Sunday, January 31, 2010
Cook County meeting on Extension is in Countryside March 12
A question arose after I posted about the forthcoming budget-forced big changes at athte University of Illinois Extension: Why isn't there a public input meeting in Chicago? The answer, according to the Extension's Amy Sue Mertens: The meetings are by county and the Cook County meeting is the one in Countryside March 12. See previous post for complete schedule.
Why join a garden club?
I've got a story in Today's Chicago Tribune about garden clubs.
And I've leaving in a few minutes to drive off to an studio on the South Side to talk gardening with Mike Nowak on his radio show, 8 to 10 a.m. on WCPT-radio 820 AM in Chicago. Way too early in the morning, but I've had a good breakfast and coffee, so I can probably kick-start a few brain cells.
And I've leaving in a few minutes to drive off to an studio on the South Side to talk gardening with Mike Nowak on his radio show, 8 to 10 a.m. on WCPT-radio 820 AM in Chicago. Way too early in the morning, but I've had a good breakfast and coffee, so I can probably kick-start a few brain cells.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
University of Illinois Extension faces big budget cuts, major reorganization
I'm a Master Gardener volunteer with the University of Illinois Extension, and--full disclosure--I also do some freelance work for it (editing and whatnot). I know what a powerful force the Extension and especially the horticulture educators and Master Gardeners volunteers are in Chicago-area gardening and green projects. I am nowhere near the most active among them, but in general the Master Gardeners in Chicago are the happiest, busiest beavers I know.
So it's not nice to hear that as fallout from the smoking bomb crater that is the budget of the State of Illinois, the extension is facing big budget slashing and a major reorganization.
This is not like the scare of 2008, when big budget and staff cuts were averted, in part because of outcry from Extension supporters to members of the state legislature. This is much deeper and more fundamental. It looks like it is going to bring the biggest changes to Extension since it was founded in the 19th century. I couldn't find a Chicago-area news story on the subject, but here's one from the Champaign paper.
What's not clear is exactly what form the changes will take. The Extension administrators are trying to figure that out. It seems likely that some county Extension offices, especially Downstate, will be combined, rather than having a separate unit in each county as has been the case for more than 100 years.
It also may lead to Extension re-evaluating the emphasis of its programs. In most of the state, it's still perceived as mainly a service to agriculture, with a little 4H and Home Ec. This crisis may force Extension to think harder about what its direction should be going forward.
In the Chicago area? The populous, urbanized counties in the northeastern part of the state are very different from the Downstate corn and soybean country, and have much larger and more varied Extension programs and priorities. Gardening is big in Chicago and the suburbs. But the Extension also has programs in public health, science education and many other areas that go far beyond Ag and 4-H. There are a lot of different needs and interests to balance around here.
But the Extension is holding a series of public meetings to get input. I urge anybody who cares about gardening or greening or the horticulture industry to attend one of these meetings and to call and write to the Extension and to your state officials and let them know how important its horticulture and other programs are to your community.
It seems clear to me that major change in the Extension can't be averted at this point, but the direction of change can be influenced by people who speak up for what they value.
Here's the full text of this week's press release with the list of meetings. I'm posting it in full because I can't find it online anywhere.
U of I Extension seeks public input on its future
So it's not nice to hear that as fallout from the smoking bomb crater that is the budget of the State of Illinois, the extension is facing big budget slashing and a major reorganization.
This is not like the scare of 2008, when big budget and staff cuts were averted, in part because of outcry from Extension supporters to members of the state legislature. This is much deeper and more fundamental. It looks like it is going to bring the biggest changes to Extension since it was founded in the 19th century. I couldn't find a Chicago-area news story on the subject, but here's one from the Champaign paper.
What's not clear is exactly what form the changes will take. The Extension administrators are trying to figure that out. It seems likely that some county Extension offices, especially Downstate, will be combined, rather than having a separate unit in each county as has been the case for more than 100 years.
It also may lead to Extension re-evaluating the emphasis of its programs. In most of the state, it's still perceived as mainly a service to agriculture, with a little 4H and Home Ec. This crisis may force Extension to think harder about what its direction should be going forward.
In the Chicago area? The populous, urbanized counties in the northeastern part of the state are very different from the Downstate corn and soybean country, and have much larger and more varied Extension programs and priorities. Gardening is big in Chicago and the suburbs. But the Extension also has programs in public health, science education and many other areas that go far beyond Ag and 4-H. There are a lot of different needs and interests to balance around here.
