Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Article about native grasses as ornamentals
Here's a link to a story I wrote for the Chicago Tribune last Sunday about using native grasses as ornamentals. There actually are some that are small-scale enough for the average garden.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
U of I Extension consolidating offices, cutting staff
More details have been announced on the reorganization at the University of Illinois Extension. This affects Chicago gardeners and green-space advocates because the extension, and its Master Gardener program, are a major source of support for community gardens and public open space projects as well as being a basic source of horticultural advice for gardeners. It fundamental goal is to make science-based information from the University of Illinois available and useful to all the people of Illinois, through education and volunteer programs.
Downstate, the extension mainly provides information and technical assistance to agriculture, its traditional role. Most Chicagoans, if they can identify the extension at all, probably think of it as the agency that runs 4-H programs or identify it vaguely with farmers. But in fact it does much more and its programs have been rapidly changing in recent years, especially in the urbanized counties in the northeast. For example, the extension provides nutrition education programs in poor communities, financial education and science programs in schools.
The extension is strapped for funds as yet another effect of the Illinois legislature's infantile failure to deal with the state's budget problems. The collapse of state funding has already caused the extension to cut its $65 million yearly budget, and the hope is that by consolidating it can save another $7 in the 2011 budget. According to its press release, the extension has received no state funds for this year. Here's a story from the News-Gazette in Champaign-Urbana.
Every state agency is being forced to make cuts. Many very worthy programs and agencies that provide essential services are gasping because the state has failed to pay them what it owes and some may be lost altogether. But I happen to care especially about extension because I'm a Master Gardener myself, and a gardener.
So, what about this reorganization? In the Chicago area, Cook County remains a stand-alone unit, which seems reasonable to me, since Cook alone has 43 percent of the state's population. But everywhere else in the state, where units have been organized by county for a century or more, they are being combined two or three or four counties to a unit.
Lake and McHenry will be combined. So will Kane, DuPage and Kendall. So will Will, Grundy and Kankakee. Here's a map.
The roughest part is going to be the personnel cuts later in the summer. Of course, the whole point of the reorganization is to save money by cutting staff; salaries are the major part of any organization's budget. I'm told all extension staff will have to resign in July and then, if they want to stay, have to re-apply and compete for far fewer jobs. This includes veteran horticulture educators with decades of experience and knowledge supporting Chicago-area gardeners. Some are considering retirement to avoid the ordeal.
There are no specific numbers on the staff cutbacks; it depends, in part, on how many people retire. And we won't know who stays or goes until the fall.
For us, this means there will be fewer knowledgeable and experienced folks to help gardeners. Master Gardeners will have less staff support. Services we've come to depend upon may not be there. And people I've known and worked with for years are in jeopardy.
Is there anything that can be done to prevent this? Well, you can push your local legislatures to get a responsible budget together, so the state can provide at least some funding to the extension and other state and nonprofit agencies.
But we have to face it: This is a changed world, in which there is a lot less money than there used to be (or we thought there was, anyway). Even if Illinois magically came to be governed wisely, smoothly, efficiently and honestly for the first time in its history, there aren't near enough taxes being paid now to fund the state the way it used to be.
And though I'm heartsick for friends in extension who may be unemployed in a few months, I can imagine long-term benefits from this shakeup. It will force the extension--a bureaucracy that traces back to the founding of the University of Illinois in 1867--to re-examine the way it does business and its priorities.
Its original purpose was to extend useful information from the land-grant university to the farmers who were the taxpaying constituency in the state. But the state has changed a lot since 1867. It is no longer a state of farmers. It's still mostly farmland, but that farmland is owned by far fewer people. Sure, those remaining farmers still need the extension's help. But the vast majority of people in Illinois now live in suburbs or cities.
Folks like us have other priorities for information, technical assistance and support from the University of Illinois.
I am concerned about urban ecology. I am concerned about climate change, and how it will affect people and landscapes and natural areas all over the state. I am concerned about how water in managed and wasted in our landscapes and our homes. Watching the consequences of our oil-dependent lifestyles wash up in Louisiana, I am concerned about how we--all of us, including farmers--can learn to use less energy and produce less pollution.
