.

Whether you’re trying to keep your cat from killing a houseplant or you're deerproofing your garden, most people think of plants as delicate beings in need of defense. But some plants — even common, unsuspicious looking plants — are trying to kill your pet, even if your pet doesn't munch them.

Say you’ve got a wall that gets nice light – the bright, indirect light that plants love – but you don’t want to hang a planter since hanging planters are still stuck in the '70s design-wise, or slide over a bookcase just to set a pot down. What do you do? Enter the Woolly Pocket.