Here are a couple of links for things that came up on the radio today (the Mike Nowak Show, gardening and greening, which I sub-hosted this morning). Intrepid producer Heather Frey and I managed to fumble through pretty well. Although I now realize that I and my guests Glenda Daniel of Openlands, Breanne Heath of Growing Power and Ed Lyon of the Allen Centennial Gardens at the University of Wisconsin in Madison ended up spending a lot of time discussing various forms of, um, waste products. Well, gardeners are an earthy bunch.
Anyhow:
Breanne will be teaching a workshop on "Composting in Fall and Winter" on Oct. 5 at the Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park Ave., Chicago (yes, much of the conservatory is open for business despite this summer's damage from a hailstorm). To register for the compost workshop ($5 donation), go to garfield-conservatory.org.
Have your say on food policy in Cook County and how the county should shape regulations and programs to encourage a fresh, local, healthy food supply. Take the survey online. Here's more info on a page
where you also can find information about how to participate in the survey in English or Spanish. The survey will be open until Sept. 29, so please participate quick.
There also will be a public meeting Oct. 6 where you can show your support for a system that encourages heathly eating. You'll find information and registration on the website.
For information about becoming a TreeKeeper as we discussed on the show, or about the Historic Oaks Propagation Project, see Openlands.org. Learn more about Growing Home at growinghomeinc.org. And check out the Allen Centennial Gardens in Madison, Wis. (a mere 3-hour drive from Chicago, with lots to do and lots of other interesting sites to visit in the area) at allencentennialgardens.org.
The podcast of the show should be up on Mike's website later today or tomorrow.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
What I did in the garden today
Today (well, technically, yesterday) I:
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.
- Spent 7 hours in the garden.
- Got totally wet, thoroughly muddy and blissfully happy.
- Filled with shrubs and perennials the spaces created Thursday when, in my first experience with a chainsaw (vroom vroom!), I single-handedly removed 6 immense gnarly yew shrubs at least 50 years old with 6-inch trunks.
- Was able to spend 7 hours in the garden Saturday because I had 48 hours to recover from the agony of middle-aged muscle aches created by whacking, dismantling and disposing of 6 immense gnarly yews.
- Transplanted 1 large 'Limelight' hydrangea paniculata, 1 large aronia, 1 small Meyer lilac and 1 young 'Juddii' viburnum.
- Planted 2 'Blue muffin' viburnums, a boxwood, a dwarf fir, 2 dwarf spireas, 1 substantial 'Little Lime' hydrangea, and 3 golden barberries that I hope are a sterile cultivar and not invasive.
- Planted 6 other small hydrangeas of various species, most to incredibly shady spots on the north side of a 4-story building where they are unlikely to thrive, but what the hell, they were free.
- Created a rose garden, double-digging in compost and consolidating all the poor shade-ridden roses from around my garden in the only reasonably sunny spot, which had been wasted on a yew for 50 years.
- Gave away a Meyer lilac and 27 hostas, the last four of them by stealth since my neighbor thought he already had enough hostas.
- Gave away a large clump of pink Japanese anemones to a fellow gardener I met at the Garfield Park Conservatory County Fair last Sunday where we were both volunteering, and whom I ended up driving home to the North Side with a large plastic garbage bag full of fresh pony manure for his compost pile in the back seat of my car, because a Master Gardener would never let pony rides go to waste.
- Planted a nice clump of irises given to me by said gardener which he swears will bloom in shade, an assertion that I believe with the faith of a child.
- Started a hedge with young yews to screen the compost bins since I realized the huge gnarly hedge I whacked down used to screen them.
- Wound a soaker hose all through my newly planted shrub plantings only to discover I had severed said soaker hose with a shovel while planting said shrubs.
- Annoyed the neighbors in the condo association, especially the tidy ones, by completely slathering the front walk with mud and plant debris on a Saturday when they were coming and going all day
- Divided and transplanted brunnera, pulmonaria, Japanese anemones, chelone (yes, I know you're not supposed to divide things while they're blooming, but that's when I had time to divide them) and Canadian wild ginger.
- Pruned spicebushes, boxwoods and yews.
