Plants In New York Are Like Rainstorm S In The Desert: How To Bring Life To Your Little Space In The

Gray City or Green Pastures? Convenience stores on every crowded block; celebrity-owned restaurants; flickering 'open' signs 24 hours a day; this is the big city. But no matter how exciting the city is, with its bustling streets and enviable fashion, one inevitably sacrifices a few things to live in the center of it all. Things that come ready-made in the suburbs are essentially lacking in the city, like closets and bathrooms that don't rival matchboxes. Equally lacking are sprawling landscapes and leafy outdoor life.

In addition to the booming, alive metropolis, another aspect characteristic of city life is the sooty, gray atmosphere and matching concrete sky and buildings that prevail in outdoor New York. The foliage that abounds in the country is absent in the city, leaving residents day dreaming about the next family vacation Upstate. Of course floral bouquets purchased from the ever-present street vendor are an instant and easy way to bring the outdoors in, but they sadly last a mere five days, at most, and leave behind a stench and a scummy vase.

A Novel Idea: Plants as Pets

Plants aren't the only sacrifice you are required to make as a resident of a big city like New York. A fulfilling alternative to perpetual money-wasting on a flower arrangements is the selfless choice to nourish life by adopting a plant; a real, live, growing organism. Plants are the pets of the city; in an apartment with a strict land lady and a 'no pets' policy, plants are a valid replacement for that Labrador pup that just can't come inside.

Plants are surprisingly linked to pets in myriad ways: plants need water and food, and constant care. Plants need plant-sitters when their owners leave town on vacation. Plants thrive under loving care, and wilt at the edges when they've been ignored or neglected.

You Can Have it All: Plants Fill the Spaces Inside Your Heart and Apartment

Not only will plants fill the wide open space in your heart that craves wide open spaces, but they will literally fill your dwelling space with an organic naturalness that serve as centerpieces, as well as conversation-starters, for swanky dinner parties and cocktail soirees. A stylish city life and a touch of greenery are all you need to feel spatially and domestically satisfied. Dreaming of greener pastures will become a thing of the past as plants make it possible to have it all.