But the Extension is holding a series of public meetings to get input. I urge anybody who cares about gardening or greening or the horticulture industry to attend one of these meetings and to call and write to the Extension and to your state officials and let them know how important its horticulture and other programs are to your community.
It seems clear to me that major change in the Extension can't be averted at this point, but the direction of change can be influenced by people who speak up for what they value.
Here's the full text of this week's press release with the list of meetings. I'm posting it in full because I can't find it online anywhere.
U of I Extension seeks public input on its future
Urbana – State budget constraints have prompted University of Illinois Extension to explore ways to cut costs and still provide high-impact programming, and Extension leaders are now seeking public input on their options.
A series of public meetings are scheduled:
· Monday, February 22: 5:00-7:00 pm – Champaign Unit Auditorium, 801 N. Country Fair Drive, Champaign, Illinois
· Tuesday, February 23: 6:30-8:30 pm – John A. Logan College, Hancock Conference Center, 700 College Road, Carterville, Illinois
· Thursday, February 25: 2:00-4:00 pm – DeKalb Unit Office, 1350 W Prairie Drive, Sycamore, Illinois
· Friday, February 26: 2:00-4:00 pm – Effingham Unit Office, 1209 Wenthe Drive, Effingham, Illinois
· Monday, March 1: 7:00-9:00 pm – Okawville Community Club Building, 511 S. Hanover St., Okawville, Illinois
· Tuesday, March 2: 6:00-8:00 pm – Kane Unit Office, 535 S. Randall Rd., St. Charles, Illinois
· Thursday, March 4: 1:00-3:00 pm – McDonough Unit Auditorium, 3022 W. Jackson, Macomb, Illinois
· Thursday, March 4: 6:00-8:00 pm – Bureau Unit Office, 850 Thompson Street, Princeton, Illinois
· Tuesday, March 9: 6:00-8:00 pm – U of I Extension Center Illini Auditorium, Illinois State Fairgrounds, 1101 E. Sangamon Ave., Springfield, Illinois
· Friday, March 12: 10:00-Noon – Countryside Center, 6438 Joliet Rd., Countryside, Illinois
“To be fiscally responsible, U of I Extension is planning for funding cuts, but we want to make these cuts in such a way as to maintain Extension’s strong tradition of high-impact educational programming, which has had a dramatic effect on the citizens of Illinois over the years,” said Bob Hoeft, interim Extension director.
It’s projected that Extension funding will decline between $2 and $5 million next year, and a rescission of state funding is expected for the 2009-10 budget year.
While a cost-savings plan is not yet finalized, Hoeft says he’s operating on several guiding principles.
“First, we want to maintain a system that produces and delivers effective, high-impact educational programming in response to local needs,” he said.
He says we are exploring the concept of multi-county units to reduce administrative costs such as facility rental and administrators. At the same time, it’s expected that the number of educators would increase for these multi-county units.
“We also want to support youth programming and 4-H at the same high level because it has a major impact on Illinois children. “This will be a priority in the reorganization,” Hoeft said.
Hoeft also emphasizes the continued use of new and effective learning technologies to deliver educational programming.
After the public meetings, Hoeft expects to finalize reorganization plans in mid-April and start implementing the plans after that.
University of Illinois Extension’s FY09 budget totaled $65 million, supporting 800 employees of all classifications. The budget is made up mostly from federal, state and local funds.
As part of the federal land-grant university system, Extension connects Illinois citizens with the University of Illinois and has a 90-year history of providing educational programs to improve the quality of life in the state. U of I Extension offers educational programming in all of Illinois’ 102 counties in response to locally identified needs. It is the home of the popular 4-H program.
-30-
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 .
All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Looking for some gardening newbies
Chicagoland Gardening Magazine, where I'm a consulting senior editor, is looking for some brand-new gardeners--folks who have never tried gardening but think they are ready to start this season. We want to do some interviews for stories about getting started as a gardener. if you are one, or if you know of one, please check out this link or e-mail the editor, Carolyn Ulrich, at carolyn@chicagolandgardening.com.
Garden Writers Association meeting March 6
For my friends in the Garden Writers Association, or those who might be interested, we're holding a Region V meeting March 6 (opening day) at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show at Navy Pier. Good tours, good speakers, and a chance to get out on the show floor and take photos before the crowds arrive. Here's the link for all the details. Region V is the upper Midwest, basically, although members from anywhere are of course welcome.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Are school gardens a good or a bad thing?
Ouch! Many hard-working volunteers I know will be hit hard by an article by Caitlin Flanagan in the current Atlantic magazine charging that school gardens are a patronizing fraud that wastes the precious instructional time of poor children whose real chance at a good life lies in focusing on learning to read, do arithmetic and be good citizens.
Blogger and school garden volunteer Ed Bruske has responded angrily on his blog, The Slow Cook. And there has been huge blog and Twitter action about the subject.
My own take: School gardens work as well as their schools do. The principal has to really be on board. The teachers need to be prepared to truly integrate the lessons of the garden into the reading, math and science curriculum. It can't just be a feel-good project where the kids spend some time in the sunshine and the teacher gets a break while the volunteers babysit for an hour a couple of times a week.
Like schools in general, school gardens tend to work best in middle-class areas where most students get a head start on reading and math at home. They work best where children have good teachers who get lots of resources and support and where there are active, involved and educated parents and neighbors to volunteer. For those kids, a school garden is unquestionably an enhancement of their education.
But in poorer and immigrant neighborhoods where most children don't get that head start at home, every educational challenge is much greater. A school garden can't cure that. For a school garden in a poor neighborhood to really pay off in educational gains is going to take a heroic teacher and a visionary principal as well as a devoted cadre of volunteers. Such situations are rare in, for example, the Chicago Public Schools.
Years of expensive program changes, magnet schools and other reforms haven't budged the test-results needle much in the Chicago schools, especially in the ones where students struggle most. It's unreasonable to expect school gardens to do what firing principals, retraining teachers, busing kids across the city and shutting failing schools down altogether has not.
Would I want a child of mine to lose math or reading instruction time to work in a garden? No, I would not. But my child would be spending time in a garden at home, as I did when I was small. I was taught to garden as I was taught to read: not by my school but by my parents. I was a privileged child.
Still, I persist in believing that it is valuable for children to garden. I believe that understanding how a plant works and how it is related to a person helps children understand their world. I still believe that getting over the fear of earthworms helps a child develop empathy. I believe that knowing where food comes from because you grew some yourself helps make you a better and more informed citizen. I believe that children learn math best if they have something real to figure out, such as how many tomato plants will fit. I believe a school garden -- if it has the right support from all the right adults -- can be a door to a larger world for a child. But that's a big if.
The best response to Caitlin Flanagan's critique should be a demand from the volunteers whose labor and enthusiasm makes school gardens happen for better research to prove their benefits and to figure out how they can really help with the core curriculum. Volunteers should insist that school administrations set expectations and provide training and support for teachers to make that connection. They should insist that their hard work have a chance to really teach children by being made part of a school's curriculum in meaningful ways.
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 .
All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.
Blogger and school garden volunteer Ed Bruske has responded angrily on his blog, The Slow Cook. And there has been huge blog and Twitter action about the subject.
My own take: School gardens work as well as their schools do. The principal has to really be on board. The teachers need to be prepared to truly integrate the lessons of the garden into the reading, math and science curriculum. It can't just be a feel-good project where the kids spend some time in the sunshine and the teacher gets a break while the volunteers babysit for an hour a couple of times a week.
Like schools in general, school gardens tend to work best in middle-class areas where most students get a head start on reading and math at home. They work best where children have good teachers who get lots of resources and support and where there are active, involved and educated parents and neighbors to volunteer. For those kids, a school garden is unquestionably an enhancement of their education.
But in poorer and immigrant neighborhoods where most children don't get that head start at home, every educational challenge is much greater. A school garden can't cure that. For a school garden in a poor neighborhood to really pay off in educational gains is going to take a heroic teacher and a visionary principal as well as a devoted cadre of volunteers. Such situations are rare in, for example, the Chicago Public Schools.
Years of expensive program changes, magnet schools and other reforms haven't budged the test-results needle much in the Chicago schools, especially in the ones where students struggle most. It's unreasonable to expect school gardens to do what firing principals, retraining teachers, busing kids across the city and shutting failing schools down altogether has not.
