For his installation titled “Giardinetta”, artist Manuel Felisi transformed an old Bianchina automobile into a germinator of blossoming new life. The rooftop of the abandoned car functions as a hanging plant rack complete with glass test tubes, while inside the car, and underneath the flowers, rain falls within the compartment and creates a damp, moist world for bacteria and organisms to grow.
(via Junkculture)
Fans of small-space living and/or admirers of cleverly designed products will appreciate the space-maximizing design of this “balcony table.”
(via Cosmoligne.com)
So clever.
(via wallacegardens)
Students from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam designed “brick biotopes,” made from plaster and sand, which serve dual functions:
1) as bricks, and 2) as a home for house sparrows, which often nest in cracks.
During the past 20 or so years, sparrow populations have declined in many European urban environments. The hand-crafted bricks’ design allows plants and wildlife to “co-exist with architecture.”
This video shows how they’re made.
(via Brick Biotopes at Milan Design Week | Design Milk)
(via ReadyMade)
Apparently, a rusty, old bicycle works well as a “trellis” — hung on the side of houseboat in Bolinas (Marin County), California.
(photo by James Gaither, J.G. in S.F., on Flickr)
Old and/or bent bicycle wheels can make great trellises for plants.
(via The Kirksville Permaculture Education Center; spotted on Pinterest here)
If you like this upcycling example, check out other bike-related posts here and garden-related items here.
From dustpan to garden.
(via Urban Gardens)
“For many people today, gardening is about lawns and almost nothing else. In the United States lawns cover more surface area—fifty thousand square miles—than any single farm crop. In the western United States about 60 percent of all the water that comes out of taps for all purposes is sprinkled on lawns. Worse still are the amounts of herbicides and pesticides—seventy million pounds of them a year—that are soaked into lawns. It is a deeply ironic fact that for most of us keeping a handsome lawn is about the least green thing we do.” — At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson (via citycountrycat)
(via verticaltheory)
“Half pots,” designed by Gerard Moline (who was involved with the design of this previously mentioned item), can perch on edges of stairs, tables, and other surfaces.
