… seem to love the same thing — creating a place of their own, making something beautiful. It is a powerful pull for those of us who consider ourselves gardeners, whether by profession or … a garden, they're anxious for more. When will the plants flower? When will they fruit? What is this one called? Gardens are places of discovery, perfect for digging up worms or finding a spider web decorated with dew. Conveying to children that worms or spiders are bad is simply passing along prejudices. In fact, worms are very beneficial to the soil, and spiders …
Type: Plant Info
… you can do to wood, and not suffer the splinters. While their origin remains a mystery, there is evidence of gourds in the early civilizations of Africa, Asia, North and South America, … plants. Each plant can grow 15 to 20 feet and produce 12 or more fruits. A slightly acid soil is ideal, with a pH between 6.0 and 6.5. Harvest gourds after the first killing frost and leave 1 to 2 inches of stem attached. This is important. A gourd is 90 percent water, and this water must evaporate through the stem so that …
Type: Plant Info
… four developmental stages: egg mass, larva (caterpillar), pupa and adult moth. The egg mass is about 1½ inches long and ¾ inch wide with a buff or tan fuzzy surface. Mature larvae are about … with five pairs of raised blue spots and six pairs of raised red spots. The immobile pupa is reddish-brown, leathery, and about 1½ inches long. Female moths are white or cream-colored … about 1½ inches. Timing & Life Cycle By far the longest period in the spongy moth life cycle is the egg mass stage. Female moths lay eggs from late July to early August on almost any …
Type: Plant Info
… had the pleasure of teaching families with young children at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It is a gift to work in a garden with children because there is so much about gardening that we can use to help them grow. “It is not what is poured into a student that counts but what is planted.” —Linda Conway If you’ve …
Type: Blog
… ) in Bed #10 in the Growing Garden. This attractive plant has large, thick, green leaves, is about 10–12 inches long and 8–10 inches wide, with deeply serrated edges, and is completely covered in tiny, purple hairs (which are not really hairs—in the botanical world they are called “tricomes” ) . It is native to Ecuador and other South American countries. There is more to notice about this …
Type: Blog
… has been tracking the recent rains. We know many of you are anxious to get planting done—it is spring, right? But we encourage caution and patience. If it squishes, wait. Working with wet … to get back in your garden. If the soil can form a sticky ball when you squeeze a handful, it is still too wet for planting. Soil will take longer to dry after periods of cool weather. Sandy … excessive walking in garden beds and on lawns. It can compact and damage your soil. Soil is ready for planting when it crumbles in your hand. Working the soil when it is too wet can …
Type: Blog
… So we asked some of them: What plant would you most like to see in the wild? The common thread is that there is no common thread. These are not your garden-variety plant lovers. These are people who … related to giant sequoia. In our Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden, the Shoin House is mostly built of sugi, which is traditional for this kind of structure, but rather unique in …
Type: Blog
… arrival, one can’t help but daydream about greener pastures, or in my case, lawns. Now is the time for spring lawn maintenance. The main purpose of spring lawn care is to get the turf through the summer months. Cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, … metal leaf rake, go through your lawn and rake up any trash, debris, and fallen branches. This is a good time to assess your lawn to see if there has been any damage from the long winter …
Type: Blog
… One of the most recognized lines from Shakespeare is the following: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” You would have to read Hamlet to get the backstory, but one thing I know as an ecologist, is that we would be in a lot of trouble if there wasn’t a whole lot of rot going on all over the …
Type: Blog
… " The Anna Karenina principle states that “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” When we talk about rare species we tend to think of them as a collective group that shares similar traits, however, some argue that “every rare species is rare in its own way”. Rabinowitz (1981) showed that all common species had wide ranges, large … while rare species could have any combination of these traits, but not all three. What is interesting is the range, population size and habitat preference all have important …
Type: Staff bio
