The Great Offbeat Outdoors

This is Offbeat Home's archive of The Great Offbeat Outdoors posts.

The "outdoors" might be a 24'x36' garden or a clutch of terracotta pots in a window box, but these posts cover all things gardening, landscaping and even farming.

Most Recent Posts About The Great Offbeat Outdoors

Photo by Justin and Elise. Used under Creative Commons license.

I am endlessly jealous of those of you who live in the magical land where hedgehogs are native and common in gardens. All I have is possums!

Photo by paparutzi. Used under Creative Commons license.

Look at this shit. This is the beast that snuffles past my door at night to rummage through my compost leavings. My particular possum is HUGE and waddling — at least 25 pounds of wiry gray hair and teeth and little beady eyes.

Fuck possums, guys. Let's celebrate the cuter, sweeter, only-mildly-prickly and never-hiss-filled hedgehogs. I dug up some hedgehog love to noodle on.

Ready! Set! Go!

For those of us apartment/condo dwellers in the Northern Hemiphere, it is NOT hanging out on the balcony season — but it IS balcony decor scheming season. Our balcony spent most of last summer in a state of crapped-out dormancy, but I vowed that next year will be different… so the scheming has already begun.

We live in interesting times — times when thousands of people around the world are claiming their rights to free speech extend to the right to occupy a public place as a statement of protest. Given that the Northern Hemisphere is descending into winter, how do they do it?

I've never really gotten the fascination with amphibious cars. Even James Bond doesn't need a boat he can drive onto land! But today, I get it. I had to change my mind after meeting this tiny amphibious camper — it's like something from a dream!

We haven't taken a day to hang out in the forest for a while, and since it's just good medicine, let's do that. I'd like to introduce you to Romero Studios, a treehouse-building husband and wife team which has traveled around the world, spreading treehouses, gardens, and sculptures using 98% reclaimed materials.

Have you thought about yarn bombing your neighborhood playground? Is there a building on your street that needs aesthetic help? Use this street art inspiration to plan a happening.

In front of my house, there is a very nice elm tree. I've been wanting to paint it. Is this resale suicide? Pure tackiness? Tree murder?!

I don't have a ton of time to garden. At least in the daylight hours. If it's light outside and I've finished all my indoors/schedule-dependent tasks, other stuff comes first: mowing the lawn. Cleaning out the garage. Important repairs.

And then I saw Susie Bauer's post, in which she shares her own revelation: NIGHT GARDENING.