It's a gem finding handmade artisans that fit your style. The pieces featured here are unique, beautifully crafted and made mostly of eco-friendly or natural materials. They're also very modern, without the patchwork look that sometimes comes with handmade goods.

For thousand of years, urns have been lending their classic design to gardens all over the world.  From the early Greek and Roman gardens to formal English landscapes, urns are the most common and enduring of decorative ornament to be incorporated into gardens throughout history.  Urns, with their timeless and stately appeal, are one of the rare garden design elements that can add architectural interest purely on their own.  

Thinking about making a window box garden this year? Here are some of our best ideas and tips to get you started:

I'm fortunate to have a house in the city with a backyard that receives lots of morning sunlight and a front yard that basks in the strong afternoon sun.  I get to experience the best of both worlds, but many of my friends aren't as lucky, and their gardens and yards often show it.  Last week we gave you a few ideas for shade-loving plants — this week I'm going to round off the list with a few suggestions for shade-loving trees (and for an added bonus, they're also perfect for compact spaces!).  

If you don't live in a house with a yard, it can be easy to dismiss flower bulbs as something you could never use. On the contrary: bulbs are great for container gardens and little indoor centerpieces. The folks at Longfield Farms offer a wide selection of bulbs, as well as a how-to section to help walk you through the process. 

Isabelle Palmer founded The Balcony Gardener because she wanted to make the most of her small balcony in North London; she wanted to create a space where she could "look, sit, relax and grow my own little bit of green in the city." From ready made container gardens to gardening tools and outdoor furniture, The Balcony Gardener has an array of products you can use to create a garden escape of your own.

I grew up in Chicago, where the lilac bushes were twice as tall as we were and lily of the valley grew in a magical swath the entire length of my parents' house and yard. But here in San Francisco, the lilac and lily of the valley in the flower shop where I work are met with amazement — "What is this?!"

If you're looking for plants that want to soak up the summer sun as much as you do, here are 10 for your consideration.

I've heard many a renter lament — "If only I had a sunny spot to garden." But you don't need full sun to garden. At my last apartment I had a lush, beautiful green space that was deeply shaded by the patios above. It was actually my favorite apartment garden so far, a cool, peaceful retreat in the middle of the city.