My friends Kylee Baumle (Our Little Acre) and Jenny Peterson (J Peterson Garden Design) have co-authored a brand-new book called Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants. To celebrate and help publicize its release, I’m participating in their cyber book party. And you know what a party means: prizes! But before you jump to the giveaway listing at the end of this post, I hope you’ll stick around for my review of their book.

First a confession. I have to admit that while I was happy for my friends for writing a book, I wasn’t initially all that interested in the topic. Regular readers know I’m not a houseplant gardener. I have one spindly dracena in the living room and a small aloe on the kitchen windowsill, and that’s it. In general I feel that plants, like animals, belong outdoors. (And yet I have an indoor dog too. What gives?)

But while reading Indoor Plant Decor, I began to have a change of heart. Jenny and Kylee show a variety of ways to showcase commonplace houseplants. With chapters organized by decorating style — Cheap Chic, Peaceful Zen, World Beat, and Vintage Vibe, to name a few — the book shows how to complement your interiors by choosing appropriate plants and containers or other methods of display. Simply changing out a ho-hum pot for something different, like the wood planter pictured above, groomed with moss and raked sand on top, can make an ordinary plant into a standout accessory for your home.

Based on their chapter descriptions, I’d say my style is modern eclectic. But I was particularly drawn to the plant displays shown in their Haberdashery chapter — houseplant style especially for men. I imagine it’s partly because they show bold-foliage plants here, but I also admire the earthy and striking, no-fuss display methods, like this clear glass bowl filled with pebbles and topped with succulents. I love this!

The book is small, gift-book sized, and packed with appealing photos, and would make a nice housewarming or college graduate gift. You won’t find a lot of how-to info on growing houseplants — there are other books on the market that fill that niche — but if you’re looking for a book of ideas and images to get you thinking about new ways to display your plants and update your decor, this book is for you.

And now for the giveaway! My prize offering is a handsome Bonsai Tool Set from DeWit Tools. Here’s the description from the company website:

This Bonsai tool set (really more of a small garden tool set) is just the right size for maintenance of your Bonsais or other small plantings. Don’t let the size fool you, these tools are made with the same quality materials as the larger DeWit tools. All four tools have blade made of Swedish boron steel and fitted with an Ash hardwood handles from FSC Certified forests. Comes with wood storage case and Guaranteed a Lifetime! All tools are 6-7 inches long. Total value: $75.00

How to enter:
Leave a comment on this post to enter my giveaway of the bonsai tool set (FYI, another blogger is giving away a 2nd set). The giveaway runs through Sunday, May 12, at 11:59 pm. I’ll announce the winner on Monday the 13th. Please note that this giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Update 5/13/13: The winner, selected by a random number generator, is Danny! Congratulations, Danny, and my thanks to everyone who took the time to comment.

Ten Eleven bloggers are participating in this fun virtual book tour, each offering a prize related to houseplant gardening. Visit each blog and leave a comment on the giveaway post for a chance to win that specific prize. The more blogs you visit, the more chances to win! Good luck!

Carolyn Binder – Cowlick Cottage Farm
Shawna Coronado – Shawna Coronado
Charlotte Germane – Dirt Du Jour
Stacy Risenmay – Not Just a Housewife
Erin Schanen – The Impatient Gardener
Rebecca Sweet – Gossip in the Garden
Christina Salwitz – Personal Garden Coach
Steve Asbell – The Rainforest Garden
Debra Lee Baldwin – Gardening Gone Wild
Robin Horton – Urban Gardens
Pam Penick – Digging

Disclosure: St. Lynn’s Press sent me a copy of Indoor Plant Decor for review. I reviewed it at my own discretion and without any compensation. This post, as with everything at Digging, is my own personal opinion. The giveaway prize has been donated by DeWit Tools.

All material © 2006-2013 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Have you been waiting for the book-release party to start here at Digging? Well, today’s the day! To celebrate the release of my new book, Lawn Gone! Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard, you’re all invited to my Lawn Gone Book Party – with some very cool party favors! Six garden blogging friends and I are hosting 7 great giveaways this week, all related to the theme of—wait for it—lawn alternatives.

Lawn Gone! is, of course, about alternatives to the traditional lawn: all kinds of ground-covering plants, functional and appropriately scaled hardscape, and fun features to draw you outside. I wrote it to inspire people to think differently about their yards, and to help readers make the transition, step-by-step, from lawn to reduced lawn or no lawn. Most of all, I hope to show what you gain in the process: a beautiful, eco-friendly, inviting, living landscape or garden.