- Did not lose any garden tools, a rare achievement.
- Cleaned the mud off the walk, mostly.
- Neglected to pay bills, write anything I could get paid a noticeable amount for, shop at yard sales for a used VCR to replace the one that just died at the age of 13, file, organize, tweet, post anything to Facebook, clean house, wash dishes, do laundry or get a manicure.
- Almost forgot to get organized to host the Mike Nowak Show, all about gardening, tomorrow morning -- well, today, technically -- from 9 to 11 a.m. on WCPT 820 AM and 92.5 FM, 92.7 FM, and 99.9 FM.
- Realized I better go to bed.
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.
Cook County Food System Survey
This is something I'll be mentioning on the radio Sunday: The Cook County Department of Public Health is in the process of developing a food system policy for suburban Cook County. They're trying to figure out how current public policy affects what we eat and what is available to us to eat, and how future food policy might be shaped.
They say they are re-examining all the laws and regulations on "the way we eat, grow, transport, store, process, distribute, sell or handle food or food waste." Obviously, there's a lot in that list that is relevant to gardeners, composters and urban farmers. And to gather information for this study they're taking a public survey.
To find out how to take the survey, click here. You can take the survey online or over the phone in English or Spanish. By expressing your opinions, you can have an influence on how the county and other government direct their policies, including policies that could encourage or discourage urban farming, community gardening, composting and other practices that lead to us having good, fresh, local food to eat.
This is a Cook County agency, so it has sway mainly in the suburbs. But Chicago residents of Cook County are certainly welcome to give their input. So please don't hesitate to take the survey.
The radio show in question is the Mike Nowak Show Sunday from 9 to 11 a.m. on WCPT, 820-AM and 92.5 FM, 92.7 FM, and 99.9 FM. I'll be sitting in for Mike. Here's a post about the lineup.
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.
They say they are re-examining all the laws and regulations on "the way we eat, grow, transport, store, process, distribute, sell or handle food or food waste." Obviously, there's a lot in that list that is relevant to gardeners, composters and urban farmers. And to gather information for this study they're taking a public survey.
To find out how to take the survey, click here. You can take the survey online or over the phone in English or Spanish. By expressing your opinions, you can have an influence on how the county and other government direct their policies, including policies that could encourage or discourage urban farming, community gardening, composting and other practices that lead to us having good, fresh, local food to eat.
This is a Cook County agency, so it has sway mainly in the suburbs. But Chicago residents of Cook County are certainly welcome to give their input. So please don't hesitate to take the survey.
The radio show in question is the Mike Nowak Show Sunday from 9 to 11 a.m. on WCPT, 820-AM and 92.5 FM, 92.7 FM, and 99.9 FM. I'll be sitting in for Mike. Here's a post about the lineup.
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.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
See you on the radio Sunday
While you are lolling around in your bathrobe Sunday morning, you might as well turn on the radio. I'll be substitute hosting the Mike Nowak Show this week from 9 to 11 a.m. on WCPT-AM 820 and FM 92.7 (north),
92.5 9 (west), & 99.9FM (south). Mike seems to think he has something better to do.
This will be a heavy gardening show. My guests will include Glenda Daniel of Openlands, talking about the 20th anniversary of TreeKeepers; Breanne Heath of Growing Home, talking about composting and what to do with all those soon-to-fall leaves; and Ed Lyon from the University of Wisconsin, talking about bulbs, especially bulbs that are resistant to animals. At least somewhat resistant.
Call in with your questions to 773-838-9278, or post on Twitter to @mikenow or @chicagogardener (that's me).
TreeKeepers is the highly successful and much-imitated volunteer urban forestry program. (Conflict of interest alert: I'm TreeKeeper No. 973. I have the T-shirt.) Glenda will talk about how the program came to be and about the 20th anniversary celebration to be held Sunday afternoon in Columbus Park, and will also hold forth on the proper care of trees (she doesn't like this) and take questions.
