… motor skills. Adults: Try to give a garden a makeover for each season. Making fairy furniture is a good winter craft. If you have children, consider moving the pieces around each evening, as …
Type: Plant Info
… to six hours of sun or 14 hours of supplemental light daily, and a south or southwest exposure is best. All herbs except basil perform best next to a cool windowpane. Many herbs, such as …
Type: Plant Info
… plants. Leaves become pale and flecked or stippled and often have a bronzy sheen. There often is webbing along stems and leaf surfaces, but this cannot always be seen without a microscope. …
Type: Plant Info
… a stunning spectacle for observers. Once on the state endangered species list, the great egret is doing well in Illinois; however, habitat loss and water pollution may threaten its future. …
Type: Birding
… of the Garden emerges after the front gates close for the night—one in which the natural world is less colorful but more dramatic. In the dark, your senses sharpen. You look at blooms in a new …
Type: Blog
… Disco Red marigolds, and Monaco Orange snapdragons. The Grunsfeld Children’s Growing Garden is a delight with more than 500 violas, including Ruby & Gold Babyface, Sunrise, and Delta Cool …
Type: Walks
… trees and shrubs before they break bud and when soil conditions permit. If spring weather is unusually wet, consider planting in the fall when the plants begin their dormancy. With all …
Type: Plant Info
… lepiota, was the mushroom du jour. Three of the cases involved this toxic mushroom that is commonly found in yards after summer rains. It looks lovely, and it usually won’t kill you, … vomiting and/or diarrhea, often severe, starting one to three hours after ingestion. This is the most commonly eaten toxic mushroom in the United States. It might seem like a bumper crop … lawn mower’s mushroom, is also nonedible. (Photo with permission Michael Kuo, mushroomexpert.com .) Not all mushrooms growing in lawns are toxic. But the only way to tell is to know what …
Type: Blog
… One of my signature projects at the Chicago Botanic Garden is designing and building the hypertufa troughs for the Heritage Garden spring display. While our … winters growing the unique and beautiful plants that we feature in the troughs, another team is hard at work making the troughs. Hypertufa is a simulated stone container that is durable in all weather conditions, but lighter-weight than …
Type: Blog
… To feed, or not to feed, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of empty bird … There are positive and negative things about feeding birds. On the negative side, there is the way feeders concentrate many birds in a small area, making it easier for diseases to … populations of some species. More chickadees may survive a severe winter if food is provided than if they are totally on their own. (There is the question of whether it is truly …
Type: Blog
