The picNYC table is your own in-house urban greenspace. Eat, drink, play mini-lawn games: it’s the ultimate multi-use item.

Modern living means few city dwellers are lucky enough to have their own garden with a lawn. So this table, the wittily named picNYC, offers the opportunity for urban gardening – and pastoral dining – without the bugs. Avoid the nagging guilt of failing to mow the lawn; a pair of shears should do the trick. It’s also the perfect finishing touch to haute-tech office spaces.

The table is made from high-end lightweight aluminum and comes installed with grass for deliveries within the NYC area; it costs just shy of $6,000. Okay, those leaves of grass don’t come cheap. Consider it an investment in art, your well-being, horizontal gardening and, above all else, nature.

Photo: Voos Furniture

The post The Grass Is Greener, This Side Of The picNYC Table appeared first on EcoSalon.

In her recent piece in USA Today, Laura Vanderkam takes an environmental stand against the family yard:

“Mowing itself requires fuel, just like our cars, with a similar impact on the environment. And all these woes are before you even get to the issue of water. According to Kress, maintaining non-native plants requires 10,000 gallons of water per year per lawn, over and above rainwater. That water doesn’t just show up by itself; it requires energy to get to your hose. In California, for example, the energy required to treat and move water amounts to 19 percent of total electricity use in the state.”

Vanderkam got me thinking. In her article, she states that maintaining a lawn is one of the most difficult – and therefore potentially environmentally unfriendly – activities one can associate with home ownership.

She interviewed Florida resident Diane Faulkner, who spent some time in Kenya and participated in a daily ritual of waking up at dawn to walk miles along a dried-up river toward a water source, then returning with a few gallons for cooking and washing.

When she returned to America, she asked herself: “How many gallons of water do I waste on that stinking lawn?”

And once the grass has been watered, she wondered, what else goes into keeping it maintained that’s bad for the planet? (Subquestion: How many people own push-mowers anymore, instead of their more convenient relatives, motorized mowers?) While a field of emerald, tailored grass is ubiquitous with owning any sized plot of land, taking care of it is anything but natural.

So, unless you own a sheep, you’re actually doing harm to the environment every time you water and cut the green patches in the front, and backyard. There are 21 million acres of lawn across the country.

In addition to the water waste and exhaust emissions from gas-powered mowers (and don’t even get me started on riding mowers), homeowners use more than 78 million pounds of pesticides each year to keep their front yard “green,” according to Stephen Kress of the National Audubon Society. He also states that weed killers should be banished; simply mowing the lawn removes the tops of weeds and wildflowers, making their stalks virtually undistinguishable from their grassy hosts.

As familiar as the lawn may be when picturing a traditional American neighborhood, think for a moment: What went into putting it there in the first place? Laura Ingalls Wilder aside, the grass was installed on your property, similar to the way your man-made house was. According to Kress, maintaining non-native plants requires 10,000 gallons of water per year per lawn – in addition to rainwater. Then there’s the hose. The water doesn’t flow through it because it wants to – it requires energy to get from pipes to hose. In California, for example, the energy required to treat and move water amounts to 19 percent of total electricity use in the state.

Says the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, the average father of school-aged kids spends 1.6 hours a week on lawn and garden care – more time than he spends on reading, talking, playing or doing educational activities with his kids combined.

Do you think that politicians should start regulating your lawn?

Some facts:

• Inspectors are deployed to count the square footage of grass vs. wild plants; states are cutting teachers and police officers
• By 2020, California will face a shortfall of fresh water as great as the amount that all of its cities and towns together are consuming today
• By 2025, 1.8 billion”¨ people will live in conditions of absolute “¨water scarcity, and 65 percent of the world’s population will be water stressed
• To grow a ton of wheat, it takes 1,000 tons of water; the U.S is the largest exporter of wheat to the world; when we export a ton of our wheat, we are effectively including 100 tons of water in the bargain
• In the U.S, 21 percent of irrigation is achieved by pumping groundwater at rates that exceed the water’s ability to recharge
• There are 66 golf courses in Palm Springs; on average, they each consume over a million gallons of water per day
• Lake Meade (the source of 95 percent of water for Las Vegas) will be dry in the next 4 to 10 years
• Xeriscaping is a form of landscaping that uses zero water
• You can also turn your yard into a vegetable garden; use dense plantings and heavy mulch to keep the weeds down, and put a drip irrigation on a timer for lower maintenance
• And for lawn jockeys, in Southern California verdolagas (a type of purslane) looks like lawn and will grow with zero or infrequent watering over most places

Then there’s Faulkner. She redid her lawn with rocks and hearty plants such as Confederate Jasmine, arranged to look like an English garden. “I don’t have to mow, I don’t have to water, I don’t have to trim,” she says. Her water bill has gone from $80-$90/month to $20. But then again, you could always just spray paint your lawn, too.

