… College in Environmental Science and Sustainability, seasonal work in the Garden’s summer camp with the former manager of Youth and Family Programs, Amy Wells, and in the Elizabeth Hubert … it’s those “soft skills,” cultivated by members of the Garden’s team, that helped her deal “with a lot of problems I didn’t realize I was going to have and didn’t necessarily know how to deal with,” she said. In the summer camps, for example, “Amy [Wells] knew what needed to get done, yet …
Type: Blog
… nutrients? The pretty pitcher plant ( Sarracenia leucophylla) , for instance, attracts insects with nectar. Insects slip down the “pitcher” part of the plant and are liquified in the digestive … even distance separating the modified leaves from the flowers, plants have evolved to deal with this huge challenge. Keep in mind, these plants would fail if they were eating their … into mini bogs? We installed pond liner a foot deep in each container and filled them with 50 percent washed silica sand and 50 percent sphagnum peat moss. Then we filled them with …
Type: Blog
… leaf can. When it closes its wings, the butterfly has a perfectly ovate silhouette, complete with both a pointed leaf apex at the front tip and a petiole, or the stalk that attaches leaf to stem, on the hindside. The wing is a drab brown, with leaf vein arrangement very similar to that of a flowering dogwood. The orange dead leaf butterfly is at home in broadleaf forests of India, where it blends in with dead foliage during the dry season, going unnoticed by all but the sharpest predators. Here …
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… our groups begin to remove overgrown summer crops for composting while replacing them with edible fall crops and autumn blooms. For our off-site therapy gardens, we typically plant … think about how you can relate this to your specific audience and how the message can resonate with them—either as a group or individually. Mum pumpkins The mum pumpkin activity is always a … the floral foam can be inserted for the mum arrangement. ( If you choose to fill your pumpkin with a planted flower, I would recommend using 1-2 cell-pack pansies per pumpkin.) Therapeutic …
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… The game could be adapted for another location by replacing the image of the Lake Michigan with an image to represent the local water source. (For most cities, that is groundwater.) I discovered, to my surprise, that many of my Brownie Scouts were not familiar with board games. Most millennials have lots of experience pushing virtual buttons on a screen … competing against friends in cyberspace, but tossing a die and moving a token around a board with actual friends? Not so much. Anyone replicating this activity may find they need to explain …
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… Like many children, I was fascinated with Beatrix Potter, the creator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. I remember wanting to visit Hill … Geographic my parents had. Picturesque Hill Top Farm was purchased by Beatrix Potter in 1905 with proceeds from the sale of her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit . Photo by Richerman … Library. The exhibition gives wonderful insight into Potter’s early life and career, along with her love of nature and preservation. Here are ten things from the exhibition and beyond that …
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… United States to broaden my understanding of how cities here developed over time in comparison with France, which has had many hundreds of years to develop. In Chicago, I saw that the gardens … who was an ambassador to France and a great plant enthusiast. He made many plant exchanges with people around the world, especially France. It goes to show that plants everywhere bring people together, no matter the country or culture. Lisa Hilgenberg and Lisa Ho pose with Christine Moore from the United States National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. Moore is the …
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… and even mild depression. Seasonal Affective Disorder is defined as depression associated with late autumn and winter, thought to be caused by a lack of light. Most people with seasonal affective disorder have symptoms that start in the fall and continue through the … a few winter-themed Horticultural Therapy (HT) activities that will fill your home or office with the sights and smells of the season. One of my favorite HT activities to do this time of …
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… to seeing every season. In spring, I watch for “mighty plants” that emerge from the ground with enough force to heave the soil above ground. These botanical weightlifters—the bulbs, … how this is possible and I want to test their strength. So I spent a few weeks playing around with this phenomenon in the Learning Center’s Boeing Nature Laboratory. To begin, I wanted to … in a pot. I soaked bunch of wheat seeds overnight and planted them in a pot. I covered them with a generous amount of potting soil (about a 1/2-inch layer) and I tamped the soil down gently …
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… It’s a great chance for photographers of all abilities to practice shooting after dark. And with a little time and effort, you’ll get some cool pictures of holiday lights—one of my very … our holiday exhibition . I want to share a few tips, but I’d also love to see what you come up with. Post your photos, #Lightscape, and tag us: @chicagobotanic. Blur is good If you manually … blur is called bokeh. Lightscape is a perfect opportunity to explore what your lens can do with this technique. Camera phone users can create bokeh by using focus-lock on a nearby subject …
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