I know they have a weird name but these big, bright flexible tubs are so damned useful and good-looking that I’ll take three, please. Not only can a Gubba tubtrug carry everything around the garden but when the day is over you can fill it with ice and use it as an attractive champagne or beer bucket.
It comes in lots of beautiful colours, so you can’t lose them, and a range of sizes so you’ll want to collect the set.
It’s the time of year for list-making – lists for Christmas, lists for 2008, lists for 2009, lists, lists, lists. And of course it’s time for gifts, gifts, gifts. So my natural inclination has been to combine the two and get all festive. We’ll be looking at one a day in an attempt to solve those pre-Christmas shopping blues. So if you’re stuck for Christmas present ideas, there are some fantastic gift ideas coming up for the gardener or plant-lover in your life. Hope you love them as much as we do.
Meri kirihimete,
The LovePlantLife team xx
If there was ever any doubt as to how flippin’ cool plants are – you need to watch this video. Part botany recruitment video, it’s a great overview of the study and history of botany. There are also fantastic examples of just how useful plants are. Botany Without Borders via Bushman’s Friend
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MBmkTJkghQ&e]
Sunday night nature documentaries have been a tradition since I was a kid. Unfortunately, TV stations don’t have the same concern and it’s left me yearning for some good David Attenborough. Unfortunately again, he can’t make them faster then I watch them so I’ve had to turn to the internet to sate my nature voyeurism.
TERRA: The Nature of Our World is the first online science and nature film series. 100 short films from all over the world take a look at the planet’s diversity. Cascading Effects shows the most beautiful landscapes while looking at the effects of global warming. You can also see why frogs really matter, Yellowstone’s nature corridor, learn about parasite/host co-evolution (more interesting then it perhaps sounds), and coronal mass ejections (not as dirty as it sounds). And who would have thought there would be a hippo – cocaine connection?
Of particular interest to us LovePlantLife types is Algal Biofuels and Gimme Green looks at America’s obsession with lawns — don’t tell me it’s not an obsession, it’s a $40-billion industry! But the sparkling diamond must be Jewels of the Jungle, 6 episodes about Dr. Gary Strobel’s hunt for medicinal plant compounds through the world’s jungles. This stuff is pure gold!
A giant mechanical flower that opens and closes at dawn and dusk, made by students at the University Of Buenos Aires in Argentina. (Via Suicide Bots – hot Bot on Bot Action. Photo by Don)
I like drum and bass, I love flowers. This video is fantastic. Thanks to tifftai for sharing. Check out more at Plants in Motion
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz3wscJMbuo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1]
Heather Flores is a green garden goddess. She has a vision – for lawns to give way to gardens and those gardens to feed and sustain communities. And she’s written down the blueprint for this garden revolution in Food not Lawns: How turn your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighbourhood into a Community.
Food not Lawns starts by putting you in the right headspace, a good non-preachy ‘why you should’. Flores then kicks into a really sound overview of the practical elements – how to gain ground, the water cycle, the living soil, plants, polycultures and seed stewardship. All this in a really friendly, engaging style. Then we go beyond the garden, reaching out into the community and working together, for and with the next generation.
More review and lots of links after the jump…
Genista in full bloom, Gisborne NZ, Sept 18, 2008
I’ve been gardening now on and off for almost 25 years. Mainly off. This isn’t through a lack of desire to grow healthy food or beautiful flowers. I dream of this a lot. I’m full of wonderful ideas and a huge library of books and bookmarks. I’ve got plenty of seed, a few good tools and lots of land to work my magic on.
You know why I don’t live in the new Eden? One – I’m pretty lazy. Two – I keep being scared off getting started gardening. I’m constantly bombarded with messages:
— You have to plan properly
— You have to get the soil right
— You have to wait until the right time
— You have to have the right tool / spray / fertiliser / method
Well, too frickin bad Mr You-have-to, I’m going all Whatever on you.
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