Sometimes my daughter Syd’s drawers smell a bit gamey, like her soccer uniform after a match of  living up to her title as “the finisher”. She’s a darling girl, don’t get me wrong. But she has a frightful habit of  tossing items into her drawers to avoid that exhausting chore of putting them in the hamper. Enter drawer sachets. They give off that happy floral odor that can even compete with dirty socks.

Here are a few nicely packed bundles gathered from from the natural garden.

Show at top, and pretty enough to give as a hostess gift, this lime green natural linen drawer pillow was crafted by graphic designer Lotta Hellberg using safe dyes and aromatic potpourri. $22 for a set of two at Eco Artware.

Lavender is always a draw. Just ask the bees. These Sonoma Lavender sachets from Body and Home are $18 and are wonderful for lingerie drawers.

These Eco Seashell bags from Little Things Favors are not just for the bridal party. They’re Florida Coast fresh and add a delicate scent to the closet. $350 each. And for bringing in the great outdoors (and deterring the moths at the same time) the Natural Wild Herbal sachets at Eco Day Spa are $7.99 and tres outdoorsy.

Curling up each night to sleep, I’ve found a simple ritual that makes bedtime just a little more cozy and sweet. I mist the air with jasmine, neroli, lavender, and a blend of flower essences especially created to help me drift off in sensual, aromatic bliss. This scented mist is the fruit of Nectar Essences, a small, green company that specializes in essential oil and flower essence sprays to wake you up, calm you down, or help you sleep like a baby.

Putting love and intention into every bottle, Jenny Pao, a holistic healer specializing in Flower Essence Therapy, created these gentle formulas to bring balance to our bodies in a deliciously aromatic way. She creates her healing flower essences by soaking exotic blooms in water, and blends them with select essential oils, which are the delicately harvested aromatic soul of a plant. When you spritz with Nectar Essences, you envelop yourself in the embrace of the flowering realm. Consider Nectar Essences the perfect gift for the luxurious sensualist in your life.

Top image: geishaboy500

It’s no mystery to any of you that I love to brighten my home with as many flowers as possible, which, of course, means plenty of eco-friendly and vintage vases. I’ve featured stylish varieties made from sculpted ceramic, frosted recycled glass, bamboo shaped like a flask and more, but, I’ve never posted about one like this: the Square Tapered Water Hyacinth vase. Instead of adorning your tabletops with colorful buds, you can fill these extra tall pieces with branches or stems and group them together in a lonely corner. Not a fan of these? Check out the sleek stem vase, a collection of mango wood vases and the hanging vase that Mike, Susan and Kim discovered. (Available at Natural Territory for $220- $300.)

Let’s just say a friend of a friend, who happens to be an Eco Goddess, is throwing a party and you’re invited. You want to impress her with your eco smarts and the best first impression is the gift you bring to show your appreciation. Here are some truly green gift ideas to suit all budgets.

Bouquet of Organic Flowers. It’s an old standby, but you can mention that they were grown chemical free, so they’re safe to smell to your heart’s content.
Aloe Vera Plant. A gift that truly keeps giving. Beautiful, exotic and medicinal. Who wouldn’t appreciate one of these?
Bottle of Organic Wine. We’ve already compiled a list of our favorites.
Organic Olive Oil and Aged Balsamic Vinegar. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to taste them with fresh bread at the party.
Organic, Fair-Trade Artisan Chocolates. I love Theo Chocolate’s delectable confection boxes.
Palm Wax Candles. This set of chakra candles is very cool gift for the hip hostess.
Fair-Trade, Organic Tea Sampler. Arbor Teas and VivaTerra both have beautiful gift sets.
Fair trade, Organic Soaps. Try this set in a hand woven basket from the Zambian Soap Company and support African families, or support local artisans and pick up something at the farmer’s market.
Artisanal Sea Salt. Pinch, don’t pour.
Organic Peppermint Bark. Have you tried this stuff? It’s amazing. Dark chocolate and peppermint, married in delicious delight.
Organic Olive Lover’s Gift Set. Who doesn’t love olives?
Angel Face Botanicals Lavender Lover’s Eco-Spa Deluxe Gift Set. I can personally vouch that Angel Face products are divine.

There are two things I’ve got against displays of cut flowers.

First, I’m a guy: we’re not big on the flowers thing. We tend to associate flowers with grovelling apologies, or enforced gardening. It’s a matter of perspective. (But I’ll agree, a well-done display of flowers can lift even the lowest mood and brighten the most drab room.)

But there’s my second point: why not keep them growing? Have I mentioned my basil plant? I call him Basil. I’ve carefully tended Basil from a limp, shop-bought state into a riot of greenery spilling over the kitchen window sill. Same with flowers. Why miss the fun?

Then again, if the garden’s rioting and you just have to trim it back a little, it’s a waste to throw away cut flowers when they look so nice arranged in a sunny corner.

You’ve already seen the photo heading this post. It’s the brilliant work of Yee-Ling Wan and Steve Jones, and although I’ve seen a few single-flower vases before, this beats them by a long way. The flower rests in an inner teardrop of glass, drawing attention to the simple, effortless beauty of one flower – just one. I think I’m starting to like flowers again.

Stem Vase – $39
- via CribCandy

The truth is that you’ve never been intrigued by the obvious, and things that aren’t quite what they appear to be are much more stimulating in your book. So, why not apply this philosophy to your décor collection?

