By Sprout Home Brooklyn, April 10th, 2012, Brooklyn
We are selling bat homes and guano here at the Sprout. Today we hung the new home in our garden with the hopes of thinning out the misquito population come July.
Did you know that our bat friends can be very beneficial to the garden, besides for eating summer blood-suckers? Bats eat an average of 1,200 insects perhour. They eat plenty of other bugs, including those that like to snack on your garden plants. Bats dine on buggers like the adult moths that populate your yard with leaf eating worms.
Bat poop is also great for garden soil. If you want to by-pass the bat condo, you can pick up some guano at the store, which is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus—100% organic.
By Sprout Home Brooklyn, April 10th, 2012, Brooklyn
Living walls, also known as Vertical Gardens, are all the rage right now. Originated by French botanist Patrick Blanc in 1988 (Blanc’s work is on view now during the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden through April 22nd), these examples of “botanical architect” can be seen in large-scale urban exteriors, as well as in the world of interior design.
Now, Sprout is joining in on this trend by carrying do-it-yourself vertical walls for purchase…
This planting, seen above, has been going for over a month and is doing great. This kind of project is excellent for the plant enthusiast facing lack of space in a cramped New York apartment.
Here are a few other examples to inspire…
By Sprout Home Brooklyn, April 5th, 2012, Brooklyn
We’re building the empire….New plants in every week!
By Sprout Home Brooklyn, March 21st, 2012, Brooklyn, flowers
THIS Sunday at Sprout Brookyn!
10am – 12noon
sign up here
Plant Pressing Workshop with James Walsh
This workshop will show you some simple techniques for drying plants and mounting them on paper. To begin, we’ll look at some pressed and mounted plants as inspiration. I’ll show you how to construct a simple plant press and then demonstrate some techniques for pressing plants so that they spread out in a lifelike manner and retain their color. At the end of the workshop I’ll demonstrate some techniques and materials for gluing your pressed and dried plants to paper. Everyone will go home with a small plant that they have mounted themselves. All materials, including plants, glues, and papers, will be provided.
James Walsh was born in Brooklyn, NY, studied literature at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY and Oxford University, England, and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. He has been making visual work in a variety of media since 1986, and has shown throughout the United States and in Turkey, Italy, England, and Sweden. He is the author of three books – Foundations (1997), Solvitur ambulando (2003), and There was Something in the Weather (2012) – and numerous unique and limited-edition artist’s books. Awards and residencies include a Fulbright Fellowship to Turkey and residencies at MacDowell Colony, The Edward Albee Foundation, Art Omi, Wave Hill, and The Center for Book Arts.
By gregp, March 21st, 2012, Brooklyn
From the BBC, another reason why rural plants always seem happier. . .
“Noise pollution is growing [and] this study emphasises that investigators should evaluate the ecological consequences of noise alongside other human-induced environmental changes that are reshaping human-altered landscapes worldwide.”
Tags: noise pollution, plant growth, science