Breanne will help us understand how composting happens, what goes on in the compost pile over the winter, how to make the most of your leaves (and your neighbors' leaves) and what the heck is that thing in the picture. She'll also talk a bit about what Growing Home does, providing transitional job training in urban agriculture.Ed, who is director of the Allen Centennial Gardens up there in Madison, will discuss which animals like bulbs, what possible defense you might have against them and what bulbs are somewhat less likely to become some furry thing's afternoon snack. He'll also field any other questions might come up about bulbs.
Altogether, we have striven (sorry, lapsed English major) to put together a show that will be sufficiently entertaining and informative to keep you more or less awake on Sunday morning.
So remember: Sunday, 9 to 11 a.m. on WCPT-AM 820 and FM 92.7 (north),
92.5 9 (west), & 99.9FM (south). Call during the show to 773-838-9278, or post on Twitter to @mikenow or @chicagogardener. The show also streams live (find the link here) to a worldwide audience including one guy who called in from Dusseldorf, Germany, last week. If it was worth his time to listen at whatever ungodly hour it was in Dusseldorf, Germany, it might be worth yours.
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, September 12, 2011
Sharp pruners, fun and fundraising to restore Garfield Park Conservatory, one pane at a time
Got some rusty pruners? loppers? machete? Bring them to the County Fair this Saturday on Central Park Avenue in front of the Garfield Park Conservatory, and members of the Wicker Park Garden Club will sharpen them for $5 each. Meanwhile, you can second-guess the judges in the vegetable or flower arranging competitions, take the kids for a pony ride or to the petting zoo or to bounce or slide, swap recipes (don't forget to bring one), get garden advice, learn about composting and beekeeping, enjoy live music and wander through the conservatory to the the gardens beyond.
And when you have those pruners sharpened you'll be doing a good deed: The proceeds will go toward One Pane at a Time, the fundraising effort to fix the hail-shattered 103-year-old conservatory.
"It's just been really heartwarming to see everyone who has stepped forward to help us," Mary Eysenbach, the director of conservatories for the Chicago Park District, told me the other day as she was giving me an update on the situation.
Three display houses and 10 propagation houses were severely damaged by a hailstorm June 30 (see heartbreaking pictures here.) That's why part of the conservatory is closed off. But the Palm Room, Sugar from the Sun exhibit (the one with the orchids and bananas) and children's garden are still open, as are the demonstration garden, the beehives and the gardens.
The bad news, Mary said, is that seven of the 10 behind-the-scenes propagation houses, where plants had been grown for the traditional winter and spring flower shows for decades, remain open to the weather. The park district is still trying to figure out how to get them and the Desert House buttoned up before winter.
But the historic and spectacular Fern Room, one of Jens Jensen's masterworks, home to the most delicate and weather-sensitive plants, has most of a temporary roof of polycarbonate sheeting. Some plants were sunburned and dried out because a temporary shade-cloth cover tarp couldn't entirely protect them from the hot sun or hold in the high humidity they need. "We have some replanting to do," Mary said. If all the plants can't be saved, "We'll just have to add to our collection."
So far, the emergency cleanup alone has cost $2 million. Workers had to carefully remove potentially deadly shards of glass that dangled from the Fern Room roof. Then they had to bring in a hydraulic lift to gently remove glass that had lodged in the tops of the spectacular cycads and palms. Large glass pieces were picked out of the plants and the soil around them by hand, and then the soil and plants were carefully vacuumed.
In the Show House, the soil had to be dug up to a depth of 12 inches and replaced. Because this is the site of the yearly flower shows, conservatory staff regularly dig in that soil. No one could take a chance on lurking hidden glass shards. The Show House may not get a roof before winter, Mary said, so of course it will host no flower shows.
Since so much is still unknown about how the conservatory will be repaired, she said, the park district has no number for what the repairs will cost or how much must be raised beyond what insurance ends up paying for. My guess is: a lot.
It's not going to be enough to bring the glasshouses back to the way they were built a century ago. They need to be replaced with double-walled tempered glass, like that which stood up to the hail in the Palm House and the Sugar from the Sun house.
"Our attitude is that we need to fix these roofs so that they give us a 21st Century greenhouse," Mary said. "The items that insurance won't cover because they weren't damaged by the hail are the kinds of things the fundraising will cover."
