Urban Gardens is excited to be collaborating with Victoria Lyon Interiors and Eden Farms Nursery and Garden Center to create Conversing with Nature: A Creative Garden Retreat, an innovative green garden shed space cum creative retreat for the Shippan Designer Show House, sponsored by Hearst Media and Moffly Media, opening to the public September 25th in Stamford, CT.

Our first day of demo: a view through hole in the wall to sink in next room

Recognizing the increasing interest and demand for all things eco-friendly and green, we will use the space to show how to recycle and re-purpose ordinary objects for the home and garden, and also to show how to transform utilitarian rooms such as these into vibrant and innovative enclaves.

We’ll be preserving the vines on the greenhouse walls

The space consists of a greenhouse and two adjacent garden rooms that will serve as a potting shed, but also as a creative sanctuary where one can escape to plan the garden, dream, paint and sketch, read garden books with a cup of tea, and otherwise just get lost in imaginative creative thought.

The focal point upon entering the space will be a lush vertical garden wall created using prefabricated felt pockets from Plants on Walls.

We’ll be using Plants on Walls felt pockets to create a spectacular vertical garden wall

An example of one of Plants on Walls interior vertical gardens

The vertical garden panels are made from a thick felt pad that is pleated and attached to a lightweight waterproof plastic board which makes them affordable and easy to use.

Weathered wood from the garden’s cabana doors could be artwork in  and of itself

In the adjacent room we are creating a bird-themed moss “mural” inspired by guerilla gardener’s moss graffiti.

Our moss wall mural is inspired by moss graffiti art by artist such as Edina Tokodi, who create this clock

Throughout the space, we’ll be upcycling items and repurposing them for use in the interior rooms, outdoor garden “rooms”, and greenhouse. These items will include bird feeders and birdhouses, furniture, lighting, plant containers, decorative items, and artwork.

We would like to encourage people to think green—to consider beyond recycling, to catching rainwater and composting.

These nails for the contractor’s nail gun would make a rather elegant candle holder, yes?

I donned a hard hat and safety glasses yesterday to push down part of a wall to create an opening between the two rooms

With our contributing LEED certified contractor, John Hone of Greenwich Property Management, we started the demo yesterday of the interior rooms and Eden Farms’s guys were out in the garden and greenhouse ripping out all the junk in preparation for planting.

Sadly, the hydrangeas will most likely be gone when the show house opens

We’ll be coexisting with some of the current residents at the the show house (above)

Our go-to person for green things that call out for visibility, PR friend Nancy Moon, has been documenting the process from start to finish in a video that will share the installation from demo to completed design. Moon is a member of the Green Business Initiatives committee of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, sponsors of the September 12 Community Benefit Street Fair Fair at which Urban Gardens exhibited at last year.

Proceeds from the show house will benefit the Stamford Museum and Nature Center,which is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of art, the natural and agricultural sciences, and history. For tickets and more info on the Shippan Designer Show House, call the Show House Office at (203) 588-1499 or email them at trcfilms@yahoo.com.