No rain, then too much rain, then...2021 is a challenging year for gardening. For those who garden in northeastern Illinois, June ushered in one of the driest months in recorded weather history. Moderate-to-severe drought conditions were present in Cook, Lake, McHenry, DuPage, and Kane Counties. Then the rains came, with flash flooding in some areas and sopping wet soils in most gardens. Here are some tips to keep your garden in shape this summer:
Finally the world of fashion has stumbled on one of our great loves—fungi.
After a year of extraordinary challenges, we are looking forward to all that summer 2021 has to offer in the Lavin Plant Evaluation Garden.
April's only full moon is lovely enough, but the upcoming one is a gift from nature—and the perfect time to take a night walk. On Monday, April 26, head outside to see the "pink" supermoon. Whether you prefer to walk in solitude or with family members, don’t miss peak illumination at about 10:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time.
An ancient glacier. A swampy marsh. A renowned landscape architect. The Chinese Garden of Perfect Brightness. Tie them together and the result is part of the intriguing back story of the Chicago Botanic Garden—which starts long before the Garden’s groundbreaking in 1965. Next time you visit the Garden, take a closer look at the topography and you can still make out the origins of all that beauty.
“One designs not places, or spaces or things—one designs experiences.”
John O. Simonds, Landscape Architect
Chicago artists have been busy in their studios creating installations with uplifting messages to welcome visitors to the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Lightscape. Matthew Hoffman’s 12-foot-tall sculpture celebrates the word JOY: “the expression of love, comfort, and happiness when we're with the ones we love.”
It has been five months since the Black Lives Matter movement ignited a new civil rights movement and caused the Chicago Botanic Garden to reflect and recommit to equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility for our staff, our visitors, our volunteers, and our boards. Part of that process is to take a hard look at the stories the Garden tells about gardens, plants, and people.
Dinosaur snacks and other Garden trivia you should know We love our Grand Tram Tour drivers—they’ll tell you things that most people (and even Google) don’t know about the Chicago Botanic Garden. Take this quick quiz on just a few of the factoids that the drivers share. We know you’ll ace this (except for maybe the "Making waves..." question; there’s something a bit fishy about it). Need a refresher? Grand Tram Tours are scheduled to run daily through October 11.
Love is in the air...we ❤️ the date nights, meet-cutes, and anniversaries at the Garden—and watching the 50 or so couples who got engaged last year at our holiday event Lightscape. So we got to thinking about romantic spots on our 385 acres and heart-fluttering engagement moments.
How does the natural world affect a community’s health and well-being? Over the course of one year, 16 Chicago high school students from the Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy (IHSCA) sought to find the answer.