Come hear me talk. Or not

Subzero temperatures? Pshaw. It's time for gardening talks! Too many gardening talks!

Next Saturday, Jan. 16, I'm one of several speakers at an all-day symposium, "Moving Your Garden Forward," at Cantigny in Wheaton. The keynote speakers will be North Shore landscape architect Craig Bergmann and Roy Diblik of Northwind Perennial Farm, author of a book on easy perennial combinations.

My topic is "Vegetables Anywhere," because I know from personal experience that you don't need a sunny quarter-acre to have a vegetable garden. Other speakers include Carolyn Ulrich, editor of Chicagoland Gardening Magazine, and several folks from the Cantigny horticultural staff. The event costs $75, including lunch.

But here's the dilemma: On the same day from 10 a.m. to noon, ace propagators Richard Tilley and Larry Clary will be teaching a workshop on seed-starting and growing from cuttings at one of the best places in the city to learn about gardening, the Wicker Park Garden Club. I hate to encourage you to be anywhere but in my audience, and yet this is bound to be a really good workshop. Sign up here, if you feel you must. It's $15.

Now, I'm not speaking at Cantigny until after lunch, so I suppose one could, theoretically, go learn to start seeds in Wicker Park and then speed out the Eisenhower to Wheaton and hear me pontificate. But I would never encourage such reckless behavior. You'll just have to choose.

Got a garden question? I recommend you call or e-mail the Plant Clinic of The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, the Master Gardeners of the University of Illinois Extension or the Plant Information Service of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe .

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