Garden Aprons for the Family
One of the ways we’ve tried to reduce our negative impact on this planet is to not only be mindful of what we’re bringing into our own home, but to also be mindful of what we’re asking others to invite into their homes. This means that we gift rarely and cautiously, and that gift-giving often doesn’t align with a special occasion. Instead, we’ll usually give a present whenever we discover that perfect idea or item. (In other words, we’re fairly disappointing friends/family members sometimes...)
When it comes to gifting to one another as a couple, Adam and I are tricky. He’s one of those people who requires very little, and is content to use whatever he has until it falls apart. And while I’m the buyer for our family and will certainly go after the things we need or really want, I’m certainly not eager to acquire new belongings beyond those.
Back in the spring, Adam let it slip that he liked a garden apron by our friend Hilton Carter. After all, Adam has been spending most of quarantine focused on keeping our plants thriving, and teaching West how to tend to the greenery scattered around our porch, interior and yard.
Our anniversary and Adam’s birthday were coming up (to be followed shortly by Father’s Day), so I nabbed an apron, knowing it would enjoy daily use, and that it was designed by someone we love and admire. (Note: At the time of publishing this post, the aprons are sold out, but they’re due to be restocked before the end of the month.)
Personally I’m into aprons. I’m no cook, but I use mine (an Etsy find) around the house and neighborhood quote a lot.
We always seem to need cloth wipes, hair ties, dog bags, cell phones and doodads on-hand, so an apron with ample pockets is ever-useful for me.
Organic brown linen dress by Eileen Fisher
Even West has an apron, which he uses at his muck table and while watering the interior/exterior plants.
Adam’s apron arrived in mid-May, prior to our anniversary and well before his birthday.
He guessed what I got him right off the bat, so he ended up opening the Things by HC package early. (I saw no need to make him wait. Again, I’m bad at gifting ON specific occasions.) It’s a beautifully designed accessory, with removable leather straps, a ring for a towel or mister, a pen slip, and leather pockets suitable for heavy (and pointy) handheld gardening tools.
In true tiny house fashion, each apron lives in a different place based on how we use it. Adam’s dangles from a point on the porch, mine lives in one of the first drawers I open every morning in the kitchen, and West’s is fastened to the fridge via a magnetic hook for easy access.
For those interested in bringing the outdoors in, here is a roundup of our favorite aprons:
(The Etsy vendor also makes Mini Aprons and Teacher Aprons)
Growing Food in a Small Space
How do we grow some of our own food in very limited square-footage? Vertically!
We are extremely lucky to have a small but highly usable garden space (which also serves as a shared thoroughfare with our neighbor), but for several reasons we’ve chosen to use it as an outdoor living space.
So, in order to produce veggies, herbs and fruit this year, we’re converting our sunny 8’ porch into a tiny house grow zone!
It’s is still very much a work in progress, but we started it all off with two Lettuce Grow Farmstands, enabling us to grow 72 plants within about 4 sqft.
The stands are made in the USA with plastic recovered from coastal communities lacking recycling facilities.
They require only a fraction of the amount of water needed for growing in soil, which helps here in drought-prone Los Angeles.
We’re just getting started, but already Adam has made meals using greens from the stands.
We’ll continue to share our grow journey with you throughout the year.
Growing Goodness Indoors
This blog post was sponsored by Miracle-Gro. As always, the imagery and words are my own. Any images with the pups and/or our son were taken as they interacted under adult supervision in their own natural ways.
Here at our small home-office, we are so lucky to have a compact yet highly usable outdoor space. The yard was one of the reasons why Adam and I picked the cottage to be our first house together. But every other tiny apartment I rented in the past had no garden.
From my <200 sqft beach studio, to my 300 sqft East Village walk-up, to my shared spaces in DC, Florida, and Upstate NY, I always longed to tend to my own lil’ garden indoors. I know I wasn’t alone in my frustration. Many readers of this blog / my Instagram account who live in compact spaces with no yard and limited natural lighting have written to express similar sentiments.
For that reason (and for others that I’ll discuss later in this post,) we decided to try the Miracle-Gro® Twelve™ Indoor Growing System.
The easy-to-use Miracle-Gro Twelve unit allows us to grow herbs, leafy greens and flowers year-round without taking up too much space or our time.
The Miracle-Gro® Twelve™ Indoor Growing System has a minimalist outer design, which can adapt to the vibe of your home by styling the top in the same way you would dress any accent table (which is essentially what it is at 28” high and 16.5” wide/deep). Or you can stack two of the systems using their dedicated stacking kit, doubling your grow surface without requiring more floorspace.
