How to grow your own luffa shower sponge : Shiny Shiny

To heck with elaborate high-tech exfoliants: one of the best pieces of tech to revitalize your skin all over (nearly) is the old-school luffa sponge - and stores often price them accordingly, even though they're extremely inexpensive to cultivate. However, Groovy Green has posted a great tutorial on how to grow your own luffa en masse, in your garden. It requires "a long season of frost-free weather", which is more common than it should be, but waste not, want not. Start growing them this spring and allow them to mature until the first frost kills the vine, and you'll have more luffa sponges than you can possibly use (thus taking care of your minor Christmas presents next year at practically no cost to you). If this sounds like fun but you don't have a garden, check out the Earth box, which gives you a complete growing area in a very condensed space. (That eliminates the cost savings, of course, but gives you the soothing ability to putter in a garden without the hassle of a full-size one.) [GT]

How to make (and grow) a luffa!