Shopping in Takoma Park

Since 1945, this family-owned landscaping business and garden center has helped locals transform their yards into lush landscapes and bountiful gardens. The company's secret to longevity is enlisting a staff of passionate expert gardeners and cloning them to populate future generations. Among its members, the landscaping team shares almost 200 years of collective experience, with foremen holding between 12 and 20 years apiece. Company president James Campbell began cultivating his love of all things flora on a farm crew at age 14. In college, he studied ornamental horticulture and then spent four decades working at Campbell & Ferrara, ascending from crew member to foreman to president.

You might get lost in the meandering paths of the indoor-outdoor garden center with 8 acres of trees, shrubs, and seasonal flowers. Thankfully, horticulturists and garden experts roam the grounds, ready to offer you directions and advice. To deter pests, for example, they'll tell you to plant a border of marigolds or a handful of sacrificial Skittles. Hand them a picture of your yard, and they'll predict which plants and flowers will likely thrive there. They also make DIY-ing easy by arranging over 1,000 trees and shrubs into user-friendly categories such as privacy screening, Virginia natives, and four-season. For customers who prefer an expert's help, landscapers offer degrees of assistance, ranging from installing customer-selected plants to completely redesigning yards with putting greens, outdoor kitchens, or waterfalls.

From green gifts to handcrafted treasures, Nest houses original and environmentally friendly wares. Selected inventory includes sustainably sourced fabrics by Earth Creations, recycled glassware by Fire and Light, and charming pottery from Mudworks. Read the gripping origin stories of some of Nest's vendors here. With this Groupon, naturally scent the home with a large soywax candle ($20), pull on an organic cotton T-shirt ($26–$30), or sip from a tumbler crafted from recycled wine bottles ($10.99). Nest supports fair-trade, organic cotton, recycled, handmade, and environmentally friendly goods.

Since 2005, friendly book monarchs John and Kathy Byer have built a browser's kingdom of more than 15,000 books, recently adding legions of DVDs, CDs, and vinyl to their burgeoning empire. Each hardcover and paperback comes neatly arranged by type, from romance to children's books to science fiction, and they range from 50%–80% off the suggested retail price. Nostalgic VJs and cash-strapped Frisbee dogs will happily sniff through the DVD selection ($4 per disc), the sisterly compact discs ($4.95), and their great-uncle vinyl ($3.99). New trades occur weekly, rendering Second Edition a valuable hub for anyone looking to pan for gently used gold, dog-eared Newbery Medals, or gently-eared dog gold.

At ModernRugs.com, you'll find a variety of thoughtfully constructed floor art by contemporary designers such as Calvin Klein, Martha Stewart, and Nani Marquina, and master crafters from around the world. The site's enormous selection of colorful groundsheets offers a respectful covering for even the most shamefully exhibitionistic tile or wood panel. Designer Thomas Paul gives soles something to tread softly upon with the 3’x5’ coral-cream-orange rug ($289), whereas a 2'x3' Soho-style Crinkle CRK-1602 Black Shag ($115) rug tickles toes with soft felted wool tresses that are just the right color for spilling dark-colored liquids or hiding dark chocolate truffles. ModernRugs.com also offers an array of child-themed floor drapes so that you can instill a love of statistics in your squirt’s subconscious by adorning her room with the 2’x3’ Numbers Game rug ($249).

When a customer walks into Celine de Paris, owner Sharon Amar hopes they feel like they’ve just stepped off a private jet into a boutique located in a swanky European metropolis. To cultivate this chic vibe, he fills his boutique with upscale lingerie, clothing, and accessories culled from overseas retailers such as A jour and Hristy. Amar and his staff ensure a personalized shopping experience by pairing each customer with apparel that flatters their body type, such as gowns with deep-v necklines and sheer blouses that reveal actual hearts of gold. The boutique also assists customers in finding the perfectly fitting bra by taking measurements and letting customers try on various styles.