Gardening goes to the boys.

There’s a new crop of gardeners on the scene: they’re young, handsome, and they know their way around a pile of dirt. Some are latter-day hunter-gatherers and others are aesthetic geeks who drool over orchids like some dudes salivate over fantasy football trades.

The guy gardener is not an entirely original phenomenon. In the United States, The Men’s Garden Clubs of America (TGOA/MGCA) was first established in 1932 to promote camaraderie among men and facilitate community beautification as well as gardening education. Today, the organization has more than 2,800 members, though due to organizational changes in 1992, women are now amongst that number.

Meanwhile, across the pond in Surrey, England, Gerrard Winstanley and The Diggers started planting in 1649 as a form of public protest. Nowadays it’s called guerrilla gardening, a phrase coined by NYC activists in 1973 that’s being popularized anew by Richard Reynolds, shown here discussing seed bombs and the first manscaper on our list.

Richard Reynolds, 33
The Guerilla Gardener
London, UK

As Richard puts it, “Guerilla gardening is the illicit cultivation of someone else’s land.” In other words, it’s like squatting for geraniums. Apart from his own balcony garden, which he maintains communally with his neighbors atop a 10-story housing block, he takes care of seven guerilla gardens.

“My emphasis is on public and neglected property,” he says. “Using plants to make a provocative statement.” And, at times, a more romantic one. In a show of the couple that weeds together stays together, he recently proposed to his girlfriend on the same plot of lavenders where they first met five years ago. Remember that the next time someone compliments you on your tulips.

Mike Lieberman, 31
Urban Organic Gardener
Los Angeles, CA

Mike Lieberman insists he’s not a gardener.

“When I think ‘gardener,’” says the boy from Brooklyn, “I think of a middle-aged woman who’s been doing it just for the beauty of it and not considering all the other aspects.”

Aspects like taking on the industrialized food system and eating a predominantly plant-based diet.

The label-shy food cultivator started his first fire escape garden when he was living in the East Village in the spring of 2009. He’s been blogging about it since on his gardening blog, which averages about 1,000 hits a day.

“A lot of the information that’s out there in the gardening space is written for other gardeners. My blog is about raising awareness of the food system through fire escape and balcony gardening. I’m all about, grow one thing and you’re doing something. ”

Jason DaPonte, 35
Managing Director: The Swarm
London, UK

Full disclosure: I first met Jason DaPonte, Managing Director of The Swarm, during our university years. That means we spent a lot of time around loud music in dark clubs at odd hours of the night. Imagine my shock and awe when I discovered some 15 years later that he’s a mad cultivator of exotic orchids.

His Tumblr Growing Crazy, which is followed obsessively, recounts his adventures in taming his rooftop wilderness. Formerly an allotment gardener (the UK version of the plot system), he was kicked out for free-forming.

“I was planting so that it looked nice instead of keeping neat and tidy rows. That was against the rules.”

He’s also of the one-plant-at-a-time school of growing. “So many people say to me, I could never have a garden like yours. To them I say, well, start with one pot.”

Reggie Solomon, 35
reggieCasual and co-author of I Garden: Urban Style
New Haven, CT

Reggie is a basil and tomatoes kind of guy; you won’t find any flowers in his patch unless they’re marigolds that have offered themselves up as “sacrificial lambs to the aphids that attack my garden.”

He argues that there are two uniquely contemporary factors that draw men to gardening: one, a burgeoning interest in DIY organic sustainability employing a “control what you grow” brand of logic, and two, “Society gets away with saying males can’t also be producers, you know, ‘manning up’ to go gardening. But there is something unconscious happening here. Men want to be physically responsible for something and produce with their own hands.”

There’s a social component in it, too, says Reggie. He has two gardening buddies that pop by his house when they’re in the mood for cultivating some herbs or pruning some vines. In the winter they make beer together, in the summer they grow together. It’s an arrangement made in bro’ heaven.

Michael Nolan, 38
Co-Author of I Garden: Urban Style, Founder of My EarthGarden, Food Advocate and Public Speaker
Birmingham, AL

“I’ve been gardening since I was a kid,” explains Michael Nolan. “I was always sorta fascinated with the whole idea of the way things grew.”

Like most of the other guys featured here, Michael sticks to the edibles, but tries to strike an aesthetic balance. “I’m working on the first-ever Steampunk themed garden now: a combination of wild edibles, herbs, flowers and lots of rust.”

Michael predicts that the trend of men gardening will continue to grow vertically in the years to come. “It goes beyond being the cool thing to do these days. Guys are taking better care of themselves and growing your own food is a logical step in that direction. Plus, chicks dig gardeners.”

It’s true.

Richard Reynold’s image: Alessandro Rota

Main image: Solly Markovitch

The post Manscaping: These Guys Have Stems Attached appeared first on EcoSalon.

Gorgeous sprawling landscapes and mobile vegetable patches are two ways to show everyone that you have the greenest of green thumbs, but rooftop gardens are the cat’s meow when it comes to eco-friendly planting options.

Rooftop gardens are not only a gorgeous and elegant way to beautify your home, but they’re also perfect for apartment dwellers with limited space. Birds love top-floor landscaping, they make a great place to grow food, and are a sustainable way to insulate the building underneath.

Here are a few rooftop designs I fell in love with the minute I saw them.

Imagine sipping your morning coffee while enveloped in this rooftop retreat. The brainchild of NYC garden designer Amber Freda, it features cozy chairs, lush hedges, Zen-like trees and a skyline view. Let’s just agree to call this incredible, yes?

Even if you have a tiny rooftop, you can still think big. UK design firm BlueSky Landscapes created a sheltered cooking an dining area on this small terrace and still had room leftover for a sitting area and loads of planters of staggered heights to draw the eye upward. The bright orange table and matching benches add a bright pop of color we love.

I would climb buildings in Manhattan’s East Village to find this rooftop living space. In addition to skyward-growing vines and rows of greenery flanking beautiful wooden benches, this space has a custom-made stainless steel water basin and spout, and even a private shower area so you can bathe al fresco. Pulltab Design, I think I love you.

Chicago Specialty Gardens designed this jaw-dropping outdoor garden that mixes birch pole arrangements with bench seating, and ipê screening to allow for air movement during hot summer months. Potted plants and trees complete the look and you’d never know you were on a garage rooftop in the middle of the city.

Landscape designer Andy Sturgeon created a perfect look for rooftop gardens in arid climates where grass and thirsty plants won’t thrive. Planked paths and gravel landscaping provide a backdrop for long-leafed flowering plants and assorted shrubbery. The gorgeous fire pit is surrounded smooth, white boulders and a wooden seating arrangement perfect for enjoying a cup of tea while watching the sunset.

Can’t get enough of these amazing rooftop gardens? Here are 17 more that are just as incredible.

The post 7 Dreamy Rooftop Garden Designs You’ll Envy appeared first on EcoSalon.