Is the grass always greener, eco-friends? Let us know in the comments.

Image: Matt McGee

The post Who Ever Liked Mowing the Lawn Anyway? appeared first on EcoSalon.

If your dog isn’t a city dweller and is lucky enough to have a backyard, he probably runs around on grass. Because, well, what else would you cover your backyard with, right? Luxury interior design Kari Whitman, owner of Kari Whitman Interiors LLC, has a different idea – ForeverLawn, an eco-friendly synthetic alternative.

So how is faux grass eco-friendly? And why is it better than the real stuff?

According to CafeMom, Whitman says instead of grass, she always uses ForeverLawn, which is made from recycled materials. Not only is it easier to maintain and keep green in comparison to real grass, it holds up to the extra wear and tear dogs bring to the backyard. ForeverLawn’s K9Grass is made specifically for dogs. The faux grass yarn is knitted, which allows for flow-through drainage and it has a antimicrobial agent to prevent stains, odors and bacteria. It’s also completely washable, all of which make it great ground cover for kennels and indoor dog parks.

Dog-lover Kristen Bell is one of Whitman’s celebrity clients that has a ForeverLawn covered backyard. Bell has plenty of eco-friendly habits – she’s a vegetarian, she has partnered with eco companies like TOMS shoes and earlier this month she dedicated her 30th birthday to Charity: Water. Plus, she lets all of her rescued pets run around on faux lawn: Lola and Mr. Shakes came from shelters, while Sadie was a post-hurricane Katrina rescue from New Orleans. That said, she also spoils her pups with an outdoor Moroccan tiled hot and cold water doggie bath.

I’m not exactly convinced that choosing a fake lawn is really a more eco-friendly choice – and my dog Leo (shown above) might argue that there’s nothing like a good roll in the real grass! Though the fact that the lawn requires little maintenance does have some green benefits. In effect it saves water, eliminates the need for fertilizers or pesticides, cuts out the gas and pollution associated with mowing and prevents erosion.

If you’re not ready to makeover your backyard you could try a patch of grass to see how your pooch likes it. Or they even make a K9Grass potty.

What do you think of K9Grass? Smart idea? A bit ridiculous? Or not green enough for your dog? Tell us in the comments below.

Images: gTarded, abfsra

The post Is Faux Grass a Green Idea for Fido? appeared first on EcoSalon.

The recovery from the earthquake in Haiti is showing us the value of building our physical world with sustainable reuse of materials, such as re-purposing the rubble from destroyed buildings to mix concrete for new structures.

The good news is we don’t have to rely on earthquakes, floods and fires to inspire our most innovative product designers to bring their concepts to the table. Here are some exciting trends meeting the future demands of a world that is scaling down and greening up.

Light Transmitting Concrete: Shining example of Innovation

Hungarian architect Aron Losonszi’s light-transmitting concrete is a mixture of fine concrete and thousands of tiny optical glass optic fibers, which are blended to filter views and add “weightiness and lightness” at the same time. The new material, Litraconâ„¢, forms an aggregate that is used as building blocks that can be designed in various sizes with embedded heat-isolation. Installations so far have included the Iberville Parish Vets Memorial in Louisiana, the Hungarian Embassy in Paris, two logo walls in Belgium and Hong Kong.

STRAW: The Bale Out That Works

Make hay houses while the sun shines! Resurrecting an age-old method to conserve energy and materials for neo-eco dwellings, the bales are stacked like bricks in the post and beam construction. The biggest concern: keeping moisture out, and experts say this can be accomplished with proper foundation design, roof overhang, plumbing not routed through the bales and installing moisture barriers. For green building tips on building with straw, look here.

EDIBLE GREENS: The Utopian vision of the New Front Lawn

Ask any guerilla gardener. Grass sucks in terms of water use and feeding a healthy world. With that in mind, architect Fritz Haeg’s “radical gardening” of replacing the front lawn with food we grow to eat is spreading now from his original geodesic home in Los Angeles to gardens in New Jersey, Austin, Baltimore, Kansas and elsewhere. As the Whitney Museum points out, his Edible Estates (the book is now in its 2nd edition) are reminiscent of the World War II Victory gardens with results that can be appreciated by an entire community. Go to his YouTube video and get inspired to tear out your green carpet.

CORN: High Starch, low emissions Floor Fiber

Roll out the barrel, of corn that is. Using starch’s sugar to make a new plastic for carpet offers these advantages: reduced CO2 emissions, stain-protection and biodegradable in landfills. Leading the way is Mohawk’s Smartstrand with Bio-PDO, a renewable sourced polymer which is said to require 30 percent less energy than nylon to produce along with 65 percent reduced greenhouse emissions. Another company, CornCarpet, boasts of its exceptional softness. If you must use carpet, which is not the best choice for allergies, at least corn sugar offers a better option – and a new direction that seems to be the innovator in carpet design for 2010.

RECLAIMED FABRICS: Out with the Old, in with the Old. It’s what’s new

While Knoll and other design institutions continuing their commitment to producing green certified modern textiles, sources like Modern Fabrics are launching online retailing of the best designed textiles of yore (Pollack, Pearson, Knoll, Kravet, Jhane Barnes to name a few) that once would constitute waste on the workroom floor. Instead of these to-the-trade treasures being packed up in black trash bags headed for the dump, these sources are courting designers and consumers trying to garner great upholstery for a good price (50 to 70 percent off list prices) while reducing waste. Soy, bio organic cotton and milk-based cotton may be hot in production but reclaimed is the coolest trend of all. It’s a kind of forever love the design world cannot pass up.

Images by: Jeremy Levine Design, colros, woodleywonderworks, kevindooley

The post Behind the Scenes: 5 Key Product Design Trends Building a Greener World appeared first on EcoSalon.

Perhaps it’s the fact the yard is covered with green grass, which is a water no-no in my world, yet a feature imposed by our homeowner association regulations. How we’d love to replace it with artichokes and succulents.

Maybe it’s because my garage is in the back of the house and leads to the backdoor entrance. That sure makes it convenient for unloading backpacks and groceries.

I suppose both of these excuses keep me from perching on the brick steps out front, except once in a blue moon, like on the magical night of Halloween, when hundreds of candy-crazed strangers travel to our “safe” suburban neighborhood to trick-or-treat up and down the tree-lined streets.

Yes, my front yard has practically become a stranger to me, nearly a decade after the baby-rearing years when my girls ran wild with the Bernsteins, the Murphys and the Ritters, the sidewalks their playgrounds for colorful chalk graffiti and clunky, three-wheel vehicles.

It’s kind of eerie how people don’t venture out front anymore.

The children in those other families have gone off to college. They’re the same children that showed up at my front door when my first daughter was born, asking “Can we see the baby, Mrs. Bradley?” Before going away, they had graduated from a variety of private schools in the city. When I was growing up, every kid on my block went to the same public school.

Our pediatrician, who lives in the hood, came over when both daughters were born and delivered hand-knit sweaters she had made for them in her spare time. We no longer go to her house for annual neighborhood Christmas parties. We just see her face when the girls contract a bug, break an arm or crush a finger in a door.

Sure, once in a while, I park at the curb or a soccer mom picks the girls up out front, and I wave to Mrs. Bernstein across the street. But on most days, I shuttle them through the back.

Once inside the back door, my daughters quickly become shut-ins, burdened with hours of homework, entertained after with hours of FarmVille or shows like NCIS. When I was growing up, everyone ran out front after homework, playing ball in the street, climbing trees and doing cartwheels or just shooting the breeze on the curb.

What has changed for me and my family?

Is it having personal computers that lure us into a false sense of “community connection” that actually keeps us from having a real one in our very own neighborhoods? Is it the security issue which gives parents a false sense of panic over children being abducted on their lawns by a stranger? Calming that hysteria is the subject of the eye-opening book, Free Range Kids.

I know it’s not just a city thing because last Friday night, on our way to a friend’s home for dinner, we drove down a thoroughly urban street where parents with toddlers were hanging out on their stoop, the children playing and the dad pouring his wife a glass of red wine.

