Blog – Page 5 – Janet Mavec

How Not To Bore Your Dog

Growing up in Ohio, my family always had dogs but none of them had interesting names. I never thought about this until, years later when I met Kitty Hawks, the decorator who worked with me on my two jewelry shops on Madison A...

Get Your Bean On!

My favorite bean catalogue to buy from is Vermont Bean Seed Company. They have so many pages of beans to choose from it can be hard to pick. My all time favorite is Maxibel French Fillet Bean—it’s long and thin and full of fl...

An Unusual European Museum

Those looking for an unusual European museum, get ready ... It’s called the Tree Museum; and this unusual spot in Switzerland displays trees that were collected by one of the world’s most prominent tree collectors: Enzo Enea....

How to Roast a Whole Pig

You hear about snout-to-tail on menus around Manhattan, but exactly how do you roast a whole pig yourself? When I go to the farm, I like to live off the land: planting vegetables, canning, jamming, and, in the spring, roastin...

Power Woman: Ganna Walska

“I am the enemy of average.” Now those are words of a power woman. Respect, Ganna. You blow us away with your energy and with your ability to pull off wearing a tiara any old time. Probably even in the garden. How did the Po...

What to Wear While Weeding

Garden fashion. Now, those two words don’t really belong together. Gardeners have no style. Right? Or wrong? I’d like to believe it’s absolutely false, though sometimes it can be hard to channel Lauren Bacall and do some good...

20 Indoor Plants That Keep You Sane

Time to bow down to plants again. As has been discovered previously, plants rule. While I spend most of my time with plants al fresco, it’s advised by knowledgable third parties who have earned Ph.Ds that plants are great ind...

Better Than a Potato

Do you want something better than a potato? What are your thoughts on oca? Those were ours exactly. Oca?? So let us fill you in. We’ve done some research. This skinny-looking potato is no potato. Given that, and looking at th...

Hidden Garden: Surprise in Spain

I love how the people of the 18th century had a real desire to surprise. As example, I cite the Countess-Duchess of Benavente, who lived in Madrid, specifically her 35-acre Parque el Capricho, a hidden garden. This real stunn...

There’s a Party Going On

February 8 is a big day this year. Lundi Gras (the day before Mardi Gras), and Chinese New Year. This year, it is the year of the Fire Monkey, with the lucky flowers of chrysanthemums and alliums. The London Telegraph is full...

The Plant That Moves

Sunflowers are one plant that are so full of emotion and humanity that it’s no surprise that they’ve been the model for many artists (Van Gogh, Klimt, Gauguin, Rivera, Vitali Komarov). The plant is so crafty that when it is i...

The Sun in Sunflower

A little insider information about my design process. The sunflower pendant started out as a sun. I love a sunflower, but actually I was exploring the sun, and a question I had about the sun and the moon. Why is the moon of...