Check out my book page for more information. You can find links there to purchase Lawn Gone! online. You can also find it in bookstores and at nurseries and garden centers with especially good taste in books. :-)

But now it’s time for the book party giveaways! So blow the party horns and toss the confetti, and just look at these cool, alt-lawn themed prizes! OK, I’ll admit, some prizes are more closely on theme than others, but they’re all catnip for garden lovers, and you can enter all 7 giveaways for a chance to win. Just follow the links below, leave a comment on each blog’s giveaway post to enter, and check back next Monday to see if you won.

GIVEAWAY: MOSS ROCK

As a nod to cultivating a moss “lawn” in lieu of grass, Meems at Hoe & Shovel is giving away an adorable Moss Rock in a medium/Cobble size and Toadstool color (valued at $30). Moss Rocks are living sculptures and zen moss gardens all rolled into one. Donated by Moss and Stone Gardens, a design firm in Raleigh, N.C., specializing in moss landscapes.

GIVEAWAY: PLANT DELIGHTS GIFT CARD

Loree Bohl of Danger Garden is giving away a $50 gift card from Plant Delights, a mail-order nursery that’s a plant lover’s dream. Since 1988, Plant Delights Nursery has been the choice of serious gardeners and plant collectors looking for the best and rarest perennial plants. They have an enticing selection of groundcovers, ornamental grasses, and small perennials, all of which make excellent substitutes for lawn grass.

Photo courtesy of Plant Delights. A new 2013 offering is Carex oshimensis ‘Everillo’.

GIVEAWAY: ECO-LAWN SEED

For those in temperate-summer climates, you’ll want to try the 5-lb. bag of Eco-Lawn seed (valued at $55) that Rebecca Sweet is giving away at Gossip in the Garden. Eco-Lawn, donated by Wildflower Farm in Ontario, Canada, is a beautiful, sustainable turf alternative that consists of fine fescues and rarely needs mowing. This giveaway is available to readers in Canada as well as the U.S.!

Wildflower Farm’s Eco-Lawn

GIVEAWAY: COBRAHEAD TOOLS

To dig out grass or to weed your new garden, you’ll want a nice set of tools, and Dee Nash at Red Dirt Ramblings is giving away a fantastic tool package from CobraHead: a CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator, a CobraHead Long Handle Weeder and Cultivator, and a set of 15 BioMarker weatherproof plant markers (valued at $115). CobraHead is a family-run business that produces and sells “The Best Tools In Earth.”

GIVEAWAY: ANNIE’S ANNUALS GIFT CERTIFICATE

Genevieve Schmidt at North Coast Gardening is giving away a $50 gift certificate to the charming and tempting online nursery Annie’s Annuals. Annie’s specializes in rare and unusual annual and perennial plants, including cottage garden heirlooms and native wildflowers. They also have a wonderful selection of grasses and succulents, which make great substitutes for lawn.

GIVEAWAY: NO MOW LAWN SEED

Prairie Nursery’s No Mow Lawn
Ready to seed a No Mow lawn? Benjamin Vogt at The Deep Middle is giving away a 5-lb. bag of No Mow Lawn seed mix from Prairie Nursery (valued at $35). Prairie Nursery’s specially designed blend of fine fescue grasses is an ecological alternative to a traditional, high-energy-input lawn. No Mow grows in sun and shade and also performs well as a footpath or border with moderate traffic. With deep roots, it’s drought tolerant and well suited to regions with temperate to average summers.

GIVEAWAY: “GRASS” PILLOW

Here at Digging, I’m giving away the only patch of lawn you may ever need—a tongue-in-cheek, 13×13-inch “grass” pillow (valued at $60) from Potted, a stylish Los Angeles garden shop and online store. Made from a high-quality synthetic grass, with Sunbrella fabric on the back, these pillows stand up to life out-of-doors beautifully. And doesn’t it look comfortable? Plus you’ll never have to mow this bit of lawn.

Leave a comment right here on this post to enter my giveaway of the grass pillow. The giveaway runs through Sunday at 11:59 pm. The winner will be announced on Monday the 11th. Please note that, because of shipping costs, this giveaway is restricted to residents of the continental U.S.

To enter the other giveaways, follow these links:
Hoe & Shovel: Moss Rock, provided by Moss and Stone Gardens
Danger Garden: $50 gift card provided by Plant Delights
Gossip in the Garden: 5-lb. bag of Eco-Lawn seed, provided by Wildflower Farm
Red Dirt Ramblings: Tool package provided by CobraHead
North Coast Gardening: $50 gift certificate provided by Annie’s Annuals
The Deep Middle: 5-lb. bag of No Mow Lawn seed mix, provided by Prairie Nursery
Digging: 13×13-inch “grass” pillow, provided by Potted

Update 3/11/13: Click for the winner announcement for the “grass” pillow.

All material © 2006-2013 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Each week in October, which is Support Your Independent Nursery Month, I am featuring one of my favorite Austin-area nurseries here at Digging. To make things even more interesting, I’m also hosting a giveaway every week—one from each nursery! This week I’m shining a spotlight on The Natural Gardener.

The Natural Gardener is one of those nurseries in which you can easily spend an hour or two looking at plants, exploring the display gardens, looking at the donkeys, goats, and chickens with your kids, strolling the labyrinth, investigating the supersized tepee, and shopping in the nursery store. The extensive grounds and rural setting (though the surrounding area is increasingly being built out with homes and apartments) will make you feel as if you’re visiting a small farm, with rows of vegetables being tended by staff members, animals fed and cared for, swings in the trees for catching a cool breeze, and garden features meant for contemplative enjoyment.

John Dromgoole owns The Natural Gardener, and thanks to his long-running radio show, weekly TV appearances on Central Texas Gardener, and community activism, he’s the larger-than-life face of the nursery.

When you visit—and you must visit; this is an iconic nursery in Austin—you’ll find plenty to do, as this nursery map illustrates.

Or use this quirky signpost to get pointed in the right direction.

The Natural Gardener has a great selection of plants, including many natives and other adapted plants, succulents, woody lilies, herbs, and edibles.

The shrub and tree section is particularly good.

So is the succulent section.

One of my pet peeves at nurseries is bad or missing signage. The Natural Gardener scores extra points for clear signage with helpful growing information.

This place is decked out year-round with fun garden decor. Right now it’s all pumpkins and sunflowers.

Pots make great decoration too, of course, and N.G. has plenty of them, in all colors.

The display gardens just keep growing; each year, it seems, a new garden appears. This is the stream garden.

Here’s the working vegetable garden. They’re even growing corn!

And here’s someone hard at work.

This inviting swing overlooks a pretty herb garden. You’ll find a fruit orchard nearby.

Making the nursery fun for kids to visit are resident goats…

…chickens, and donkeys, whose braying usually tells you where they are.

A butterfly- and dragonfly-stamped path leads to a lovely butterfly garden right off the parking lot.

Stroll it for relaxation…

…or to get planting ideas for attracting butterflies to your own garden.

The information shed is where you’ll find knowledgeable staff members ready to answer your questions. You’ll also find plenty of staffers working the grounds, and they’re quick to ask if you need help finding anything.

In the nursery shop you’ll find nice restrooms (always a plus!) and seeds galore.

I often come to the nursery just to shop for gifts. I love their handcrafted garden/home decor.

They also have an excellent tool selection as well as garden books and bird feeders. And I haven’t even mentioned the educational offerings, like regular garden speakers and classes, or the homemade soil offerings, which include the popular Ladybug brand. There’s so much to see here, and you’ll find more about this excellent nursery in an earlier post I wrote about The Natural Gardener. I encourage you to visit and see what it has to offer.

Now for the giveaway! The Natural Gardener is giving away a $25 gift certificate to one of my lucky readers! Just leave a comment on this post to enter, and I’ll announce the winner at the end of the week. Update 10/7/12: The winner announcement is here.

Giveaway Rules:
1. You must leave a comment on this post to enter.
2. Only one entry per person is allowed.
3. Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm on October 6th.
4. I’ll announce the winner on October 7th.
5. The winner must go to the nursery with a photo ID to claim the prize within two weeks of winning. Prizes will not be mailed.
6. The winner is not eligible to win any other giveaways at Digging for 2012′s Support Your Independent Nursery Month.

Remember, win or lose, if you live here in Austin you’ve already hit the jackpot with a great selection of local nurseries at which to shop, learn, and be inspired.

Disclosure: I’ve posted about this nursery because it’s one I shop at regularly and recommend to others. I invited the owner/manager to participate in a giveaway for my readers, but my post was not conditional on any donation. Plain and simple: I like this nursery and think you will too.

All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.