I am concerned about how people eat in a global food economy. I am concerned about what happens to urban land. I am concerned about how an aging population can live in the coming years in sprawling suburbs with no public transportation.
I am concerned about how city dwellers can make the most of urban space, especially for gardens and local food production. I'm concerned about children who grow up ignorant about how the natural world works and disconnected from nature.
All of these topics are being researched and discussed on University of Illinois campuses. We want to know what they are finding out and what practical ideas they have. Maybe, in the long run, this reorganization will shift the extension toward some of these priorities.
But for now, the extension--and Chicago gardeners--are going to feel some serious pain.
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.
Downstate, the extension mainly provides information and technical assistance to agriculture, its traditional role. Most Chicagoans, if they can identify the extension at all, probably think of it as the agency that runs 4-H programs or identify it vaguely with farmers. But in fact it does much more and its programs have been rapidly changing in recent years, especially in the urbanized counties in the northeast. For example, the extension provides nutrition education programs in poor communities, financial education and science programs in schools.
The extension is strapped for funds as yet another effect of the Illinois legislature's infantile failure to deal with the state's budget problems. The collapse of state funding has already caused the extension to cut its $65 million yearly budget, and the hope is that by consolidating it can save another $7 in the 2011 budget. According to its press release, the extension has received no state funds for this year. Here's a story from the News-Gazette in Champaign-Urbana.
Every state agency is being forced to make cuts. Many very worthy programs and agencies that provide essential services are gasping because the state has failed to pay them what it owes and some may be lost altogether. But I happen to care especially about extension because I'm a Master Gardener myself, and a gardener.
So, what about this reorganization? In the Chicago area, Cook County remains a stand-alone unit, which seems reasonable to me, since Cook alone has 43 percent of the state's population. But everywhere else in the state, where units have been organized by county for a century or more, they are being combined two or three or four counties to a unit.
Lake and McHenry will be combined. So will Kane, DuPage and Kendall. So will Will, Grundy and Kankakee. Here's a map.
The roughest part is going to be the personnel cuts later in the summer. Of course, the whole point of the reorganization is to save money by cutting staff; salaries are the major part of any organization's budget. I'm told all extension staff will have to resign in July and then, if they want to stay, have to re-apply and compete for far fewer jobs. This includes veteran horticulture educators with decades of experience and knowledge supporting Chicago-area gardeners. Some are considering retirement to avoid the ordeal.
There are no specific numbers on the staff cutbacks; it depends, in part, on how many people retire. And we won't know who stays or goes until the fall.
For us, this means there will be fewer knowledgeable and experienced folks to help gardeners. Master Gardeners will have less staff support. Services we've come to depend upon may not be there. And people I've known and worked with for years are in jeopardy.
Is there anything that can be done to prevent this? Well, you can push your local legislatures to get a responsible budget together, so the state can provide at least some funding to the extension and other state and nonprofit agencies.
But we have to face it: This is a changed world, in which there is a lot less money than there used to be (or we thought there was, anyway). Even if Illinois magically came to be governed wisely, smoothly, efficiently and honestly for the first time in its history, there aren't near enough taxes being paid now to fund the state the way it used to be.
And though I'm heartsick for friends in extension who may be unemployed in a few months, I can imagine long-term benefits from this shakeup. It will force the extension--a bureaucracy that traces back to the founding of the University of Illinois in 1867--to re-examine the way it does business and its priorities.
Its original purpose was to extend useful information from the land-grant university to the farmers who were the taxpaying constituency in the state. But the state has changed a lot since 1867. It is no longer a state of farmers. It's still mostly farmland, but that farmland is owned by far fewer people. Sure, those remaining farmers still need the extension's help. But the vast majority of people in Illinois now live in suburbs or cities.
Folks like us have other priorities for information, technical assistance and support from the University of Illinois.
I am concerned about urban ecology. I am concerned about climate change, and how it will affect people and landscapes and natural areas all over the state. I am concerned about how water in managed and wasted in our landscapes and our homes. Watching the consequences of our oil-dependent lifestyles wash up in Louisiana, I am concerned about how we--all of us, including farmers--can learn to use less energy and produce less pollution.
