UPDATE: Well, that was fast. I received a very nice phone call from the owner of Jungle Growth. He’s arranged for me to pick up the soil directly from him - any time I want, any amount I need, at a mutually convenient location.
I love small businesses, like Jungle Growth!
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10-17-2012:  I’d like you to meet my favorite soil:  Jungle Growth. It is made in Statham (Barrow County), Georgia, not too far from where I do business. I used to be able to purchase it at Lowe’s in Suwanee, Georgia, until last spring, when for reasons unknown to me, it became unavailable.

Like many consumers, I try to use as many locally made and/or grown materials as possible. Jungle Growth is a superior product, I am able to produce amazing results with it, and have been an avid user for years. No other product can compete. I use several hundred bags of this soil every year….and now it takes an Act of Congress to get my hands on a pallet, even though it is made right here in my own state. It’s very frustrating.  

Yes, Wal-Mart carries this product. No, I don’t do business with Wal-Mart (but I won’t go into detail). Lowe’s has been a great place for me to do business as far as “big box” supply stores go. However, the other products Lowe’s offers as a replacement soil are inferior and I don’t use them - because that would compromise the quality of my work. 

Remember the pictures of container gardens that I post here on tumblr, on facebook, on twitter, on pinterest, on scoop.it - and all those flowering trees and shrubs? They’ve all been planted in Jungle Growth. No, Jungle Growth isn’t paying me to write this. They don’t even answer their phone. They just make good dirt. It’s that simple. 

Another really great thing about Jungle Growth?  They’ll tell you why: 

Every time you buy a bag of Jungle Growth you are helping us as we help to “Rescue the Jungle” by donating a portion of our profits to various conservation groups and their worthy efforts to help save the rainforests and endangered species animals, and also help the people who live in the rainforest regions.

Come on, Lowe’s. Give me back my dirt! Please? 

The Palm House in the palace park at Schönbrunn Palace, Hietzing, Vienna. 

Commissioned in 1882 by Emperor Franz Joseph. Architect: Franz Segenschmid. It is the largest palm house on the European continent, consisting of 45,000 panes of glass. The Palm House is divided into three pavilions, each with its own climate zone, which are connected by tunnel-like corridors. 

Photos: Rhiannon Boyle, flickr.

“As a nation we have not yet come to have a proper respect for the forest and to regard it as an indispensable part of our resources — one which is easily destroyed but difficult to replace; one which confers great benefits while it endures, but whose disappearance is accompanied by a trail of evil consequences not readily foreseen and positively irreparable.” ~ Richard Elliot Blackwelder (1906) A Country That has Used Up its Trees  via Care2

“As a nation we have not yet come to have a proper respect for the forest and to regard it as an indispensable part of our resources — one which is easily destroyed but difficult to replace; one which confers great benefits while it endures, but whose disappearance is accompanied by a trail of evil consequences not readily foreseen and positively irreparable.”

~ Richard Elliot Blackwelder (1906) A Country That has Used Up its Trees

 via Care2

Stop the Catastrophe  Greenpeace presents deforestation as one of the ecological crises of our time (developed by Saatchi & Saatchi in Romania). The black and white illustration shows an axman chopping down a tree shaped like an atom bomb explosion. The tree itself is not the catastrophe that must be “cut down,” it is indiscriminate deforestation that is leading to catastrophic damage to the environment. 2011 United Nations International Year of Forests

Stop the Catastrophe 

Greenpeace presents deforestation as one of the ecological crises of our time (developed by Saatchi & Saatchi in Romania). The black and white illustration shows an axman chopping down a tree shaped like an atom bomb explosion. The tree itself is not the catastrophe that must be “cut down,” it is indiscriminate deforestation that is leading to catastrophic damage to the environment.

2011 United Nations International Year of Forests


The Botanica Collection 2011 is a project by Studio Formafantasma, commissioned by PLART (plastic + art), an Italian foundation dedicated to the research, conservation and restoration of works of art made from plastic: from Bakelite to Celluloid, resin to polyurethane. 

“Plastics are used as precious details, in an attempt to develop a new post-industrial aesthetic.” The vessels in the Botanica Collection are created with natural polymers extracted from plants or animal derivatives with natural palette tones, and combined with more traditional materials such as metal, wood, and ceramics. 

The new plastics: “reinterpreting centuries old technology lost beneath the impeccable surface of mass production.”