… Here are a few great ideas to get your taste buds going: Add a bit of mint to a basil pesto Grow thyme in unexpected … muddling technique Muddling 101 Here’s the first rule of muddling: Don’t overmuddle. Muddling is the process of gently—repeat, gently—bruising the leaves of herbs. As Kasey said, “If you hear … ¼ cup stevia leaves 2 cups water 1½ cups fresh herb leaves (mint or lemon verbena taste best, but feel free to experiment!) For concentrate: Rinse and drain herbs. Add all ingredients …
Type: Blog
… tomatoes, or as romantic as an antique urn laced with roses and baby's breath. Choose a style to make your own! Versatile and Beautiful On decks and rooftops, container plantings bring life, … perennials. A four-season container Rotate seasonal plants into containers to reflect the best of the garden and to extend the growing season. Begin your flowering display the second week … are also very heavy and expensive and should be used only as permanent containers. Terra cotta is a popular, medium-priced material, available in all sizes and therefore a good choice for …
Type: Plant Info
… a bee grabs onto a flower’s anthers and must vibrate at a particular frequency for the flower to release pollen. To evaluate the best habitats for native bees, the Chicago Botanic Garden has collected bees from all around the … than an adult thumb, some are smaller than the width of your pinky nail. The name “Dumbledore” is an Old English term for a bumblebee. Despite what you may expect, bee diversity is most …
Type: Plant Info
… sustainable agriculture techniques, growing flowers, and providing Lawndale with access to fresh vegetables. Violeta Hernandez Intern Violeta recently graduated from Northeastern … environmental science. She spent a semester abroad in Bali working in agriculture and wanted to expand on that experience in Chicago. She likes working side-by-side with the students and learning about urban agriculture. Carolina Macias Intern Carolina is an intern from the Windy City Harvest program. She is from the Little Village neighborhood and …
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… Unusually mild weather might cause some buds on flowering shrubs to bloom prematurely. These flower buds will not rebloom in spring, but there will be enough of … display, prune large flowering trees and shrubs after they bloom in spring. Fruit trees are best pruned in late February or early March. If tree branches become covered with ice, let the … tree trunks with protective wrap in fall and removing it in early spring. If weather is unusually warm, avoid pruning trees that will "bleed," or discharge large amounts of water, …
Type: Plant Info
… There’s still plenty to enjoy in the garden in August and September. Later-blooming perennials, annuals, and shrubs … good-looking, late-season wonders for your garden. Butterfly bush (Buddleja) Butterfly bush is a magnet for flower-feeding butterflies, bees, and other insects. This woody perennial ranges … Remove the spent blossoms to extend the bloom time. Full sun and moist, well-drained soil work best for this charmer. Seven-son flower (Heptacodium miconioides) A large shrub or small tree …
Type: Plant Info
… fawns in the spring and summer. Deer seek out plants in their most nutritious stages, which is often when they are flowering, fruiting, or undergoing rapid growth. Damage Deer eat the buds, … soft and growing. Bucks shed their antlers every winter. Damage can occur from ground level up to 6 feet. Treatment & Solutions Choose plants that deer do not prefer. Generally, deer avoid … protection but need to be reapplied after a substantial amount of rain or watering. It is best to rotate different repellents so that deer do not become accustomed to any one product. For …
Type: Plant Info
… Why wait until spring? Plant a bulb container for a preview of blooms to come. In this video, the Chicago Botanic Garden shows how to create a bulb garden in a pot … winter forcing so you can enjoy a preview of spring in the midst of winter’s chill. Forcing is the act of putting plants through a cold period in order to stimulate blooming during an … blooming, plants should be discarded. Forced bulbs rarely transplant well into the garden. The best plants for forcing tend to be on the smaller side. Tulips and narcissus work very well, …
Type: Blog
… sun rocketing off the white of the snow, all plants are revealed in their naked glory. This is a moment when you really love your birch. But even if the following day is shrouded in gray … the chalky white or cinnamon bark, often peeling, or "shingling," and calls attention to the dangling male flowers known as catkins. Spring is signaled by the limey-green new foliage, … for all seasons. Betula nigra is the most southerly of all birches but still is one of the best choices as a landscape tree for our area. Able to withstand variations in soil moisture and …
Type: Plant Info
… Should I be concerned for my fingers? Don’t worry; these carnivorous plants are only looking to devour insects. Why do some plants eat insects? Not all habitats in the world have … How do carnivorous plants attract pollinators and insects to eat at the same time? This is a complex question. Using different odor cues, color cues, and potentially even distance … worry about fertilizing. The biggest challenge is keeping the bogs, well, boggy. Rainwater is best, but when there’s no rain in the forecast, we use reverse osmosis water instead. Reverse …
Type: Blog
