So Much More Earth-Loving Than I Thought

I was just flipping through the "Fashion Rocks" supplement to Vanity Fair. I wish I had a parakeet, because that magazine needs to be on the bottom of a birdcage. But what caught my eye was a picture of some lovely hydrangeas in a vase, labeled "organic hydrangeas" from a fancy flower shop in NYC. The arrangement can be yours for $175. Hmm, I thought. Really? Now, a healthy organic rose garden would be a real accomplishment. But hydrangeas? It's not like they're hard to grow. Then I realized: our policy of neglecting or minimally maintaining our yard and flowering trees, shrubs, etc., means that everything that grows out there is organic!

Here are some hydrangeas from the giant bush next to our front door. I love these flowers, they grow like crazy, and I literally gave them away in buckets all spring. If you visited in March or April and stood still long enough, I probably placed a container of hydrangeas right on top of you. Excuse me, I mean, organic hydrangeas. And apparently I was way undercharging my neighbors. So I've got that going for me.

The $175 bouquet was on a page of fashion and decorating ideas supposedly inspired by Devendra Banhart. Now, he may be all tasteful and edgy and darling, but I doubt he's like, "Natalie, get me some hydrangeas like my Granny used to grow!"

Matt's and my only deliberate foray into organic yard care was the "organic fertilizer" he put on the front lawn. Lesson: organic fertilizer is dung, folks. Like, as in poop. So now when it rains it smells like the county fair out there. I guess we were the last people to know this. Our grass is a whole other post, but I won't do that to you.