Would I want a child of mine to lose math or reading instruction time to work in a garden? No, I would not. But my child would be spending time in a garden at home, as I did when I was small. I was taught to garden as I was taught to read: not by my school but by my parents. I was a privileged child.
Still, I persist in believing that it is valuable for children to garden. I believe that understanding how a plant works and how it is related to a person helps children understand their world. I still believe that getting over the fear of earthworms helps a child develop empathy. I believe that knowing where food comes from because you grew some yourself helps make you a better and more informed citizen. I believe that children learn math best if they have something real to figure out, such as how many tomato plants will fit. I believe a school garden -- if it has the right support from all the right adults -- can be a door to a larger world for a child. But that's a big if.
The best response to Caitlin Flanagan's critique should be a demand from the volunteers whose labor and enthusiasm makes school gardens happen for better research to prove their benefits and to figure out how they can really help with the core curriculum. Volunteers should insist that school administrations set expectations and provide training and support for teachers to make that connection. They should insist that their hard work have a chance to really teach children by being made part of a school's curriculum in meaningful ways.
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 .
All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.
Has gardening come down to earth?
Lawns are out. Vegetables are in. Slow gardening is in. Instant gratification is out.
So declares Suzi McCoy in her-just-published annual Trends report. She's the chief of the Garden Media Group, a public relations firm outside Philadelphia that specializes in representing horticultural companies and products. I've gotten help from GMG on many stories and have a lot of respect for them.
Suzi's annual Trends report is, of course, done in the service of her business and the report (available here; click on "Trends" for pdf files of the current one and two years back) is sprinkled with pitches for her clients' products. But she's been doing this for years and I find that the underlying thinking is always interesting to read. She pays attention to signals and data from all across the horticulture business and does a good job of synthesizing them. She boils them down into an in/out list that, though marked by hyperbole, is often reflected in what turns up the following season in garden centers and gardens.
Since fashion has never been my best subject, Suzi's annual prognostication was an especially helpful source for me during the housing-boom credit-happy-spending years when gardening trends, including trends in plants, often seemed to be all about decor.
But her bottom-line conclusion this year is that now it's different: The combination of economic meltdown and increasing environmental consciousness is going to make big changes in the way Americans garden.
Now, I have my doubts about some of her conclusions. Will a generation raised on the seeming magic of 24-hour transformations on cable-TV landscaping shows really temper their expectations to wait for plants to grow and learn how to really garden? I'm dubious.
But vegetables are definitely in. The Garden Writers Association (a trade organization of which I'm a member and a volunteer) recently released one of their quarterly gardener surveys showing that yes, there was a noticeable increase in vegetable gardening last year and (if the surveyed gardeners actually getting around to doing what they spend January planning to do -- always a challenge for gardeners) there will be another increase this year. Research led by Bruce Butterfield for the National Gardening Association shows the same trend.
My gut and my observation, too, say that the values associated with sustainability -- using land more intensively, wasting less water, avoiding toxic chemicals, searching for long-lasting, lower-maintenance plants, avoiding excess packaging -- really are sinking into the mainstream of gardeners, beyond the circle of hard-core plant geeks and tree-huggers I tend to hang out with.
The demographics drive it: The postwar generation of gardeners who were educated to reach for a spray bottle or a blue powder and whose idea of a garden is a big spread of annuals or a tilled vegetable plot surrounded by lawn are aging out of gardening. The majority of Baby Boomers who demanded ever-larger houses and lawns are aging and downsizing too. The housing market of the future is likely to be built on smaller and less expensive houses, smaller lots, tighter regulations on water and fertilizer use, altered community standards and expectations for landscapes and consumer demand for yards that need less mowing and other maintenance.
The younger people who we hope will buy those houses and take up gardening (buying a house is the catalyst that makes most gardeners) have grown up in a world full of environmental messages and food safety scares. Many of them will try to grow at least some of their food, and once they do that, they will expand their gardening horizons year by year. They will become more aware that they share their gardens with other species. They may even be drawn by gardening to care about the larger natural world. I've interviewed a lot of gardeners and typically that's how it goes.
Tomorrow's homeowners also will want to make more intensive and functional use of what land they can afford than has been the standard in the subdivisions of the last 50 years. They may keep some lawn as long as they have young kids, but they will be able to find better things to do with that space once the kids grow out of the swing set. They won't see the logic of watering, mowing and fertilizing a big stretch of lawn just to look at.