I am concerned about how people eat in a global food economy. I am concerned about what happens to urban land. I am concerned about how an aging population can live in the coming years in sprawling suburbs with no public transportation.
I am concerned about how city dwellers can make the most of urban space, especially for gardens and local food production. I'm concerned about children who grow up ignorant about how the natural world works and disconnected from nature.
All of these topics are being researched and discussed on University of Illinois campuses. We want to know what they are finding out and what practical ideas they have. Maybe, in the long run, this reorganization will shift the extension toward some of these priorities.
But for now, the extension--and Chicago gardeners--are going to feel some serious pain.
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, May 19, 2010
Fixes for blossom end rot in container tomatoes
After a story of mine about too-early planting of tomatoes appeared in the Chicago Tribune, a newbie gardener who had suffered a lot of blossom end rot in her first year of container tomato growing asked me how she could avoid it this year. Here's what I told her:
Blossom end rot in container tomatoes is usually related to watering, which affects the plants' ability to take up calcium. Most good-quality commercial potting mixes have sufficient calcium. If you want to be extra sure, mix a handful of bone meal (which is about 15 percent usable calcium) or 1 tablespoon of dolomitic limestone in the potting mix before you plant. Mix it in well with all the soil in the container before planting and don't use too much.
Soil pH also affects the plants' ability to take up calcium, but again, a good-quality potting mix should have a reasonable pH range. So don't sweat that.
It is much more likely that the rot comes from over- or under-watering. Tomatoes need a steady, even supply of moisture, not swinging from wet to dry and back again. If you are using self-watering containers, make sure that the reservoir has an overflow that is not clogged so that surplus water can drain away.
Use a good-quality, fluffy, well-draining potting mix high in organic matter that will wick up moisture from the reservoir without becoming saturated and soggy. Mulch over the surface (I use cotton burr compost, but any fine organic mulch will do) to reduce evaporation. The goal is to keep the soil steadily just moist enough for the roots to absorb the water (and calcium) they need.
Other factors that could be involved:
-- Planting too soon. Planting tomatoes into cold, wet soil leads to all kinds of problems and can contribute to blossom end rot. Even though soil in containers warms up faster than in the garden, it's best to wait until the weather has truly warmed up. The last couple of weeks it has been 10 or 15 degrees colder than normal. Way too cold to plant tomatoes.
-- Sticky, poorly draining clay soil. This could be a problem if you tried to use garden soil in your containers, or if you bought something labeled "potting soil" rather than "potting mix." "Potting soil" is generally not much more than construction debris. It is usually heavy, sticky, and full of rocks and junk, with little organic matter. That's why it's so cheap. "Potting mix" is light and has lots of organic matter. It costs more and it's totally worth it. Some gardeners mix their own potting mix, but if you're growing in containers, it's much easier to buy a good-quality mix in bags.
-- Overfertilizing. Too much fertilizer can upset the balance between calcium and other minerals in the soil. It's best to use a slow-release fertilizer mixed in the soil when you plant (some mixes come with fertilizer mixed in), and add another handful of slow-release on the surface of the soil in early July, as the plants are starting to set fruit. If you use water-soluble fertilizers every time you water, it's too tempting to use too much. I use an organic fertilizer such as Espoma Tomato-Tone or a fish and seaweed emulsion such as Neptune's Harvest. These organic fertilizers are much more gentle and less likely to throw your soil out of whack.
Make sure you use a fertilizer in which the three numbers in the nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium ratio are balanced (such as 10-10-10 or 5-5-5), or the middle number (phosphorus, which helps with flowering and fruiting) is higher. That's what you want for fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes. Avoid fertilizers in which the first number (nitrogen) is high; that pushes foliage at the expense of fruit.
-- The right plant. If you use a huge, sprawling, indeterminate tomato in a container, you might find yourself pruning and staking it a lot. Heavy pruning can give the plant problems adjusting its water needs. In my containers, I use cages to contain the plants, rather than stakes, and start with a "dwarf" or "bush" or "container" or "patio" variety of tomato that is suitable for containers. Most are determinate varieties.
