Growing up in northern Connecticut, one of the rituals of my summer vacations was watching my New York-born mom go to the local nursery and try again and again to succeed in growing flowers on our front lawn. Everyone else on the block seemed to have these green lawns and blooming flower bushes. Meanwhile, the color of our yard was usually somewhere between “dirt with a few patches of grass” and “just plain dirt.” I never did figure out what doomed her efforts. Maybe our yard was just really hard to grow things in. Then again, I always figured that people who come from cities aren’t supposed to have green thumbs.

Oh but not you, dear reader. From design*sponge comes word that Sprout Home — purveyor of fine supplies and accessories for the urban gardener — has just opened a store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Previously known for its Chicago location, New Yorkers will now be able to take advantage of Sprout’s knowledgeable staff and carefully selected merchandise. You can shop at Sprout online, but this is really the kind of thing you’ll want to see (and smell) for yourself. The Brooklyn store is located at 44 Grand Street (between Kent and Wythe). You’re going to want to go, otherwise when you move to the suburbs, you’ll be just as clueless in the botanical arts as my poor mother. Click here for a slide show of the store.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me state the following: I have not gone, nor do I ever intend to ever go, to Burning Man. There are a myriad of reasons behind my reluctance, not the least of which is my strong aversion to placing myself in situations completely out of my control and difficult to extricate myself from, much less huge gatherings of less-than-sober strangers in the Nevada desert. I’m far more comfortable with the idea of engaging with such things at a distance. That is not to say, however, that I’m not interested in the annual festival of hedonism and self-expression. Part of what I find fascinating about Burning Man is the temporary nature of the “experimental community” both in terms of the event itself (held just one week out of the year) and the works of art, performances, costumes, and other forms of expression exhibited by the participants. Photographer A. Leo Nash has been attending Burning Man for over a decade, rising early in the morning each day to document the bizarre and wonderful assortment of vehicles, structures, and other constructions that often defy description. The nature of his subject — like the festival itself — is fleeting , yet through Nash’s understated black & white compositions, we can see each surreal flight of fancy captured in time prior to being disassembled or put to the torch. Nash released a hard-bound compilation of photographs last month in Burning Man: Art in the Desert that is worth reviewing if only to appreciate the book’s unique matchbox design, if not its contents. For those interested in viewing his work up close & personal, the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago will be exhibiting a selection of his photos beginning Friday, July 13.

At the end of this month, STRANGEco will be showing off a huge selection of upcoming products at San Diego’s Comic Con. The newbies, which are are set for release throughout the year, will be presented alongside a full line-up of exclusive and special edition toys for Comic Con, including toys from James Jarvis, Superdeux, and tokidoki, among others. A few toys — like this version of last year’s Shikito vinyl (which I am allowed to love because I am 22 and it is glow-in-the-dark poop) — are being produced in very limited edition runs as show exclusives. It even looks like there will even be a few unveilings going on, so if you’re a toy freak…you best figure out how to make it over to the San Diego Convention Center from July 25-29.

American artist Charley Harper, whose well-loved illustrations of nature, insects, animals and people have been appearing in books and magazines since the 1950’s, passed away barely a month ago in his hometown of Cincinnati at the age of 84. The self described “minimal realist” was published in several collections, but was never published in one complete retrospective — until recently. New York designer Todd Oldham, a fan of Harper’s for years, collaborated closely with the late artist in the years before his death, resulting in this beautiful AMMO Books release. Charley Harper — An Illustrated Life is a 420-page collection of selected pieces from work he completed for Ford Times magazines, “The Animal Kingdom,” and “Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two,” and others. Charley Harper — An Illustrated Life is available for purchase on the AMMO site as a standard book, or as a limited edition personally signed by Charley Harper and Todd Oldham. Each edition comes with a silkscreen edition print, stamped by the Charley Harper estate.

I figured that I won’t get murdered for cruising Etsy on company time if I actually write instead of shop, so I’m killing two birds with one stone (writing and shopping) to point out why you should snag some of Abigail Percy’s whimsical kraft paper prints for three reasons:

1) They’re romantic, but the brown paper keeps it from being too girly so your boyfriend isn’t allowed to bitch about them, much like Josh not being allowed to complain about them being too chick-y for this site.

2) They depict architectural details in Glasgow, which will make you look well-travelled and super-informed at your next party.

3) They’re $13 a piece. And there’s not that many left in stock. Seriously, come on. You need any more motivation than that?

I’ll save you the pain of reading the IM transcript in sadly broken French between Josh and myself earlier, and instead just show you the hotness that is Katrin Greiling’s je m’appelle moustache lightbulb er, adornments. I can’t decide if they’re more Mr. Potato Head or Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but either way these leather-and-silicone decorations will make those bare lightbulbs hanging from your ceiling look like you actually meant to leave them like that — and require much less effort and/or patience than trying to grow a Fu Manchu yourself.

There are still a (very small) handful of tickets available for the Mashup 2007 conference presented by my friend Anatasia of Ypulse. If you’re going to be in the Bay Area July 16th and 17th and want to get the nitty-gritty on how to reach the totally wired youth generation of today with technology, this looks to be an awesome event. Speakers include Sam Altman of Loopt, Dana Boyd and many others.

Related: Go watch me talk about the Digital Youth at Google Zeitgeist in Europe!