Surveys from the NGA back up my sense that environmental sensibilities are taking hold. They also show that most gardeners aren't making a lot of strides toward actually changing what they do. So far. But I have hopes that as we start to emerge from the Great Recession, we will find some real change.
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 .
All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.
So declares Suzi McCoy in her-just-published annual Trends report. She's the chief of the Garden Media Group, a public relations firm outside Philadelphia that specializes in representing horticultural companies and products. I've gotten help from GMG on many stories and have a lot of respect for them.
Suzi's annual Trends report is, of course, done in the service of her business and the report (available here; click on "Trends" for pdf files of the current one and two years back) is sprinkled with pitches for her clients' products. But she's been doing this for years and I find that the underlying thinking is always interesting to read. She pays attention to signals and data from all across the horticulture business and does a good job of synthesizing them. She boils them down into an in/out list that, though marked by hyperbole, is often reflected in what turns up the following season in garden centers and gardens.
Since fashion has never been my best subject, Suzi's annual prognostication was an especially helpful source for me during the housing-boom credit-happy-spending years when gardening trends, including trends in plants, often seemed to be all about decor.
But her bottom-line conclusion this year is that now it's different: The combination of economic meltdown and increasing environmental consciousness is going to make big changes in the way Americans garden.
Now, I have my doubts about some of her conclusions. Will a generation raised on the seeming magic of 24-hour transformations on cable-TV landscaping shows really temper their expectations to wait for plants to grow and learn how to really garden? I'm dubious.
But vegetables are definitely in. The Garden Writers Association (a trade organization of which I'm a member and a volunteer) recently released one of their quarterly gardener surveys showing that yes, there was a noticeable increase in vegetable gardening last year and (if the surveyed gardeners actually getting around to doing what they spend January planning to do -- always a challenge for gardeners) there will be another increase this year. Research led by Bruce Butterfield for the National Gardening Association shows the same trend.
My gut and my observation, too, say that the values associated with sustainability -- using land more intensively, wasting less water, avoiding toxic chemicals, searching for long-lasting, lower-maintenance plants, avoiding excess packaging -- really are sinking into the mainstream of gardeners, beyond the circle of hard-core plant geeks and tree-huggers I tend to hang out with.
The demographics drive it: The postwar generation of gardeners who were educated to reach for a spray bottle or a blue powder and whose idea of a garden is a big spread of annuals or a tilled vegetable plot surrounded by lawn are aging out of gardening. The majority of Baby Boomers who demanded ever-larger houses and lawns are aging and downsizing too. The housing market of the future is likely to be built on smaller and less expensive houses, smaller lots, tighter regulations on water and fertilizer use, altered community standards and expectations for landscapes and consumer demand for yards that need less mowing and other maintenance.
The younger people who we hope will buy those houses and take up gardening (buying a house is the catalyst that makes most gardeners) have grown up in a world full of environmental messages and food safety scares. Many of them will try to grow at least some of their food, and once they do that, they will expand their gardening horizons year by year. They will become more aware that they share their gardens with other species. They may even be drawn by gardening to care about the larger natural world. I've interviewed a lot of gardeners and typically that's how it goes.
Tomorrow's homeowners also will want to make more intensive and functional use of what land they can afford than has been the standard in the subdivisions of the last 50 years. They may keep some lawn as long as they have young kids, but they will be able to find better things to do with that space once the kids grow out of the swing set. They won't see the logic of watering, mowing and fertilizing a big stretch of lawn just to look at.
Surveys from the NGA back up my sense that environmental sensibilities are taking hold. They also show that most gardeners aren't making a lot of strides toward actually changing what they do. So far. But I have hopes that as we start to emerge from the Great Recession, we will find some real change.
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 .
All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.
Friday, January 15, 2010
African sausage tree?
So the Chicago Park District just sent me this press release. I am dying to go see this thing at the Lincoln Park Conservatory--I'm kind of a geek about strange plants, especially if you tell me the botanical name--but I'm tied up all weekend. I'm speaking at Cantigny in Wheaton tomorrow and other work to do Sunday.
I'll have to try and get down there next week. Hope it will still be fruiting. (I'm posting the whole press release because I don't see it posted on the Park District's Web site.)