-- Attention. Pay attention to the overflow gauge of your self-watering containers; fill when you need to and not when you don't. Remember that rain will soak through the soil and down into the reservoir. But even with self-watering containers, trust your own senses more than the gauge. Regularly stick your finger into the soil to make sure it's moist, but not soaked or dry. Tomatoes are not set-it-and-forget-it.
I'll be giving a talk called "Vegetables Anywhere: How to Fit Farming into Your Life" at 9:30 June 2 at the Prestwick Area Garden Club, which meets at the Prestwick Country Club, 601 Prestwick Drive, Frankfort (info: 708-917-8033). It's about small-space vegetable gardening, including container gardening. I've gotten good reviews after giving this talk at the Irving Park and Wicker Park garden clubs recently.
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.
Blossom end rot in container tomatoes is usually related to watering, which affects the plants' ability to take up calcium. Most good-quality commercial potting mixes have sufficient calcium. If you want to be extra sure, mix a handful of bone meal (which is about 15 percent usable calcium) or 1 tablespoon of dolomitic limestone in the potting mix before you plant. Mix it in well with all the soil in the container before planting and don't use too much.
Soil pH also affects the plants' ability to take up calcium, but again, a good-quality potting mix should have a reasonable pH range. So don't sweat that.
It is much more likely that the rot comes from over- or under-watering. Tomatoes need a steady, even supply of moisture, not swinging from wet to dry and back again. If you are using self-watering containers, make sure that the reservoir has an overflow that is not clogged so that surplus water can drain away.
Use a good-quality, fluffy, well-draining potting mix high in organic matter that will wick up moisture from the reservoir without becoming saturated and soggy. Mulch over the surface (I use cotton burr compost, but any fine organic mulch will do) to reduce evaporation. The goal is to keep the soil steadily just moist enough for the roots to absorb the water (and calcium) they need.
Other factors that could be involved:
-- Planting too soon. Planting tomatoes into cold, wet soil leads to all kinds of problems and can contribute to blossom end rot. Even though soil in containers warms up faster than in the garden, it's best to wait until the weather has truly warmed up. The last couple of weeks it has been 10 or 15 degrees colder than normal. Way too cold to plant tomatoes.
-- Sticky, poorly draining clay soil. This could be a problem if you tried to use garden soil in your containers, or if you bought something labeled "potting soil" rather than "potting mix." "Potting soil" is generally not much more than construction debris. It is usually heavy, sticky, and full of rocks and junk, with little organic matter. That's why it's so cheap. "Potting mix" is light and has lots of organic matter. It costs more and it's totally worth it. Some gardeners mix their own potting mix, but if you're growing in containers, it's much easier to buy a good-quality mix in bags.
-- Overfertilizing. Too much fertilizer can upset the balance between calcium and other minerals in the soil. It's best to use a slow-release fertilizer mixed in the soil when you plant (some mixes come with fertilizer mixed in), and add another handful of slow-release on the surface of the soil in early July, as the plants are starting to set fruit. If you use water-soluble fertilizers every time you water, it's too tempting to use too much. I use an organic fertilizer such as Espoma Tomato-Tone or a fish and seaweed emulsion such as Neptune's Harvest. These organic fertilizers are much more gentle and less likely to throw your soil out of whack.
Make sure you use a fertilizer in which the three numbers in the nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium ratio are balanced (such as 10-10-10 or 5-5-5), or the middle number (phosphorus, which helps with flowering and fruiting) is higher. That's what you want for fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes. Avoid fertilizers in which the first number (nitrogen) is high; that pushes foliage at the expense of fruit.
-- The right plant. If you use a huge, sprawling, indeterminate tomato in a container, you might find yourself pruning and staking it a lot. Heavy pruning can give the plant problems adjusting its water needs. In my containers, I use cages to contain the plants, rather than stakes, and start with a "dwarf" or "bush" or "container" or "patio" variety of tomato that is suitable for containers. Most are determinate varieties.
