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DIY: Holiday Window Boxes, Instant Gratification Edition
When I installed three window boxes on my San Francisco apartment several weeks ago, I dropped in an easy mix of plants for instant gratification. I eventually got more creative and put together a...
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The Week in Review: 10 Days of Christmas and a Poinsettia at Gunpoint
It was a big week of news, with the Mafia threatening to corner the poinsettia market. Plus, we discovered the eight best woodsy-scented holiday candles: Above: A different take on ornaments....
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Easy, Elegant: It Must Be Old Man's Beard
Florist Dundee Butcher (aside from having one of the best names out there) boasts an impressive floral pedigree and counts Kensington Palace, Claridge's Hotel, and the Victoria and Albert Museum among...
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The Wreaths of Brooklyn: A Neighborhood Tour
Every weekday morning, before sitting down to work, I slip on a pair of old sneakers and take a quiet half hour walk to see what’s happening in my Brooklyn neighborhood. These walks have become...
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DIY: Bottle-Fed Paperwhites
Chilly weather means that I spend a lot more time inside than I'd like to. Happily, I've found one January treat that brightens even my most homebound days: paperwhites. Most years, I've grown my...
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Domestic Dispatches: The Death of the Dining Room
I think we can all agree by now that the most worthless space in a conventional house is the dining room. I have lived in seven houses, and in all of them, this was a sad and misused place, a room you...
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DIY: Holiday Window Boxes, Urban Edition
It can be hard to know what to do with a window box as the weather gets colder. Some of my Brooklyn neighbors will let their boxes sit empty for the coming months, while others will plant miniature...
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Hike of the Week: A Winter Wonderland in Maine
Photographer and Bar Harbor native Jennifer Steen Booher recently captured one of Acadia National Park's popular landscapes as most summer tourists seldom see it: in the glory of a winter storm. At a...
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DIY: Maidenhair Fern for Bathroom Greenery
As far as bathrooms in rental apartments go, we're pretty lucky. With a palette of white and more white, we were saved from the Pepto-Bismal pink tile and glitter-flecked vanities that I've seen in my...
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Sofas: How Low Can You Go?
Is there anything scarier than a sofa? I've been reluctant to buy one since my last blunder, a Ralph Lauren leather sleigh so large that our feet dangled. The back and arms were high and swooping; it...
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Leave No Trace: A Gathering Place in the Winter Woods
Like the nomadic huts of our ancestors, a modern structure that feels as if it's one with the land can be an irresistible gathering place. And after the people move on? There will be no sign that it...
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Steal This Look: Water Troughs as Raised Garden Beds
The typical rectangular raised bed is a space hog that tends to dominate a garden. The other day I ran across a stylish alternative—painted livestock water troughs. Here's how to get the same look:...
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The Poet and His Garden: Ian Hamilton Finlay in Scotland
Spread out in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh, the garden at Little Sparta was created by artist and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay over decades, with his wife Sue. Simply put, It is one of the greatest...
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DIY Floral Arrangement: A Bouquet for a Newborn
Just over a month ago, my older sister and her husband welcomed the tiniest, sweetest little boy into the world. He joined us a month earlier than expected, so after I got the phone call saying all...
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The World's Most Adorable House Plant
Much like animals, plants have character: some are prickly or spare, while others are jovial and grand. And then there's Mikado. Though small in stature, this wee plant has so much personality, it's...
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The Fig and I: Tips for Caring for a Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree
Nature has wired us to feel protective of babies, with their oversized, floppy heads. The big, round leaves of a fiddle leaf fig tree make it the houseplant equivalent of a newborn. So it was probably...
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The Magicians: An English Professor and a Novelist Conjure a Garden in Brooklyn
It is probably impossible, if you are an English professor, to look at a garden without thinking of John Keats' "fast-fading violets covered up in leaves" or "the coming musk-rose full of dewy wine"—or...
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Steal This Look: A Potting Shed Made of Scraps
Drive west across San Francisco as far as possible, to the ocean; you can see the water from the end of the block. In the foggy Outer Sunset surfer district, restaurant owners Dave Muller and Lana...
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Closet Cleanout: The Only 10 Pieces of Clothing You Need
I have only good memories of walk-in closets, except for the time I was rummaging around in the back of one—and suddenly came across a high-top sneaker with two kittens sitting in it. It was a charming...
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An Insider's Favorite: The Bliss of Visiting Rousham in the Cotswolds
The sound of peacocks crowing in the English countryside is a sign that a parallel world exists nearby. Those who keep peacocks have no regard for the sleep quality of their neighbors, or better still,...
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