I'll have to try and get down there next week. Hope it will still be fruiting. (I'm posting the whole press release because I don't see it posted on the Park District's Web site.)
African Sausage Tree Fruiting 20 Pound Fruits at Lincoln Park Conservatory
A tree called the sausage tree, also know as Kigelia africana, which originates from the southeastern region of Africa , is currently fruiting at the Lincoln Park Conservatory, 2391 N. Stockton Drive . Located in the Palm House near the main entrance of the Conservatory, this tree’s unique fruits can weigh upwards of 20 pounds each, measuring as large as 2.5 feet in length and look like giant sausages hanging from long stalks.
“The Lincoln Park Conservatory’s plant collection features unique species of plants like the sausage tree so that visitors of all ages can discover a world outside of Chicago ,” said Mary Eysenbach, Chicago Park District Director of Conservatories. “Virtually all continents from around the world are represented at either Lincoln Park or Garfield Park conservatories.”
Found on riverbanks, along streams, on floodplains, and open woodland, from KwaZulu-Natal to Tanzania , the sausage tree boasts flowers that are long, open, large, wrinkled, maroon or dark-red, trumpet-shaped that are velvety on the inside and virtually overflow with nectar. The tree’s short, squat trunk has light brown, sometimes flaky bark and supports a dense rounded to spreading crown of leathery, slightly glossy foliage. The huge, grey-brown fruits fruit from December to June.
In Malawi , roasted fruits from this tree are used to flavor beer and aid fermentation. The tough wood from this tree is used for shelving and fruit boxes and dugout canoes are made from the tree in Botswana and Zimbabwe . The roots yield a bright yellow dye. Traditional remedies prepared from crushed, dried or fresh fruits are used to deal with ulcers, sores and syphilis. The fruit has an antibacterial activity. Today, beauty products and skin ointments are prepared from the fruit extracts. The fresh fruit from this tree cannot be eaten because it is a strong purgative and causes blisters in the mouth and on the skin. Green fruits are said to be poisonous. In time of scarcity, seeds are roasted and eaten.
Experience nature inside the warmth of the Lincoln Park Conservatory,
2391 N. Stockton Drive , open 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily.
Community garden workshop Sunday in Hyde Park
I am late taking notice of this, and due to previous commitments I won't be able to go myself. But what sounds like a very interesting free workshop on community food production -- as in vegetable gardening -- will be held Sunday KAM Isaiah Israel, a historic synagogue at 1100 E. Hyde Park Blvd. You can find all the details here.
Of special interest on Sunday: A workshop from 2 to 4 p.m. with an overview of how to start a food-producing community garden.
It's all part of a "social justice weekend" marking the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It kicks off this evening with a talk by the always inspiring Milwaukee urban farming and community organizing evangelist Wil Allen of Growing Power will be speaking at KAM. And I can't think of a better way to do it than giving people the knowledge and tools to grow their own food.
Of special interest on Sunday: A workshop from 2 to 4 p.m. with an overview of how to start a food-producing community garden.
It's all part of a "social justice weekend" marking the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It kicks off this evening with a talk by the always inspiring Milwaukee urban farming and community organizing evangelist Wil Allen of Growing Power will be speaking at KAM. And I can't think of a better way to do it than giving people the knowledge and tools to grow their own food.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
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 .
All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.
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 .
All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.
Story on new plants
Here's a story I wrote for the Chicago Tribune on just a few of the many new plant choices available this year. I had accumulated stacks and stacks of news releases, press kits and catalogs from growers, breeders and marketers and seen so many lovely plants at trade shows last year, so it was really tough to pick out just a few for this article.
If I had a fantasy garden that could hold all the new plants I think I've just got to have when I'm drifting through trade shows and press kits, it would be the size of Grant Park. Oh, and it would have full sun.
And now it's mail-order season -- time to order real seeds for my real garden. Time to tackle that stack of catalogs. Time to try and wrestle my delusions of space and sun to the ground. That's seriously tough.
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 .
All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.
If I had a fantasy garden that could hold all the new plants I think I've just got to have when I'm drifting through trade shows and press kits, it would be the size of Grant Park. Oh, and it would have full sun.
And now it's mail-order season -- time to order real seeds for my real garden. Time to tackle that stack of catalogs. Time to try and wrestle my delusions of space and sun to the ground. That's seriously tough.
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 .
All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.
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