-- Attention. Pay attention to the overflow gauge of your self-watering containers; fill when you need to and not when you don't. Remember that rain will soak through the soil and down into the reservoir. But even with self-watering containers, trust your own senses more than the gauge. Regularly stick your finger into the soil to make sure it's moist, but not soaked or dry. Tomatoes are not set-it-and-forget-it.
I'll be giving a talk called "Vegetables Anywhere: How to Fit Farming into Your Life" at 9:30 June 2 at the Prestwick Area Garden Club, which meets at the Prestwick Country Club, 601 Prestwick Drive, Frankfort (info: 708-917-8033). It's about small-space vegetable gardening, including container gardening. I've gotten good reviews after giving this talk at the Irving Park and Wicker Park garden clubs recently.
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.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Soil temp: 50 degrees. Maybe next year I'll know better
I just took the soil temperature in my front garden, in a spot where I plan to set out impatiens, and it's only 50 degrees by my soil thermometer -- way too cool for these tropical plants.
Not sure what I'm going to do, but I need to move the impatiens out of the boiler room where I've been sheltering them against the flirting-with-frost temperatures of the last three nights. It's dark in there and too warm; though the soil is moist, the foliage, and that of all the other tender plants I moved down there, is drying out (even with my laundry hung on the lines to offer a soupcon of humidity). We're supposed to have another blustery night tonight, with rain, just not quite so cold.
So very dumb to have bought so many tender plants so soon, even though I knew better, as described in this Tribune story from Sunday warning against premature planting of vegetables.
I hadn't planted out any tomatoes, but I was fool enough to plant four kinds of basil I had lovingly raised from seed with other herbs in the porch boxes three stories up. I covered them carefully against the cold of the last three nights, but the basil leaves are shriveled and wilted. I'll have to pay money for replacements.
I'm making notes in my online calendar for 2011, reminding myself that we had basil-killing cold in the second week of May this year. Maybe that will restrain me from repeating this fiasco next year.
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.
Not sure what I'm going to do, but I need to move the impatiens out of the boiler room where I've been sheltering them against the flirting-with-frost temperatures of the last three nights. It's dark in there and too warm; though the soil is moist, the foliage, and that of all the other tender plants I moved down there, is drying out (even with my laundry hung on the lines to offer a soupcon of humidity). We're supposed to have another blustery night tonight, with rain, just not quite so cold.
So very dumb to have bought so many tender plants so soon, even though I knew better, as described in this Tribune story from Sunday warning against premature planting of vegetables.
I hadn't planted out any tomatoes, but I was fool enough to plant four kinds of basil I had lovingly raised from seed with other herbs in the porch boxes three stories up. I covered them carefully against the cold of the last three nights, but the basil leaves are shriveled and wilted. I'll have to pay money for replacements.
I'm making notes in my online calendar for 2011, reminding myself that we had basil-killing cold in the second week of May this year. Maybe that will restrain me from repeating this fiasco next year.
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.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Story in Tribune: Don't plant too soon
I have a story in today's Chicago Tribune about how it's important not to plant too soon.You can tell that when I wrote it a week or 10 days ago, it was about 80.
Not 80 this weekend. Last night and the night before, with frost warnings about, I had to swathe in plastic my herb boxes on the 3rd floor, in which I had foolishly planted basil. I had to move lots of prematurely-purchased tender annuals to the basement.
And yesterday, it was biting cold standing in line for the Oak Park Conservatory Plant. (It's important to get a good spot in line because when they open the gate for people to choose plants, it's like the running of the bulls.)
I scored some good shade perennials in return for my wild ginger and herb seedlings, but I felt like I scored some frostbite too.
Doesn't sound like we had frost this close to the city, but they probably did in some places farther west. A useful warning about the dangers of planting too soon.
I also have two stories in the May/June issue of Chicagoland Gardening magazine, one about how I built my own self-watering containers and another about growing vegetables vertically. Stories on their Web site are only accessible to subscribers, but you can find the magazine on newsstands.
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.
Not 80 this weekend. Last night and the night before, with frost warnings about, I had to swathe in plastic my herb boxes on the 3rd floor, in which I had foolishly planted basil. I had to move lots of prematurely-purchased tender annuals to the basement.