The Miracle-Gro® Twelve™ Indoor Growing System makes growing fresh herbs and leafy greens simple. First, add plants or seeds to the system. We simply placed our plants in the liner, put the liner in the provided net cup, then dropped the cup into Miracle-Gro Twelve’s base. Water circulates through the system to provide the plant with continual moisture and nutrients that the roots need to grow. There’s also a specially-designed LED grow light for growing plants indoors— at any stage of growth, and at any time of year.
The Miracle-Gro Twelve app allows you to connect your indoor growing system with Bluetooth wireless technology so you can set your growing schedule, change your lighting mode, monitor your water level, and manage your calendar all from your smartphone.
I found three places where I could set up and plug in the system. I decided that the best spot was next to my desk in the living room/office, which is just a couple of steps from our kitchen and from West’s activity table. I did this on purpose to inspire the lil’ gardener in West, and demonstrate how plants can be grown indoors, too.
Ever since we redid our garden this winter, West has been highly interested in gardening.
Sadly, critters ate most of his plants before he really got to enjoy them.
The experience was valuable, but it was also a bummer. Now, with The Miracle-Gro Twelve Indoor Growing System inside the Cottage, West is going to be able to eat the food he helps grow. In tandem with using Miracle-Gro Twelve, we will continue to garden with our son outdoors, and we’ll teach him how to transplant certain greens over time.
Since we got the unit at the start of spring, we put it to immediate use with the included Transplanting Kit. The kit includes strong coin fiber liners that hold soil and net cups. The liners allow you to start growing from a plant that's already been started for you, like a Bonnie Plant, and save weeks of growing time.
We put Chocolate Mint, Nasturtium, Parsley, and Basil in the system.
Next, we’ll try leafy greens such as Swiss Chard and Lettuce. (But in the meantime, I’m particularly excited for the Nasturtium— I’ve been meaning to introduce some to our home for years.)
Later in the season we will grow new plants from seeds. We already picked out the seeds we want to use because I am ridiculously eager to get started. I’ll share another blog post on that process down the road!
Tiny Garden Tips
Do you have a tiny yard? Or perhaps just a stoop or fire escape? Don't overlook the possibilities-- even small outdoor spaces can be beautiful and functional! Below are a few helpful mini-garden tips that routinely come in handy here at the Cottage.
Photo of the Cottage garden by James Tse for THE NEST / THE KNOT Magazines.
1. GO VERTICAL - This is the best piece of advice I can offer folks living in small spaces. Be creative, while always remembering to please be safe and smart when getting crafty with your vertical decor. Hanging trays, suspended starter beds, and "gutter gardens" are a great way to begin growing your greenery, and they function particularly well in window frames, and on external walls.
For our home wedding last month, we gifted a mix of Grow Kits from Terrain to all of our guests. We loved the tagline from the kits: "Grow Happiness in Small Spaces." (How perfect is THAT?) The kits are all made in the USA, and are simple, pretty and eco-friendly. We kept two for ourselves ("Grow Herbs" & "Grow Sunflowers") so we could continue to expand our garden. Rather than keeping the egg crates inside the house, we strung them from our back gate, along with our gardening tools.
2. SEMI-CIRCULAR DESIGNS - Another handy concept for small outdoor spaces are half-circle tables and accents, like this planter along our fence:
We have two of these planters, which we move around the property depending on the occasion and season:
3. LATTICE GARDEN - One of our favorite outdoor areas here at home is the porch, where we have an 8'-wide lattice garden. Balcony planters and pots hung with "S" hooks enable us to switch up the plants and their placement regularly. The vertical, potted garden offers some additional privacy from the neighboring house, while also beautifying our lounge area:
Photo of the Cottage porch by Monica Wang
Photo of the Cottage garden by James Tse for THE NEST / THE KNOT Magazines.
4. MULTI-TIERED CARTS - No room to go up? Try layering plants on a compact, vertical, multi-tiered rolling / bar cart:
Photo of the Cottage porch by Monica Wang
And don't forget: plants, cafe lights, outdoor textiles, and patio rugs can transform even the smallest, shabbiest spot into a lush getaway in your own backyard!
Here are a few more ideas we love for displaying your clippings and small plants: A garden chandelier (read more), yard stakes, wall vases and miscellaneous hanging planters:
