The most creative landscape designers think beyond flowers, shrubs and other decorative plants to create outdoor spaces that are functional, unique, and in tune with nature's glorious harmonies. Here, we celebrate five of our favorites—and press them for intel that will help you take your own outdoor spaces to radical new places.

Biodynamic Farming is essentially a spiritual, ethical, ecological approach to agriculture, food production, and nutrition.

Radical Regenerative Gardening and Farming informs and inspires gardeners, and farmers, who wish to bring quality and integrity into their work with the land.

We’ve been sleeping a bit less since we arrived due to the baby’s jetlag. No biggie — honestly I think it will settle soon, he’s getting closer to his schedule back home and he seems to be really enjoying spending time with his young cousins. Obviously we all feel very lucky to be here. I take care of him for most of the night and sleep in the morning and Will takes over around 5 a.m. which means that he’s in charge of the morning ‘bread run’ to collect croissants and baguette. I’m hoping that i’ll be sleeping more soon so I can go too and show you how charming the bakery is. I also was up early with the baby this morning (we’re driving to Italy today so I gave Will the full night) and couldn’t believe the beauty of the peachy pink sunrise so will try to shoot one of those, too! Regardless, we have been enjoying long, leisurely breakfasts on the terrace or in the garden once I am up! I have definitely been eating at least one of each croissant — regular and pain au chocolat — and copious amounts of fruit — strawberries, apricots, […]

How-to use KNF? This chart is designed as a quick start guide to how-to use KNF Solution formulas. Learn how to combine, dilute and then apply KNF Solutions to your crops. Apply the appropriate nu…

Make the most of your outdoor space! Check out this collection of urban garden designs for some alfresco inspiration.

Raised field construction (from Clark Erickson) Raised fields -- an ancient form of agriculture, practiced by the Mayas, Aztecs, and the ancestors of the Incas -- was one of the most productive preindustrial farming systems anywhere. These fields were abandoned in most areas centuries ago, and largely forgotten. In the 1980s archaeologists excavated ancient raised fields around Lake Titicaca in the Andes. Based on their findings, modern rural peoples started rebuilding raised fields. They turn out to be well adapted to the natural and social systems of the Titicaca area. Archaeological interest in ancient raised fields starts with the observation that they were a form of "intensive agriculture." Urban populations need large amounts of food, and with primitive transportation methods food had to be grown locally (unless we are talking about imperial Rome, where food could be shipped across the Mediterranean from Egypt easily and inexpensively). Under preindustrial conditions, "intensive agriculture" refers to methods that require considerable investment of labor in order to increase the yield on the land. Consider the difference between rainfall agriculture and irrigation agriculture in a given environment. The construction of canals and dams, and their required maintenence, can increase yields tremendously, but at the cost of requiring much more labor than rainfall agriculture. Irrigation is an example of intensive agriculture, while rainfall farming is a kind of extensive agriculture. Figure 1 - Tiwanaku Figure 2 - Relic fields on the shore of Lake Titicaca Large, complex urban societies almost always rely on farming systems with intensive methods to feed their population. The most common forms of preindustrial intensive agriculture around the world were canal irrigation and hillside terracing. The earliest cities in Mesopotamia used irrigation, while the Inka cities of the Andes relied on terracing (with some irrigation). Aztec cities used both methods, plus the intensive cultivation of kitchen gardens. But perhaps the most remarkable form of ancient intensive agriculture were raised fields. This is a method of swamp reclamation, where long, parallel field beds are created by piling up dirt and muck from the swamp. Shallow canals are left in between the raised beds, and these canals have to be cleaned out periodically by scooping up the muck (a natural organic fertilizer) and piling it on the fields. Fig. 3 - Clark Erickson I talked about Aztec raised fields (called "chinampas") in a previous post. Here I want to focus on raised fields in the Andes. Tiwanaku was major urban center in Bolivia near Lake Titicaca, that flourished between AD 600 and 800 (fig 1). The plain around Lake Titicaca today is full of remnants of ancient raised fields (fig 2) that helped support the ancient city's population. A number of archaeologists have excavated and studied these ancient fields (see bibliography below). Here, I focus on the work of Clark Erickson (fig 3). Fig 4 Clark Erickson (an old pal from graduate school at the University of Illinois) began with excavation and mapping of the fields, but then decided to see whether he could re-introduce the system for use by contemporary campesinos. In many ways ancient forms of intensive agriculture would seem to work well in the developing countries today -- they have high yields, use simple technology, they rely mainly on human labor, and they keep control of farming in local hands. This is a low-tech approach to economic development, using principles pioneered by EF Schumacher in his book, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (fig 4). It is the opposite of the high-tech approach that involves mechanized equipment, petrochemicals, and hybrid seeds. While many development agencies championed the latter approach, in fact it can be detrimental in poor rural areas. Once the foreign funding runs out, farmers can't buy or repair equipment, they can't afford the fertilizers and herbicides, and the result is that a few people get rich and most get poorer. Fig 5 - Rebuilding ancient fields Fig 6 - Ancient and rebuilt raised fields Fig 7 - Building new fields Clark managed to get some people to rebuilt and rehabilitate ancient raised fields (figs 5, 6), and others to build new fields from scratch (fig 7). He made use of a publicity campaign involving comic-book like pamphlets with text in both Spanish and Aymara (fig 8). At first the fields were a real success, and some farmers had yields higher than those who were following the high-tech development approach. Although his efforts were opposed by development experts from the United Nations and other development organizations, up to ten square km were planted in new raised fields in the 1980s. By the 1990s, however, the results were mixed. Most of the farms that had been built communally, by large groups, had been abandoned. But the household-level farms, where individual families had built and farmed the new fields, were still functioning. Fig 8 - Local publicity material Clark Erickson has since moved on to pursue similar research in the swampy plains of eastern Bolivia, the Llanos de Mojos. He is just one of the archaeologists who have tried to re-introduce ancient farming systems to modern farmers. Alan Kolata has also worked on the Lake Titicaca raised fields, and Christian Isendahl is now working on ancient/modern connections with other indigenous farming systems in Bolivia. I tried doing something similar once in Mexico. An agronomist and I wanted to excavate Aztec terraces, study how they worked, and then try to get modern campesinos to rebuild the ancient terraces and use them again. We could not get funding for our project, however, and then we both ended up working on different topics. The work of Clark Erickson and the other archaeologists mentioned above are great examples of how archaeological research on ancient cities is relevant to the concerns of the modern world. As we search for solutions to problems of hunger and poverty in the developing world, it behooves us to pay attention to ancient cities and cultures. Many of them were highly successful, and they have clues that can help us today. Check out Clark's homepage at the University of Pennsylvania. He has copies of these and other papers available to download: Erickson, Clark L. 1989 Raised Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin: Putting Ancient Agriculture Back to Work. Expedition 30 (3): 8-16. 1992 Applied Archaeology and Rural Development: Archaeology's Potential Contribution to the Future. Journal of the Steward Anthropological Society 20 (1-2): 1-16. 1992 Prehistoric Landscape Management in the Andean Highlands: Ridged Field Agriculture and Its Environmental Impact. Population and Environment 13: 285-300. 2003 Agricultural Landscapes as World Heritage: Raised Field Agriculture in Bolivia and Peru. In Managing Change: Sustainable Approaches to the Conservation of the Built Environment, edited by Jeanne-Marie Teutonica and Frank Matero, pp. 181-204. Getty Consserfation Institute, Los Angeles. 2006 Intensification, Political Economy, and the Farming Community: In Defense of a Bottom-Up Perspective on the Past. In Agricultural Strategies, edited by Joyce Marcus and Charles Stanish, pp. 334-363. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, Los Angeles. Erickson, Clark L. and Kay L. Candler 1989 Raised Fields and Sustainable Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru. In Fragile Lands of Latin America: Strategies for Sustainable Development, edited by John O. Browder, pp. 230-248. Westview Press, Boulder. For other relevant research, see: Janusek, John W. and Alan Kolata 2004 Top-Down or Bottom-Up: Rural Settlement and Raised Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 23: 404-430. Kolata, Alan L. 1986 The Agricultural Foundations of the Tiwanaku State: A View from the Hhinterland. American Antiquity 51: 748-763. Kolata, Alan L., O. Rivera, J. C. Ramírez, and E. Gemio 1996 Rehabilitating Raised-Field Agriculture in the Southern Lake Titicaca Basin of Bolivia. In Tiwanaku and its Hinterland: Archaeology and Paleoecology of an Andean Civilization. Volume 1, Agroecology, edited by Alan L. Kolata, pp. 203-230. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.

Patchwork City Farms on 1.2 acres in Atlanta is the setting for the Magnolia Network series Homegrown and part of "Farmer J" Jamila Norman's growing empire.

With both an aging relative and a wheelchair user in mind, architect Neal Schwartz creates a family guesthouse designed to be accessible to all.

Een tuin van formaat is prachtig,maar een grote tuin inrichten is ook best lastig. In deze tuinblog een paar tips van de tuinblogger.