And yesterday, it was biting cold standing in line for the Oak Park Conservatory Plant. (It's important to get a good spot in line because when they open the gate for people to choose plants, it's like the running of the bulls.)
I scored some good shade perennials in return for my wild ginger and herb seedlings, but I felt like I scored some frostbite too.
Doesn't sound like we had frost this close to the city, but they probably did in some places farther west. A useful warning about the dangers of planting too soon.
I also have two stories in the May/June issue of Chicagoland Gardening magazine, one about how I built my own self-watering containers and another about growing vegetables vertically. Stories on their Web site are only accessible to subscribers, but you can find the magazine on newsstands.
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, May 7, 2010
Threat of frost teaches the same old lesson yet again
I wrote a story that's scheduled to be in Sunday's Chicago Tribune about why it's important not to plant tender vegetables such as tomatoes or tender herbs such as basil too soon.
Of course when I wrote it a couple weeks back, the temperature was close to 80. And over the next few days, as if I hadn't written it at all, I fell hard, just like an innocent brand-new gardener, for the tent in the Jewel parking lot and the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory herb sale and a Home Depot garden department I just happened to walk through while buying light bulbs. (Yeah, sure.)
That's why I spent much of this afternoon hustling flats of impatiens and caladiums and pots of elephant ears and basil into the basement and the kitchen, because it's supposed to get down in the low 30s tonight.
I have already planted a bunch of herbs -- including basil I raised from seed -- in my kitchen-garden boxes. I hope they'll be OK; they're up on the third floor porch, probably safe from a ground frost. But maybe I'll just go out there and spread a sheet over them to be sure.
Of course, I didn't need to buy any plants this early. I have a grand plan that requires moving dozens of hardy perennials around. I have brush to bundle for pickup and shrubs to move. I have seeds to sow. I could have been busy for weeks without buying any impatiens or caladiums or tuberous begonias.
So why did I buy them, a good month too early, knowing perfectly well that it's way too soon to plant them, that the soil's still too cool, that I have no time to plant all this stuff anyway, and that we still have a good chance of frost in early May? Knowing, as I well do, that we have had frost on Memorial Day?
Same reason everybody does. Plants cheered me up on a blue day. I wanted spring to happen faster. It was the usual magical thinking: I can make it be time to plant by shopping as if it's time to plant.
Retailers know all about this kind of magical thinking and they know that we gardeners are the worst kind of impulse shoppers. That's why they start selling tomato plants to spring-crazed Chicagoans in April. When those plants get killed by frost or rot out from being planted in cold soil, they know, we'll just have to come back and buy more.
Fortunately, I'm raising my own tomato plants and I wasn't dumb enough to set those out. They will stay safely beneath lights slung under a card table in the guest room until the last week of May or the first week of June.
I would say I hope that this teaches me a lesson, and that next year I'll have more sense. But Chicago weather has taught this lesson year after year, and regardless of what I write, I never really seem to learn.
At least the thunderstorm that swept in this cold front has brought us some rain.
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.
Of course when I wrote it a couple weeks back, the temperature was close to 80. And over the next few days, as if I hadn't written it at all, I fell hard, just like an innocent brand-new gardener, for the tent in the Jewel parking lot and the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory herb sale and a Home Depot garden department I just happened to walk through while buying light bulbs. (Yeah, sure.)
That's why I spent much of this afternoon hustling flats of impatiens and caladiums and pots of elephant ears and basil into the basement and the kitchen, because it's supposed to get down in the low 30s tonight.
I have already planted a bunch of herbs -- including basil I raised from seed -- in my kitchen-garden boxes. I hope they'll be OK; they're up on the third floor porch, probably safe from a ground frost. But maybe I'll just go out there and spread a sheet over them to be sure.
Of course, I didn't need to buy any plants this early. I have a grand plan that requires moving dozens of hardy perennials around. I have brush to bundle for pickup and shrubs to move. I have seeds to sow. I could have been busy for weeks without buying any impatiens or caladiums or tuberous begonias.
