Current Obsessions: The New Zen

Iconic art, nationally recognized gardens and a sleek self-watering planter: here’s a look at what we’ve had our eye on this week.

Above: Environmental artist Sam Van Aken has unveiled a Tree of 40 Fruit, his ongoing series of hybridized fruit trees, on the west coast at the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. It grows more than 40 types of stone fruit including peaches, plums, apricots, and cherries. Aken has sculpted the trees through the process of grafting, ultimately designing them to blossom in variegated colors and to bear a multitude of fruit.

• We agree: This modernist tree house does resemble John Lautner’s Chemosphere house in Los Angeles.
• This old-fashioned tool shed turned into a place to work and be inspired.
• A privileged glimpse into the mysterious world of fungi.

Above: Don’t let the sleek lines of the Chromo planter fool you. A stealth channel runs down the side allowing for the vessel to be self-watering. Photo via Light + Ladder.

• Creating a create a village-like typology replete with vegetable gardens and ample botany.
• Proof one cannot have too many potatoes.
• In Montana: rustic chic on a budget. 

Above: Many have said there is a special magic to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, a premier botanic and sculpture experience in Michigan. Now the park will soon be hosting the work of internationally renowned artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Opening January 27, Ai Weiwei at Meijer Gardens: Natural State will feature than 30 of the artist’s works through the gardens’ galleries, conservatories, public spaces, and auditorium.

• Is gardening a subversive act?
• The plants are winning in this California abode.
• This newly unveiled furniture line takes its inspiration from the shape of trees.

Looking for more botanical inspiration? If so, consider our posts Brooklyn on a Budget, a roundup of our recent Current Obsessions and Gardening 101: String of Pearls.