MrBrownThumb

Adenium Obesum Flowers and Seed Pod

2009-06-15T20:08:00.000-05:00

This post was written for the MrBrownThumb garden blog. If you garden in Chicago visit Chicago Garden on ChicagoNow.com

On a recent visit to the Garfield Park Conservatory I came across this potted Adenium obesum which made me realize just how much I've neglected my own Desert Roses this year. I have yet to officially try to bring them out of dormancy, even though they are leafing out on their own.

Notice how the branches on this Desert Rose have been trimmed and the branches that cross or grow towards the inside of the plant's crown have been removed. I really like this effect and will trim mine because it looks realistic.

A closer view of the flowers on the Adenium obesum. The flowers are beautiful and illustrate why this succulent plant is called a Desert Rose. Even when not in bloom, I think this is one of my favorite plants and the caudex provides enough interest for the indoor gardener. See how the plant buds on new growth? Make sure not to trim the tips when it starts to grow or leaf out in the Spring.

Here a closer look at a seed pod on another Adenium obesum in the collection of the conservatory. The seeds have been dispersed but if you're lucky enough to get seed pods to produce there are a couple of methods for saving the seeds from Adenium that you can employ. Cover the seed pod with either a paper bag or with a fabric like muslin or an old pair of pantyhose.

Previous Posts on Adenium Obesum:
Adenium Obesum Care
Adenium Obesum Seedlings
Adenium Obesum Propagation by Cuttings

Chicago Spring Fling In Pictures

2009-06-03T00:51:00.009-05:00

Didn't get a chance to take a lot of photos during Spring Fling but here are a few that I liked. My pictures of the Rick Bayless garden are over on my garden blog for ChicagoNow.com: Chicago Garden and my other post on the subject of Spring Fling is: Chicago Spring Fling in Words. Links in this post open in new window. If you hover your mouse over one of the garden photos you should get a description.

I didn't get a chance to properly thank Flatbush Gardener & Garden Faeriefor their help during Spring Fling. You two were on vacation but you found it in your heart to help out with your fellow garden blogger who was in a wheelchair and couldn't get around so easy. If you're ever back this way let me buy you a drink.

Chicago Garden

2009-06-01T14:56:00.000-05:00

Welcome, to all the new followers of the MrBrownThumb garden blog. And "hello" to all the followers who have been reading for a while. If you live or garden in Chicago, or know someone who does, make sure to read the end of this post. Heck, even if you have no connection to Chicago make sure to read the end of this post.

Raise your hand if you've been watching the Life After People special on the History Channel. I love it! I could spend days watching this thing and never get tired of it. One of the things in particular that really interests me about the special is watching how plants will one day grow over everything that people have built. One of the episodes focuses heavily on Chicago and it has a few segments on how Wrigley Field will look once grounds keepers aren't around to maintain it.

Pictures I took of the television while watching the show.

In the segment that covers Wrigley Field, the show's writers theorize that the ball park will one day be overgrown by the ivy that grows there now decorating the outfield walls. If I remember correctly the narrator states that ivy, in Chicago's climate, can grow at a rate of fifty feet a year.

I know in other climates ivy can be a problem and becomes an invasive plant but I don't think I've seen evidence in gardens around Chicago of ivy growing that much in a single year. I personally love ivy and have this dreams of one day having a garden filled with ivy. Ivy, everything-ivy walls, ivy topiary, an ivy gazebo. If you hate ivy, my fantasy garden would not be one you'd ever want to set foot in. Anyway, where was I going with this? Oh yeah, ivy. With the exception of how much it will grow in a year I don't have a problem with the fear mongering about the ivy and how it will end up destroying the historic scoreboard and blah, blah, blah. Mostly because it is true-ivy is beautiful, at least to me, but can be a very destructive plant.

When the narrator started going on about how the field would be taken over by buckthorn, that would become these mounds of interpenetrate greenery, my BS meter went off. They showed some dilapidated buildings somewhere in Indiana to illustrate what it looks like when nobody is around to take care of the buildings and nature is left unchecked--and what life after people has in store for Chicago. When I failed to spot any mounds of buckthorn in the video of the abandoned town in Indiana I started to wonder who the consultant was that predicted all this buckthorn taking over Wrigley Field was.

I've spent way too much time thinking about buckthorn and the consultant who told the producers of Life After People that buckthorn would take over Chicago. I've been looking around Chicago at abandoned lots and undeveloped areas to see any evidence of this monster buckthorn and I've come to the following conclusion(s): 1. I really need to stop thinking so much about plants I see on shows that have nothing to do with plants or gardening. 2. The horticultural consultant for Life After People probably doesn't live or garden in Chicago.

