… Take a peek in your closet, and you might find a long wooden broom for sweeping up dust or offering rides to witches and wizards. For broom maker John Spannagel of Hidalgo, Illinois, brooms are more than just a pantry item. … a threshing machine to remove their seeds. The stalks are then laid on a broomcorn crib to dry for a few weeks. Once the stalks are dried, Spannagel uses broom-making equipment, including an …
Type: Blog
… want to do to protect plants. Move containers inside. If you’ve started to create containers for your back porch or balcony that contain summer crops, bring them inside. Even an uninsulated … fiberglass and plastic will degrade over time if they’re in direct sunlight, so check these for damage and move inside if you’re unsure of their durability. Your reused containers will last much longer if you have stored them out of the elements over winter. (Make a mental note for next winter.) You can use soil bags to lightly cover container plantings when frost …
Type: Blog
… books she read as a child. Divine has always loved reading and would sometimes get in trouble for it. The books she doesn't want to put down even today are cosmos-related or anything about … get the results that show you what may or may not be the problem. Last year, Alexis’s passion for procedures was ignited in his eighth-grade chemistry class, where he enjoyed doing … he said. “I feel like they can probably help us in the future, such as helping us care for our own environment.” Alexis imagines combining a career in mechanical engineering with his …
Type: Blog
… striking presence. First, the naranjillas in this small garden bed, number 10, were put there for a reason. All but one of the plants in this bed are in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. … spherical like little oranges. Unfortunately, our growing season in Chicago is not long enough for naranjilla plants to produce the sweet fruits, which are juiced for beverages in Ecuador. Another interesting thing about the naranjilla—a detail that separates …
Type: Blog
… however, have their growing tissue at the base of the leaf and are, therefore, well suited for landscapes dominated by grazing animals (or lawn mowers). They can tolerate repeated clipping of the leaf tip and continue growing. Click images above for larger view. In addition to grasses, there are other grass-like plants that fall into the … or caryopsis where the ovary (female part of the flower) wall is fused to the seed within. For the Carices , male and female flowers are separate and the female flower is enclosed in a sac …
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… lucky enough to see an oriole nest will most likely agree. It can take a week to ten days for the female to complete her nest. She’ll then lay three to seven pale eggs blotched with brown, which hatch in 11 to 14 days. The young remain in the nest for another 11 to 14 days, getting fed constantly by their parents, until they’re able to hop out … to early September, the orioles start singing again—often shorter songs—before they leave for winter vacation. …
Type: Blog
… Ever see a tree or even a weed and wonder what kind of plant it is? We’d love for you to stumble across the answer—right in front of you. Inspired by a movement by French botanists, my 5-year-old daughter and I decided to become street botanists for the day. We would identify plants in the neighborhood and write their names in chalk on the … and other organisms. The key gives you a series of choices to help lead you to your choice. For kids who want to learn more, you can order a leaf identification kit. The kits help you …
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… water. Roll all of the mixture into balls; then let the balls dry on newspaper or waxed paper for two or three days. Don’t worry about smoothness—rustic-looking seed balls are as interesting … from each seed ball. Too many seeds mean too many sprouts, resulting in too much competition for nutrients and water. All sun. All shade. All herbs. All spring. Choose seeds with similar … organic, non-treated seeds from your own garden or from trusted sources. Choose native species for flowers and perennials that will grow successfully in our USDA Zone 5 region. Be responsible: …
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… size, odd shape, and terrible stench (hence its common name, corpse flower). Plants bloom for a single day every seven to ten years, and it is nearly impossible to predict the day it will … in the Regenstein Center. (We have named our titan arum Spike because when you grow a plant for 12 years, you start to think of it as a child.) Spike is growing several inches every day. We …
Type: Blog
… A striking century plant is putting on a show in the final stages of its life—it’s blooming for the first and only time in 27 years. The succulent sends up a tall stalk of blossoms right … stalk grow in a rosette to funnel water to the base of the plant and their waxy coating allows for better water storage. The energy required to push up the flower spike causes the leaves to …
Type: Blog