Though it resembles a flask, the Small Beside Curve vase instead contains three embedded glass vials that are perfect for holding a single stem of your favorite flowers. Handcrafted by a group of artisans in Thailand who are dedicated to sustainability, this sleek piece is made from bamboo, a rapidly renewable resource that flourishes in their village. Perfect for an understated tabletop, the natural hue of this unique vase will make vibrant buds pop. (Available at Hip and Zen for $34.50.)

The oh-so-sophisticated you might say “vaaaaaz”, but however you pronounce it, a vase is really just a vase.

Not so with the ada hanging vase from cb2. It says “I’m not your ordinary vase, I’m so much more than a vase because I hang here growing out of the wall  looking like something other than a vase.”

The creation of U.K. designer James Burgess, the ada hanging vase is made of porcelain in a bright white that would look perfectly poised hung on any colored wall. Sweeten it up with a solitary flower.

I’d buy six and hang them all in a row – a perfect piece of “art” for the kitchen or breakfast nook. And very inexpensive, too.

Measuring 5″ W x 8″ H and 2″ D, find it at cb2 for $6.95.

My thumb is more blue than green when it comes to plant care and that is why I love the idea of those ethereal air plants that hang from lovely vessels and only require a weekly dunking (just like my kids), and to be fertilized at least once a month.

The plants need to be bedded in a container that holds water and placed in a spot where there is ample  light, such as near a window. They usually flower once and look quite beautiful. There are a myriad of retail sites that sell air plants (Tillandsia) on line, like Deltona Seashells and also good sources for keeping the delicate growers alive, such as Airplant City.

As far as pretty containers, I love the ceramic egg planters at Doe in San Francisco ($89), which come in blue, white, olive and tidepool and are just light enough not to overpower the Bromeliads, orchids (yes, they are air plants, too) and other choices. And at VivaTerra you can find naturally-weathered textured antique stone planters  ($89) along with air plants for propping on a ledge or etegere.
 
In addition to looking cool, I find air plants provide relaxing and calming effects. I think it stems from watching them grow in a bathroom or office and knowing how hard it is to fail them since they only require a minimal amount of love.

Sometimes it’s easy to choose the greenest way forward. This is one of those other times. Artificial grass: once a novelty affordable only by the wealthiest sports-grounds, it’s now set to conquer the domestic markets as a green product. But which grass is greener – the real thing or the Brady Bunch stuff?

Near-Zero Maintenance. Save reservoirs of water (can’t get greener than that), doesn’t get churned up into ugly bald patches, and has a longer “life” than grass. It doesn’t matter how eco-friendly your mower is – ditch it.
Gets rid of unwanted plastics. You’re standing on recycled tires. (And no, if it catches fire it won’t burn for a decade).
Hygiene-Friendly. SynLawn recently released a version that’s porous and anti-bacteriological – music to the ears of pet-owners. Extra chemicals? An estimated 70 million pounds of pesticides and fertilizer dousing U.S. lawns every year? Not on this.
Is that a gasoline-powered mower I see in your garage? Oh dear – and you call yourself green.

Lawns just don’t help the environment – they are the environment (pdf). Cleaning the air, sustaining microbial life, providing worms for birds, and so on. Take lawns away, and our suburban ecology falls apart.
It’s your garden – it’s meant to be tended. That’s how you develop a relationship with it, one where you both grow. It’s a living thing, not an inanimate appliance. (You work in I.T., right?).
When the sun’s out, plastic turf heats up something rotten – up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, some say. Even if that insufficient to actually melt a plastic tire, surely the fumes will be toxic enough.
Lawns are carbon sinks: admittedly this is offset by their maintenance, but even so, the 40 million acres of American lawns filter in the region of 13 million pounds of carbon dioxide annually (estimates Brendan Koerner for Slate).

Difficult to know where to stand, isn’t it?

Image: kevindooley

Sara’s shameless plug: Hi, it’s your editor. De-lurk, dear reader, and leave this fabulous writer a comment. (We love chatting.) You can also share this post with friends – just click your favorite social bookmark listed below. New reader? Be sure to sign up for the weekly newsletter to win free eco goodies! You can also subscribe to any RSS feed your heart desires.

A truly modern city is one that’s overgrown.

I love cities. In Rome last month, I was fascinated by how Italians utilized every corner of their balconies and gardens (more so in the Republic of Georgia) – admittedly as much for rusting motorbike/moped parts as for greenery. That’s men for you. But it struck me how this most ancient of European cities has evolved – in some places at least – into the very synergy of nature and culture that modern designers are falling over themselves to create from scratch.

That means growing things. That’s the personal call to arms of the city dweller, the would-be guerrilla gardener, the committed gastronaut. It’s a cinch to line windowsills and balconies with pots and baskets. There are even kits to do half the work for you, like the Miniature Edible Garden Kit, or the “herb eggs” we reported on recently. Your own fresh oregano and mint makes dishes like this toe-wigglingly delicious – grow nettle and dandelion, and you’re on the way to a free, healing green tea every morning. The list heads over the horizon. Feeling more adventurous? Have a read of this blog from a balcony-growing enthusiast.

But it’s not just about saving money, it’s about ownership. The best way to live in a city is to care about it; to want it to have a positive effect on yourself and those around you. A city neglected by its occupants feels ugly and unappreciated. So let your plants run riot over the wood and concrete – beautiful and useful. Bring your city to life!

Image: bluelemur

Sara’s shameless plug: Hi, it’s your editor. De-lurk, dear reader, and leave this fabulous writer a comment. (We love chatting.) You can also share this post with friends – just click your favorite social bookmark listed below. New reader? Be sure to sign up for the weekly newsletter to win free eco goodies! You can also subscribe to any RSS feed your heart desires.