One could probably bet good money on #2 and win because everyone who lives and gardens in Chicago knows that dandelions and maple trees will take over at Wrigley Field.

Recently, after a few good rains in Chicago I've had a bumper crop of maple seedlings all over my garden. Seeds are germinating all over the place and I can walk out on any given day and pull out a handful of them that I swear were not there the day before. If I didn't garden on such a tiny plot of land I'd be inclined to let the little seedling grow. I've developed a catch and release program for the seedlings that I manage to pull out of the ground before the tap root develops too far. I'll pot them up and keep them around for a while and then plant them in an empty lot or two. I can't brinng myself to kill a tree.

What are the plants that will take over your garden when nobody is around to maintain it?

If you live or garden in Chicago: Today the Tribune launched ChicagoNow.com and I've got a new garden blog over there called 'Chicago Garden'. It is a blog about--well, gardening in Chicago. The website is still in beta but when it is completed it will be like Facebook for Chicago by Chicagoans. I've put up a number of posts there already and that garden blog will be a little different than this one. It won't be as much as a personal garden journal like MrBrownThumb has been. It will be about and for Chicagoans. Once all the features are set up for ChicagoNow.com you'll be able to create profiles and even start a blog. It's going to be really cool. So come on over and sign up for an account and say hello. If you don't live or garden in Chicago come by for a visit anyway and tell your friends or family who may live in Chicago about the new garden blog.

This is my first gig as a "garden blogger" and really an experiment for companies like the Tribune. I'm glad the Tribune folks gave me this opportunity and that they saw a benefit in launching the site with a garden blog and that they went with a nobody (me) when they could have picked from any number of great horticultural writers in Chicago. Don't let them regret it and keep me employed by visiting Chicago Garden and joining up and participating.

Cheers!

Chicago Spring Fling In Words

2009-05-31T00:56:00.006-05:00

Today was the last day for Chicago Spring Fling, and have been surprised on a number of occasions. Some people were exactly like what I was expecting and some nearly brought a tear to my eye with their generosity and warmth.

Friday was the first day of Chicago Spring Fling and the attendees were greeted with open arms by the Chicago Botanic Garden. I wasn't able to make that event because I was waiting for some packages to arrive in time for me to hand the items to the garden bloggers. During the day Denise Corkery of the Chicago Botanic Garden sent me email updates about the group when they had been picked up by the private shuttle and while they visited the gardens. They created a page just for attendees of Chicago Spring Fling and posted a group photo they took of most of the group.

That morning I got an unexpected surprise from Sue Markgraf of GreenMark Public Relations. Just a couple of days prior she had heard of Spring Fling and arranged for Colleen Lockovitch to be available to answer questions garden bloggers may have while visiting the Lurie garden. Colleen Lockovitch is the director and horticulturist of the Lurie garden and I'm deeply disappointed I didn't get a chance to meet her but I'm glad many of our visitors got a chance to do so.

Free Hug Friday

I arrived at the site of the dinner/reception as the group was leaving the Lurie and set out to fill the gift bags. I was waiting for some packages to arrive last minute so I missed out on earlier festivities, but the reaction of several garden blogger to the gift items we got made it all worthwhile. Since I was late I was prepared to do all the giftbag work by myself, so I was pleasantly surprised when Diane, Beth Botts & Monica got to work and helped move the gift items from boxes into the gift bags. You don't expect guests to show up ready to work- so a big thanks goes out to them.

Lainey & Fallon from Edelman Public Relations were also early arrivals & guests who went to work putting together the gift bags full of gardening items. They were there to represent The Scotts Miracle Gro company and the GroGood campaign, who sponsored Chicago Spring Fling, to raise awareness about growing food this year for the needy. I'd met Lainey before when I was invited to attend the dedication ceremony of a new community garden in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Before the reception started and garden bloggers were let into the room, they approached me after seeing some name badges and made it known that they didn't have to be in attendance and would be ok with leaving if their presence would be a distraction or cause problems with some of the garden bloggers who have been pretty critical of the company they represent. Being sponsors and having paid, like everyone else, to dine-I insisted they stay and gave them the option of sitting together at a table or splitting up so they could talk to more people about the GroGood campaign and how important the issue is this year. They chose to sit together in a corner of the room at the table that typically gets filled w/strangers or your weird cousin at these kinds of events.