Things like that extra layer of glass, modern vents to regulte heat and humidity, movable benches in the propagation houses, a misting system in the Fern Room. There's quite a wish list.
The Wicker Park garden Club's tool-sharpening efforts are just the latest of several fundraisers that already have been held. I'm sure there will be many more.
Meanwhile, if your family tradition requires a visit to the conservatory's holiday flower show with its azaleas and poinsettias, Mary assured me there still will be a flower show at the Lincoln Park Conservatory. It's smaller, but charming, with lovely collections of orchids inside and dwarf conifers outside. It should help us get our winter-day plant fixes while the fix goes on at Garfield.
I'll be at the Garfield County Fair Saturday, answering garden questions in my capacity as a University of illinois Master Gardener. I hope to see you there, with your pruners and your $5.
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.
And when you have those pruners sharpened you'll be doing a good deed: The proceeds will go toward One Pane at a Time, the fundraising effort to fix the hail-shattered 103-year-old conservatory.
"It's just been really heartwarming to see everyone who has stepped forward to help us," Mary Eysenbach, the director of conservatories for the Chicago Park District, told me the other day as she was giving me an update on the situation.
Three display houses and 10 propagation houses were severely damaged by a hailstorm June 30 (see heartbreaking pictures here.) That's why part of the conservatory is closed off. But the Palm Room, Sugar from the Sun exhibit (the one with the orchids and bananas) and children's garden are still open, as are the demonstration garden, the beehives and the gardens.
The bad news, Mary said, is that seven of the 10 behind-the-scenes propagation houses, where plants had been grown for the traditional winter and spring flower shows for decades, remain open to the weather. The park district is still trying to figure out how to get them and the Desert House buttoned up before winter.
But the historic and spectacular Fern Room, one of Jens Jensen's masterworks, home to the most delicate and weather-sensitive plants, has most of a temporary roof of polycarbonate sheeting. Some plants were sunburned and dried out because a temporary shade-cloth cover tarp couldn't entirely protect them from the hot sun or hold in the high humidity they need. "We have some replanting to do," Mary said. If all the plants can't be saved, "We'll just have to add to our collection."
So far, the emergency cleanup alone has cost $2 million. Workers had to carefully remove potentially deadly shards of glass that dangled from the Fern Room roof. Then they had to bring in a hydraulic lift to gently remove glass that had lodged in the tops of the spectacular cycads and palms. Large glass pieces were picked out of the plants and the soil around them by hand, and then the soil and plants were carefully vacuumed.
In the Show House, the soil had to be dug up to a depth of 12 inches and replaced. Because this is the site of the yearly flower shows, conservatory staff regularly dig in that soil. No one could take a chance on lurking hidden glass shards. The Show House may not get a roof before winter, Mary said, so of course it will host no flower shows.
Since so much is still unknown about how the conservatory will be repaired, she said, the park district has no number for what the repairs will cost or how much must be raised beyond what insurance ends up paying for. My guess is: a lot.
It's not going to be enough to bring the glasshouses back to the way they were built a century ago. They need to be replaced with double-walled tempered glass, like that which stood up to the hail in the Palm House and the Sugar from the Sun house.
"Our attitude is that we need to fix these roofs so that they give us a 21st Century greenhouse," Mary said. "The items that insurance won't cover because they weren't damaged by the hail are the kinds of things the fundraising will cover."
Things like that extra layer of glass, modern vents to regulte heat and humidity, movable benches in the propagation houses, a misting system in the Fern Room. There's quite a wish list.
The Wicker Park garden Club's tool-sharpening efforts are just the latest of several fundraisers that already have been held. I'm sure there will be many more.
Meanwhile, if your family tradition requires a visit to the conservatory's holiday flower show with its azaleas and poinsettias, Mary assured me there still will be a flower show at the Lincoln Park Conservatory. It's smaller, but charming, with lovely collections of orchids inside and dwarf conifers outside. It should help us get our winter-day plant fixes while the fix goes on at Garfield.
I'll be at the Garfield County Fair Saturday, answering garden questions in my capacity as a University of illinois Master Gardener. I hope to see you there, with your pruners and your $5.
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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