gracious/gardening

Animal Planters
No more fussing over moisture-needy plants. These ceramic planters keep them happily hydrated via a separate, porous inner pot that allows water to seep into soil. Add water and let the absorption process begin; then enjoy your plants in our adorable new humorous designs.

Doctor Frog

Doctor Frog monitors the conductivity of your soil. So once your soil absorbs the water and falls below a pre-set level Doctor Frog will alert you with a discreet intermittent croak.
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Wow, wow, wow!

How to turn a swimming pool into a pond.

"Scuba Cat" birdbath welcomes our fine feathered friends. He is poised and waiting for the little bathing beauties to come in for a swim or a bite to eat! Whether filled with water or bird seed, this guy is on the lookout for more "friends"

For growing novelty vegetables, these 1/8" thick, clear plastic forms are very effective. Just fix a mold over a growing vegetable, and the vegetable will conform to the shape of the mold.

The
Secret Garden of Ninth Avenue

What is it like to create a garden for a co-op with 600 apartments occupied
by your typical opinionated New Yorkers? Most urban landscapes are tiny
spaces with a few plants and pots, or a collection of containers on a
brick terrace. But the one at Coliseum Park Apartments is 2.5 acres, an
unusually large private garden, built over a parking garage that allows
for only 18 inches of soil.

Hundreds of visitors filed through a Virginia Tech greenhouse to get a glimpse, and a whiff, of a powerfully malodorous "corpse flower" as it bloomed.

The large Indonesian plant, whose botanical name is Amorphophallus titanum, began opening up about 6 p.m. Friday and was in full bloom by early Saturday morning.

The plant emits a stench to attract decaying flesh-eating beetles, flies and sweat bees for pollination. Once it blooms, the odor lingers for about eight hours, then it takes several more years before the plant has enough energy to bloom again.

How bad does it smell?

"It's like several days old road kill on a hot, sunny day."