When all the bags were filled with gifts (thanks to the help of these wonderful folks) we let the garden bloggers into the room and they sat around and continued the conversations they were having from earlier in the day. Once everyone was seated I made my way to the tables and introduced myself. At the second table I stopped at I was greeted with a hug by Kylee and this nervous wreck just about lost it and started crying. When I finally got around to the table were Chris & Katie from GardenPunks were seated I was the recipient of yet another hug and I was having trouble holding it back so I had to cut that convo short and make it to my table before my mascara started running. One day when my mind isn't occupied we'll have to delve into the reason why Katie thought I'd been incarcerated before. Yeah, you read that right.

At the table for the misfits and randoms; Lainey, Fallon, myself (the weird cousin) and Garden Girl were joined by Ben Helphand of NeighborSpace who was there to tell the group about the organic community garden we would be visiting the next day. We had an awesome conversation about brands and the relationships they develop with bloggers and just how transparent bloggers should be when they form these relationships. I guess I've let television and my interaction with some "marketing" departments pollute my view of the industry and their connections to bloggers. We talked about several things but mostly our conversations revolved around blogging ethics, is there such a thing? Should there be such a thing? And what happens to a blog that becomes a dumping ground for giveaways and press releases. Hopefully the Chicago gardening ideas Ben & I talked about come to fruition and I can be a part of them or help in some way.

I'm particularly grateful that Beth Botts was a part of Chicago Spring Fling and made herself available to garden bloggers and shared the wealth of her gardening information and Chicago history. Beth, if you ever need a second pair of hands or help in some way with a project you're working on I owe you three days of helping in any way I can. Professor Jane S. Smith was there to sign copies of her book The Garden of Invention. It isn't every day that I get a chance to rub elbows with a Pulitzer Prize nominee so I was especially geeked that she was there, but I forgot to ask her to sign my book. Professor Smith volunteers at the Lincoln Park Conservatory so maybe I'll get a second chance to get that book signed in the near future.

Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors we were able to give away some awesome items. Our giftbags included:

Seeds and a couple of garden cook books from ReneesGarden.

Seeds and mouse pads from Botanical Interests.

Garden Gloves from EthelGloves for all the garden bloggers in attendance. They've also provided a coupon code for anyone who would like to order extra gloves. Just enter "BROWNTHUMB10" into the "Discount Code" field on any of the screens at checkout. The code is good through June 6 & 10% off your purchase. Just to be clear; I don't get anything from you using this coupon code, I think Angela just named it "BROWNTHUMB10" because when she made it up she and I were emailing each other a lot with arrangements for CSF so I guess it was easy to name it that.

A few $50.00 gift certificates from GardenShoesOnline.

A shirt, book and buttons from YouGrowGirl.

Troy-Bilt® was another sponsor of Chicago Spring Fling and as part of their sponsorship they each garden blogger a garden journal. They also generously gave away a Super Bronco ™ CRT garden tiller valued at over $600.00!!!!!

Chicago Honey Co-Op gave us enough lip balms to hand out to every attendee and a few personal beauty products made from their urban apiary here in Chicago. They also have a blog about the bee farm those products came from.

Proven Winners grew a Supertunia® Vista Silverberry for each of the participants. It has a wonderful scent and

Layanee was nice enough to get us gift certificates from www.Garden-Guys.com for free bags of organic fertilizer for every garden blogger. The same offer was then extended by her to the community garden we toured on Saturday. As a Chicagoan, I was really touched by that. Thank you Layanee and I'm sorry I never got around to talking about those.

Cindy also got us a few items from The Houston Chronicle. I'm sorry we couldn't use those bags but we already had one from one of our sponsors but I'll put mine to good use. And thank you very much for the poppy seeds, I love them even though I haven't sown a single one. They are one of my favorite flowers.

Leslie gave out hand made Christmas ornaments to commemorate the event and had one for everyone one.

Anneliese from CobraHead brought a long a few CobraHead garden tools that we were able to raffle off.

Garden Girl secured a $25.00 gift certificate from Gardens Alive that we raffled off.

On Sunday I learned that on Friday people were giving out "free hugs" at Millennium Park, I guess the universe knew it was one of those days.

"T" is for thank you, tipsy & Troy-Bilt
On Saturday we visited the Bayless urban/edible garden and I don't think my words could do the garden justice, so I'm going to make a photo post about Chicago Spring Fling and include that tour in there. Along with photos from the Ginkgo Organic Community Garden that grows food for the needy in Chicago.