2012 has certainly been a banner year for dahlias. From the enormous blooms pictured above to the smaller blossoms that give my late summer gardens a much needed boost of color, my dahlias have never been more prolific. I'm not certain what confluence of events has produced such an abundance of flowers. Perhaps it can be attributed to the summer's heat and humidity combined with periods of dryness followed by heavy rain. Whatever the reason, I'm enjoying the bounty. For weeks now my house has been filled with bouquets. As many of my readers may know, Dahlias are one of my favorite annuals. The tubers that produce these sumptuous flowers are inexpensive and require minimal care. Full sun, good soil, adequate moisture and sturdy stakes for the taller varieties are all that is needed to ensure success. Although marauding snails may nibble on young shoots and leaves, they don't seem to cause any permanent damage. This of course is an added bonus in my garden. Like tulips, the number of dahlia varieties available on-line through reputable growers is almost infinite. As one may well imagine, the countless choices are both a blessing and curse.This spring, after deciding that it was easier to buy tomatoes and basil, I converted my small vegetable garden into a dahlia bed. The dahlias I planted there have grown so tall that I need a step ladder to cut the flowers. For every dahlia I plant in the spring I'm rewarded with as many as ten additional tubers in the fall. Since I dig and store my dahlia's in a cool dry place each winter, I've literally run out of space to plant them all. Not that I'm complaining, these are problems that a gardener can only wish for. Some of you may have noticed that I generally photograph my farm pond from the uphill side with a view toward my house. This is because the view from the opposite direction isn't nearly as satisfactory. Recently, however, I purchased a gazebo that rectifies this situation. It's made out of steel and although it looks old, it is actually not an antique. I believe it was made in China and I'll be forever grateful to the dear friend that spotted it at a local dealer. I'd been looking for just such a structure for sometime and think it suits this spot perfectly. Now all I need is some comfortable seating. The current bench is terribly uncomfortable. In fact my friends are fond of remarking that none of my outdoor furniture is conducive to relaxation. They're right, but then I never relax in the garden. There's simply too much work to do.

Create a Japanese garden at home, including what to plant and how to tend it.

Are you not sure if you can make homesteading work with the amount of land you have? Here are 28 farm layout design ideas to inspire you.

Looking for a homestead farm design to get more out of your land? You'd better check out these 15 homestead farm design ideas and stir some inspiration!

Stemningsfuldt orangeri i Nordvestjylland. Taghældning: 45°. Stål: Galvaniseret. Aluminium: Lakeret i RAL-farve 9005.

Tips for making your harvest grow in style, straight from the Sunset Test Garden

Having moved to this Herefordshire farm from London six years ago, its owners have made gentle interventions to create a house that feels well established

If you've been thinking about developing your green thumb, plant a seed of inspiration with these 10 gorgeous vegie patch ideas.

You can reconnect with nature and make your home a health and wellness sanctuary by including biophilic design strategies in your project.

The authors of Planting in a Post-Wild World make the case for breaking with horticultural tradition to create sustainable landscapes that are no less beautiful

Here at Floret, we have just 2 tiny acres dedicated to flower production. We utilize every available square inch of that space growing large volumes of high-quality cut flowers that supply more than a dozen grocery stores, numerous flower shops, our on-farm workshops, and wedding couples throughout the Pacific Northwest. We employ high-intensity production techniques […]

vintagerosegarden: tinywhitedaisies: gardeninginheels: Missing Goat Farm Opens this Weekend!

Looking for a homestead farm design to get more out of your land? You'd better check out these 15 homestead farm design ideas and stir some inspiration!

Ever wondered what to do with your leftover fireplace ashes? Well it turns out there are several benefits your garden can reap from them

Does living without air conditioning sound too difficult? Learn from old home design techniques to save energy and money while relying less on air conditioning.

In chef Alice Waters’s house in Berkeley, California, “a small table…has a view out to her edible garden. This is where Alice likes to start her day, with a cup of tea and some reading,” writes the ph

If you like the idea of growing your own food, but haven't the foggiest idea of where to start, then this is the book for you. The key is to start with the easiest, most forgiving crops.

Lychnis coronaria 'Alba (Rose Campion) is an evergray short-lived perennial or biennial that deserves a spot in the landscape. Very attractive with its erect, white-gray flowering stalks covered with a profusion of rounded white flowers, it enjoys a long season of interest, is easy to grow, trouble free and not too fussy about soils or exposure. In short, the perfect perennial!

I absolutely love my favorite Etsy find, Jolie Marche pillows.

This book is dangerous. In its essence, Retrosuburbia inspires us all to stay right where we are. Turning our suburbs upside down, to make the world we want.

Since the Eighties, the Hermannshof public display and trial garden in the Rhine Valley has been the site of excitingly innovative, scientifically led planting, but it is only over the past two decades that it has become known for its spectacular collection of vibrant tulips

This book is dangerous. In its essence, Retrosuburbia inspires us all to stay right where we are. Turning our suburbs upside down, to make the world we want.

Virtually all human cultures have made baskets, and have apparently done so since we co-existed with ground sloths and sabre-toothed cats.

Few tourists think to visit Groningen, the northernmost capital of the Netherlands. My tattered copy of Lonely Planet lists the main local activity in the sparsely populated region as wadlopen or mud-walking out in the open flats of the North Sea. They also mention something about pig farms. From what I saw, they're missing out. Because Groningen also happens to be an ideal base from which to explore an alternate universe of garden design. And that's exactly what we set out to do last July on the 'Gardens Illustrated Tour of the Dutch Northern provinces ' led by English garden writer, Noel Kingsbury and his wife, Jo Elliott.