I felt envious. Here I live in one of the most coveted neighborhoods of San Francisco, and I’m lacking all that I truly desire on a Friday evening: the family outside taking in the sunset, sipping organic wine, moving to the rhythm of a glider, and waving hello to other families doing the same. I guess you could say I need to move to the country. But, then again, think of that couple on their stoop on Divisadero Street.

The concept of the country can and should always be in our minds. It is that concept that keeps neighbor connected with neighbor, every night, not just that one October night when we venture out to the stoop.

This is the latest entry in Luanne Bradley’s column, Life in the Green Lane.

Images: tomask, Luanne Bradley

The post Mourning Time on My Porch: Does Anyone Play Out Front Anymore? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Sit on the grass; look out at the trees; wake up in the field; float on the water.

These four frolics in nature are woven into the fabric of the vintage French furniture reclaimed by Chair Couture, a delightful contemporary source that seeks to make stuffy, highbrow seating more down to earth.

In salvaging original French antiques for her quirky collection, owner Margaret Elman carefully selects fabrics that fits the mode. She says the recycled polyester or organic cotton used is derived from photographs of nature.

It’s all designed to bring the outdoors inside with splashy textiles in vivid shades that really grow on you.

I remember when a friend first spied the ocean fabric and flipped, telling me it was like nothing she had seen before. She was able to locate the fabric by the yard.

If you purchase one of the reconfigured antiques, such as the Constance chaise covered in a water print (above), the price might hit you like a wave. It’s $15,000. The David bergère chair covered in grassy cloth (at top) is $7,000 and the 1930s carved bed in the dandelion print(below)  is $13,000.

The price tags might be out of reach, but if you have the means, these pieces emerge as works of art that make a huge statement.

The post Your Ass Is Grass appeared first on EcoSalon.

The grass is always browner when officials have Los Angeles homeowners turning off their sprinklers during the sizzling days of summer.

Starting June 1, the L.A. Dept. of Water and Power imposed mandatory restrictions aimed at reducing the city’s water use by 15%. Residents were ordered to use their sprinklers only on Mondays and Thursdays or be slapped with higher utility bills.

Nearly two months later, it’s clear that suburban lawns are dying of thirst in the San Fernando Valley where folks are complying as temperatures climb past 100 degrees in July and August.

“If you look around, everyone’s lawns are drying up and dying and it looks terrible,” complains Cherie Sanders, a resident of an upscale gated community in Calabasas. “It’s not fair that we have to shut off the sprinklers when golf courses and parks are using so much water and don’t have to comply.”

Flooded with complaints by ratepayers who have yet to convert to drought-resistant succulents and wild grasses, the city is loosening the law. Parks, cemeteries, colleges, school districts, athletic fields and at least five golf courses have been given the green light to irrigate the grounds on any day of the week until the law can be rewritten.

Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager of the Dept. of Recreation and Parks, told the L.A. Times parks deserve special consideration because they serve entire communities. Apparently, parks were also showing signs of distress from the restrictions.

“I couldn’t just come up with a picnic basket and jump on your front lawn,” he said, adding his own North Hollywood lawn has turned brown. “As people’s lawns die, they’re going to need a refuge and we can provide that.”

The DWP’s Board of Commissioners is considering a proposal to alter its watering law for larger property owners (three acres or more to landscape) to hydrate more frequently, as long as they reduce their water use by 20%.

Mukri told the Times his agency has made strides in cutting consumption by 40% over the last two years and will continue installing drought-friendly irrigation systems. He notes that the parks being given a break, such as popular Griffith Park and five city golf courses, already use recycled water and are therefore allowed to water on a daily basis.

Other officials have said that if the greens die on the golf courses the replacement could be very costly.

But what the pretty lawns of the average homeowner?

“I think the city needs to follow its own rules,” said David Coffin, a member of the Westchester-Playa del Rey Neighborhood Council.

Coffin, who is also a candidate for state Assembly, said the city would take its conservation policies more seriously if it experienced their effects firsthand.

“As much as I hate to say it, the only way to force them to address the overall water situation is to let those things turn brown,” he said.

Last year, the DWP banned watering between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and prohibited restaurants from serving water unless a customer requested a glass.

A council vote is not expected for a few weeks.

Image: paulhami

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