So why did I buy them, a good month too early, knowing perfectly well that it's way too soon to plant them, that the soil's still too cool, that I have no time to plant all this stuff anyway, and that we still have a good chance of frost in early May? Knowing, as I well do, that we have had frost on Memorial Day?
Same reason everybody does. Plants cheered me up on a blue day. I wanted spring to happen faster. It was the usual magical thinking: I can make it be time to plant by shopping as if it's time to plant.
Retailers know all about this kind of magical thinking and they know that we gardeners are the worst kind of impulse shoppers. That's why they start selling tomato plants to spring-crazed Chicagoans in April. When those plants get killed by frost or rot out from being planted in cold soil, they know, we'll just have to come back and buy more.
Fortunately, I'm raising my own tomato plants and I wasn't dumb enough to set those out. They will stay safely beneath lights slung under a card table in the guest room until the last week of May or the first week of June.
I would say I hope that this teaches me a lesson, and that next year I'll have more sense. But Chicago weather has taught this lesson year after year, and regardless of what I write, I never really seem to learn.
At least the thunderstorm that swept in this cold front has brought us some rain.
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.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Beer, beer, glorious beer in a glorious garden
You can find a lot of odd things in a gardener's refrigerator, but right now the oddest thing in mine is a large plastic bag of freeze-dried hops flowers. No, I have not given up garden writing for bootlegging. I am very seriously researching beer.There could be many reasons to research beer, from a broken heart to a mortgage foreclosure to a visit from an old fraternity brother. But my motives are the loftiest: I am on the education subcommittee of the organizing committee for a craft beer tasting fundraiser for the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance to be held May 13.
I am perhaps not a natural for the craft beer part, being more or less a teetotaller. But I am totally your girl to sing the praises of the 102-year-old conservatory, which was revolutionary when it was designed by renowned landscape architect Jens Jensen and is spectacular today. And of the alliance, a nonprofit that provides support and programming there.
Among other things, the conservatory a sort of center for education about urban gardening in the city -- check out the workshops on the web site, especially the family programs. It has a children's garden where toddlers can crawl inside an immense seed and kids can learn how plants work.
For grownups, the conservatory hosts the annual Green and Growing Fair (held in April; make a note for next year), a festival for city gardeners. There is a demonstration garden that is all about gardening in the city, where you can learn close-up and hands-on about topics such as beekeeping and composting. There's a grass labyrinth and a lovely outdoor terrace and two perennial gardens, one inspired by the paintings of Monet.
So, about beer: On May 13 (a Thursday) from 5:30 to 8 p.m., six breweries that are members of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild will each bring a number of their brews to be samples. Each person who attends "Beer Under Glass" gets a special souvenir glass, which can be refilled with one kind of suds after another. Those with a nose for this sort of thing will be able to discern subtle differences that no doubt can be disputed at length while strolling among the sansevierias and agaves or (if the weather is kind) checking out the view from the bridge over the lily pond outdoors.
There will be imaginative snacks from Oak Park's Marion Street Cheese Market and Chicago's Green Zebra vegetarian restaurant. And it all will be a locally grown and brewed, zero-waste, sustainable-as-we-can-make-it event.
The setting will be the splendid emerald palm-, orchid-, fern-, cactus- and cycad-filled conservatory rooms (nearly 3 acres under glass). If you have never been to the conservatory in the evening, you are missing magic. Wandering among the strikingly lit pools and dells after dark is one of my favorite parts of attending Master Gardener meetings there. Movie location scouts, check it out. You might enjoy it even more with a glassful of carefully brewed ale or lager.
And for those for whom atmosphere, spectacle, beer, food and good company are not sufficient attractions, there will be composting demonstrations.
So there you have it: Gardening, good works, great snacks, sophisticated suds, and the knowledge that you are supporting one of the most important green institutions in Chicago. The conservatory, at 300 N. Central Park Ave., is right on the Green Line for those who don't care to drink and drive. (Leave the kids at home; this is a 21-and-over event.) Register in advance and it's only $35. Have I sold you yet? Good. Click here.
Now I have to go find out why they need the flowers of a prolific woody vine to brew beer.
