Green Somethings: The Blog

Garden Designs to Die For

My last event in Chandigarh got an incredibly amazing response both in terms of sales and feedback. Compliments poured in from almost every person who stepped in our mini-store; if there was one that I remember and that clearly made my day, was when one lady commented that the look of the products and the stall overall was very European. Now, I am not some wannabe or someone who likes all things non-desi. Quite on the contrary, I love the made-in-India handiworks and always amaze at how much the handicrafts industry in India has grown. What truly moved my heart was how I was finally able to touch the right chord with people who understand and appreciate good designs - with a bit of hard work, and a lot of belief that the GS offerings will sell, I really made it work!  It clicked, and I guess now, there's no looking back :)

Inspired by the adoration, I am now working on some French and Victorian styles for the next collection of planters and garden accessories. Of course, there's no work complete with a good amount of Googling - here's what I dug out recently; just some beautiful eye candy for all my beautiful followers.  

Awesome images & content courtesy House to Home - UK  (these were so cool, I just had to steal 'em!)
 

Colourful Provencal-style patio: Brightly-painted shutters with a café curtain at the window for a truly French-style feel. 

 

Styled with sustainables garden: Notice the tyres used as planters, scaffoldboard decking and discarded brick rubble to create this very sustainable & low-maintainence urban garden. 

 
Low-level garden: Create a casual space for lounging around in the garden by choosing low-level, ergonomic seating to relax in, teamed with vibrant, stripy rugs. Add a mix of pots planted with moss and ferns around the edge of your garden for a smart boho mix. 

 

Modern Courtyard: I love the use of clean lines and simple plants with large grey slates that form a path between beds of stipa, rudbeckia and crocosmia. Wall hung flowerbeds in a metal that reflect the light, draw attention to the back of the garden 

Outdoor garden style: Bring your living room style onto the patio. Add splashes of color with bright accessories like this pink throw and lantern lights and butterfly accessories. 

Outdoor kitchen-diner: A built-in barbeque, just  ideal for family meals as well as entertaining in the summers. Add comfort with colourful cushions. Low-maintenance planters can be grouped in threes or fives for displays with impact.

 

Outdoor dining: Give your summer garden party a Moroccan feel with a collection of tea lights, suspended from a parasol. Add soft roses in pink and yellow and complement with fuschia-coloured tea glasses. 

Corner showcase: Although this courtyard garden is compact (perfect for apartments), a cleverly positioned mirror (left corner) makes it appear much bigger than it is. A decorative table and chairs with lots of lanterns and plant pots create a pretty spot for outdoor suppers. 

 

Garden lighting: For an interesting effect in the garden, line modern lattice lanterns up a row of steps and keep the scheme monochrome for a striking contrast against the green of the plants.

 

Summer pots: Pots of succulents, including houseleeks, enjoy the summer sun in their places on this circular patio in a Somerset country garden. 

Plants that Help Reduce Room Temperatures

Finally, am able to get myself to back to my blog. Facebook (FB) predominance and slightly poor time management threw me off track (off blogging!) 

Many story requests are pending, and I promise I will deliver, very very soon but here's something, that infact is a request too. A friend on FB wanted to learn about plants that help reduce room temperatures. So as promised here is the information I have to share with y'all!

Some of the most commonly available plants (at least in India, and especially in New Delhi) can be very useful to reduce temperatures inside your homes and offices. These plants are known to be very effective in removing environmental contaminants like alcohol, Acetone, Benzene, and Formaldehyde from the air around us. Scientists have found that many indoor plants reduce volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, by up to 100 percent over 24 hours in a closed environment. VOCs include compounds such as benzene and hexane, and are known to be highly toxic to humans leading to asthma, liver cancer and other serious ailments. VOCs are present at low levels in many indoor environments. Some, like Benzene, make their way inside buildings through pollution from traffic outside. Others are present as a result of their use in paints, carpeting, and furniture fabric, especially in new homes or buildings. Paper products have Formaldehyde which is carcinogenic and can affect the liver seriously.  

Some of the easily available plants can help reduce the risk of air pollution, thereby reducing room temperatures as well:

Arrowhead Syngonium - Has upwards growing stems with arrow shaped leaves. Though the surface of the plant is dark green, it will have either while, silver or pink markings on the surface of the leaf. We have some beautiful Pink leaved Syngoniums which will grow about 1-2ft and can be easily potted and kept indoors.  Here are a few images - check out how beautiful this common houseplant can be made to look if potted and positioned smartly.

  

Boston Fern - another very common plant and most people fall in love with the wide spread this plant gives when potted in hanging baskets. The leaves are small but the branches are long from the base. It is light green to medium green in color. To care for your Boston Fern, keep it in indirect light while maintaining soil moisture at all times. The leaves will start to wither or turn yellow if light is not enough and you'll know when to bring them out in a semi-shaded area. 

