… The winter holidays are over and cold weather has settled in. It’s that time of year when a gardener’s thoughts turn to spring, but planting season is … of blooming tulips.” Pollak and his team have planted more than 11,000 spring-flowering bulbs in 1,665 pots, many of which will be displayed outdoors at the Garden come April. But right now, for a little winter cheer in your home or office, you can buy pots of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and other bulbs at garden centers, stores, and online. …
Type: Plant Info
… In 2023, stories about robot gardeners, plant sounds, and more made headlines. What’s on Google’s … every spring for the last ten years,” notes Google. “‘Plant mom’ is the new ‘dog mom.’” In 2023, stories on plants in popular culture often reflected ways in which people project their human-ness on plants. Here are a few of our favorites: You can buy seeds and mini bonsai kits in the Garden Shop at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Your tomato …
Type: Blog
… " In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours. " — Mark Twain, … feels like a roller coaster. Hot, cold, rain, sun, snow, frost, freeze—all are possible in the greater Chicagoland area—sometimes in the same week. In the meantime, the lawns are … vegetable plants this month. They’ve been coddled in a warm greenhouse up until now. If you buy warm-season crops (like tomatoes, peppers, beans and squash) wait to plant them until after …
Type: Plant Info
… the Garden is restoring this beautiful woodland. Gardeners often wonder if it's possible, in suburban or even urban areas, to establish a little piece of woodland of their own. Jim … more on the whole plant community. He offers the following guidelines for gardeners interested in establishing — and then managing — a woodland community of plants: Woody plants are not all … to grow plants from seed (many ephemerals require five to seven years to flower from seed) or buy plants from nurseries that have propagated their own plants (see list below). Consider …
Type: Plant Info
… Why composting doesn’t have to be hard anymore If I spot a few weeds in the shade garden, I yank them before they flower and hide their remains under the hostas where … into the soil. I take shortcuts when I’m composting, too. We have two large compost piles way in the back of our 1-acre garden. The contents seldom get turned (as is usually recommended), but … carbon and nitrogen, helping decomposition. The end result is similar to what you might buy in bags at a garden center. If you are worried about raccoons, possums, mice, and any other …
Type: Blog
… scientist 2. Meadow mania
The “meadow” or “prairie” approach to landscaping is blossoming in popularity as gardeners embrace eco-conscious ways to design their spaces. By incorporating … start by reducing lawn space and planting a mix of hardy perennials, grasses, and wildflowers in natural groupings. Unlike traditional gardens, this “dry and wild” method requires less water, … alike.
—Jacob Burns, curator of plant collections Photo by Robin Carlson 3. Gardening in parkways, cul-de-sacs, and road verges
Photo by Robin Carlson As an urban dweller in …
Type: Blog
… The thunderstorms this past May are just a memory now, but they left many homes and streets in northeastern Illinois with standing water. The rainfall resulted in the wettest May on record at Chicago O’Hare (9.51 inches) and Midway (7.65 inches) airport … Rain gardens often require less care than other types of perennial beds. There is no need to buy bags of mulch, especially if the perennials are placed closer together when planting. As they …
Type: Plant Info
… golden grasses sparkling like jewels with touches of color, and the lake rippling marvelously in the wind. The black-eyed Susan and coneflower plants you spot here may seem sparse, lanky, and … unlike the neat clumps or broad sweeps that can be seen on Evening Island and, perhaps, in your garden. Over the last few decades, plants once native to midwestern prairies have been welcomed into gardens. But in our front yards, they often don't look much like they did in the prairie. When we grow prairie …
Type: Plant Info
… all easy to grow. If you have a spot that gets at least six to eight hours of direct sun in the summer, now’s the time to start planting. “We have grown 'Purple Peruvian' and 'French Fingerling',” says Lisa Hilgenberg, horticulturist in the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden. “'Red Norland' is scab-resistant and productive. And … 40- to 50-pound harvest is the result of planting about 5 pounds of “seed” (small) potatoes in spring. In 2014, Hilgenberg planted 15 different varieties using different planting …
Type: Plant Info
… where the roots form." Who wants to think about soil? It's surely the least glamorous thing in gardening. When seeds come in the mail, when garden centers start to fill with tempting flowers, when juices start to flow … way to reduce watering; it will simply encourage roots to rot. That's why it's a bad idea to buy cheap "potting soil" you may see for $1 a bag in big-box stores. Usually it's just topsoil, …
Type: Plant Info