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.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Hello again, I hope you're gardening
I haven't posted anything for weeks, due to a combination of being very busy and being prostrate from the heat. Please forgive me.
I'm still mildly prostrate, and very annoyed that the big thunderstorms last night passed mostly to the north and neither cooled us off much nor provided our gardens with much rain. We are really short on moisture this spring. I am actually contemplating watering some spots, which on the first of May is just ridiculous.
I've been giving a lot of garden club talks on various topics -- small-space vegetable gardening, the science of spring, bulbs, pruning, wildflowers in the shade garden, greener gardening. I always love getting out there and hearing what other gardeners have to say and the questions they ask -- especially beginning gardeners, of which there are a lot these days.
Experienced gardeners love to get together and swap garden pictures and tales and recommendations. I volunteered yesterday at the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory herb and vegetable sale (which continues today), and of course gardeners getting together is one of the great attractions of that kind of thing. Another big one today: the Wicker Park Garden Club sale.
But like any group of people with a common interest, from the Tea Party people to my old friend's coven of antique BMW motorcycle collectors, we tend to agree on more than we disagree on and to descend into jargon and what we assume is common knowledge.
It's always bracing, when doing these talks or standing around in an apron that says "Can I Help?", to hear the questions new gardeners ask. So many of the terms and ideas that we take for granted are actually not that obvious.
For example, I really struggle to explain clearly what good soil is. At the point at which I say we want it to both hold moisture and let water drain away freely, people start to look goggle-eyed. Who can blame them? And I've never given a vegetable talk yet where somebody didn't ask me what I mean by "indeterminate" tomatoes.
Or try to clarify, really, what a "native plant" is or what "heirloom" means. It's not easy, because although we throw those terms around and have spread the notion that they are somehow the only right and proper things to plant, even experts haven't agreed on what they are, exactly. The venom that can be spewed between people with different definitions of a "native plant" would make the Tea Party people blush.
Well, enough rambling. I have to run. One note: Even if your soil looks damp this morning, check for soil moisture by actually sticking a finger down in the dirt. My experience lately -- including this morning -- is that it's dry down there.
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.
I'm still mildly prostrate, and very annoyed that the big thunderstorms last night passed mostly to the north and neither cooled us off much nor provided our gardens with much rain. We are really short on moisture this spring. I am actually contemplating watering some spots, which on the first of May is just ridiculous.
I've been giving a lot of garden club talks on various topics -- small-space vegetable gardening, the science of spring, bulbs, pruning, wildflowers in the shade garden, greener gardening. I always love getting out there and hearing what other gardeners have to say and the questions they ask -- especially beginning gardeners, of which there are a lot these days.
Experienced gardeners love to get together and swap garden pictures and tales and recommendations. I volunteered yesterday at the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory herb and vegetable sale (which continues today), and of course gardeners getting together is one of the great attractions of that kind of thing. Another big one today: the Wicker Park Garden Club sale.
But like any group of people with a common interest, from the Tea Party people to my old friend's coven of antique BMW motorcycle collectors, we tend to agree on more than we disagree on and to descend into jargon and what we assume is common knowledge.
It's always bracing, when doing these talks or standing around in an apron that says "Can I Help?", to hear the questions new gardeners ask. So many of the terms and ideas that we take for granted are actually not that obvious.
For example, I really struggle to explain clearly what good soil is. At the point at which I say we want it to both hold moisture and let water drain away freely, people start to look goggle-eyed. Who can blame them? And I've never given a vegetable talk yet where somebody didn't ask me what I mean by "indeterminate" tomatoes.
Or try to clarify, really, what a "native plant" is or what "heirloom" means. It's not easy, because although we throw those terms around and have spread the notion that they are somehow the only right and proper things to plant, even experts haven't agreed on what they are, exactly. The venom that can be spewed between people with different definitions of a "native plant" would make the Tea Party people blush.
Well, enough rambling. I have to run. One note: Even if your soil looks damp this morning, check for soil moisture by actually sticking a finger down in the dirt. My experience lately -- including this morning -- is that it's dry down there.
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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