Pothos - Emarlad green in color, this plant again looks great in hanging baskets. I have potted these in small cube shaped pots and maintained both the length and height with regular trimming. Studies show that if placed along with Spider plant and Chrysanthemums, the Pothos reduces significant pollutants from the air inside a room. 

English Ivy - These plants can vine and become up to 50ft tall if not pruned properly. They can grow in pots as well but are generally restricted in growth by the size of their pot. They are green with white or yellow on the small ivy looking leaves and do not require much direct sun light.

Peace Lily or Spathiphyllum is a basic green plant with dark green leaves. It flowers with tall white flowers repeatedly throughout the year, and will thrive best in the shade. It can grow upto 15 to 18 inches in height. Peace lily is very effective in removing environmental contaminants, like Alcohol, Acetone, Benzene, and Formaldehyde from our air. 

Pot Mum or Chrysanthemum Morifolium is a flowering plant that thrives in indirect sunlight and grows quickly. It does not even require a great deal of water. Keep it with the Pothos to make an excellent room air conditioner combo! 

I think the post has become a little longer than I expected so am going to quit here with the promise (another one :P) to add more soon after...

Get Organic Apples in Delhi/NCR

It's raining apples! Pure, 100% chemical free, straight-from-the-farm red apples up for grabs in New Delhi and NCR. At Rs.160 a Kg and home delivered, these are a steal. Just in time when the country is reeling under the scare of H1N1 and cursing the rain gods for showing little mercy, a Royal Delicious Organic apple each day is sure to keep the doctor away. Try them once, and you'll be ordering in for the next three weeks - pretty much the duration that the crop will remain.

The apples are not only free of any chemicals, they get to you within 48 hours of being harvested at the farm! While these organic apples may not come as bright red as the apples you see with the fruit guys, you can be rest assured that no artificial color spray has been used on them, the stuff that usually gives the bright red color to the regular apples.

Grown at orchards which have not tasted any sort of chemical since the year 2000, these apples are a perfect choice if you care about the health of your family. Since we're anyway taking all the pains of making home deliveries, gift a box or two to friends and family as well! You can order a minimum of three Kgs ( approximately 10-15 pieces ) which we'll deliver anywhere in South Delhi and Gurgaon. You can place the order right away and we will SMS you one day before the delivery to ensure the best time for delivery.

Email to singhafarms@gmail.com or call at +91 9811799439 to place an order now!

Green Toys from India

This is so cool. Made in India toys are going places and what’s more, they are making waves for more reasons than one. For one, they are totally made in India. And then they are beautiful, brightly colored and so designed that kids can play with them forever, with no fear of easy breakage and hurting delicate skin. And the icing on the cake is, guess what? These toys are totally eco friendly! Yes, made entirely of wood and colored using natural colors, you couldn’t ask for more. 

And who is making them? Artisans from a small town in Karnataka in our very own India – a town called Chennapatna, which over generations is known for its wooden toys in excellent finish and exciting designs. 

So, who is the person bringing to the American shores? Deepti Shankar, the owner of Earthentree in Kirkland, USA. These eco friendly toys are fun and educational too. With no worry about lead contamination for your little ones, these toys are handmade and very cool. With no child labor and no deforestation and no toxic colors, you cannot ask for more, really. 

Whether it is pull-along toys, rattles, stacking games, music making toys or educational, they are pretty amazing in design and use. Tic tac toe, train set, the abacus and the colored stacker are some of the favorites with children. And you must see the colors they come in, bright reds, eye-catching yellows and brilliant greens. No kid could resist them.

These toys are available in India too. And are quite popular too. But to know that they are being made popular abroad does make me proud. Don’t you think? Well, if you are in the USA and keen on getting your hands on these delightful toys, you can contact Deepti Shankar at dshankar@earthentree.com or you can call on 425 753 6968. Or you can check in at  A Mom’s Haven at Maple Valley or Snapdoodle Toys in Kenmore or if you are in Seattle, Clover, KCTS Channel 9 Store is where you can head to for an eyeful of these colorful toys. Portland and Eugene in Oregon is another place you can head to where Earthentree stocks at Grammy and Nonna’s Toys and Elephant’s Trunk Toy Company.

Here are my favorite ones; if only I had kids... 
 

Tic Tac Toe

Counting Stacker

Cool Cactus

I am not sure if this is a worldwide belief but in India they say, you shouldn't keep Cacti inside your house as it brings ill-luck. Hence I avoid keeping any variety of Cacti and containers for Cacti in my online shop or during any of the offline bazaars.

But I recently spotted these really cute cactus arrangements (and these are indeed in the outdoors!) during one of my WWW wanderings and thought to myself how much would I love to recieve these as gifts. Anyways, they were just too cool and so, I wanted to share :)