A big thanks to the four wonderful women who blog at My Skinny Garden, Garden Girl, Lake Chicago Shores & Sweet Home And Garden. I appreciate your honesty, dedication, drive, selflessness and the respect you showed me and your fellow members of the organizing committee during the process. People who attended the event will never know just how much you put into this and every single little thing you helped arrange & every whim you indulged. That you all did so much without once having to make sure the spotlight was shining on you says a lot about the people who raised you, the people you've raised and the people you will raise in the future. They say that you're judged by the company you keep and I'd be honored if I could call you all my friends. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thanks to all the people who attended Chicago Spring Fling. When we started organizing this we didn't know the response would be so big. We thought the state of the economy would mean just a handful of people showing up and were surprised at just how many people turned out to spend time with friends and visit some gardens. We hope you got your money's worth, and then some.

Thank you to the Chicago Botanic Garden (Denise Corkery in particular) for being sponsors and making sure everything went well with the group visit.

A few people made it a point to personally approach me and thank me for being part of the committee that helped organize Chicago Spring Fling. If at that time you got the impression I didn't appreciate the gesture, I'd like you to know that wasn't the case. 1) I'm not good at meeting new people, 2) For as much as I run off at the keyboard I'm really bad at trying to make conversation. Being part of this has taught me that the words "thank you" have so much value--I hope to carry that with me in my personal life forever and I have you to thank for that.

We tried to make Saturday's dinner as easy as we could. We chose a restaurant close to the hotel so everyone could attend and make it back to the hotel at night, and we made the cost as reasonable as we could. Thinking we had planned for everything to go smoothly so people could linger and talk afterward and have all those conversations about blogging people were so sure they were going to want to have-we were so pleased with ourselves. At the end of the night some items that were not part of our dinner package had been ordered. Garden Girl made an announcement that people who had ordered them should figure out the cost of those items including the crazy tax we have in Chicago and the tip. That's when things threatened to get ugly and the grumbling started and some comments were made, some barely audible-- but we heard them. Barbara Hastings, who was there representing Troy-Bilt, perhaps sensed the coming frustration of one person doing math on a paper napkin and picked up the added cost that wasn't part of our agreement with the restaurant and saved the night. Thank you Barbara and thank you Troy-Bilt for all the support.

On Sunday, the last day, the last event for Chicago Spring Fling was a visit to the Garfield Park Conservatory. Words don't do the place justice so I'll include pictures of that visit in another post.

Slow Food Chicago Tomato Fest 2009

2009-05-22T22:35:00.005-05:00

Marmande Tomato photo courtesy of Damien Casten

May 27th 2009 marks the start of Slow Food Chicago Tomato Fest 2009. The tomato festival is a project of Slow Food Chicago, Candid Wines and the Chicago Honey Coop. Gardeners and urban farmers, in and around Chicago, will have the opportunity to buy heirloom tomato plants for $3:00 a plant.

The first heirloom tomato plant sale will take place on May 27th, 2009 at the Garfield Park Conservatory from 4:00pm-7:00pm.

The second heirloom tomato plant sale will take place on June 5th, 2009 at the restaurant Uncommon Ground on Devon from 4:00pm-8:00pm.

Everyone who buys a heirloom tomato plant will be invited to the Second Annual Tomato Festival in September at the urban bee farm operated by the Chicago Honey Coop. Heirloom tomato growers will get a chance to share some of their crop with their fellow heirloom tomato grower.

Some of the tomato varieties available for sale include:

Little Marvel
Lincoln
Thai Pink Egg
Mortgage Lifter
Pearly Pink
Tappy's Heritage
Cuor di Bue
Principe Borghese
Illini Star
Tess's Land Race Currant
Persimmon
Cherokee Purple
Black Cherry
Japanese Black Trifele
True Black Brandywine
Wapsipinicon Peach
Plum Lemon

If you're in Chicago, and haven't already done so, request your free bean seeds for One Seed Chicago. If you you're looking for gardening information try my Google Custom Search Engine--Google for Gardeners. Use it to find information on plants, and gardening tips and tricks.

Spring Bulbs In The Garden

2009-05-08T14:31:00.007-05:00

Let me beging by saying "Welcome" to all the new followers & subscribers of the MrBrownThumb garden blog.

Spring arrived in my garden a while back, but the only thing blooming then was a clump of daffodils so I decided to wait and make one post about the spring bulbs in my garden. I've posted before about cheap bulbs for your garden and how you can find them in places other than garden centers and nurseries.

The first tulip isn't one of those bulbs that I've found at a local grocery store. This is "Flaming Parrot," and was a gift to me from a gardening friend I know online. I've had it for a couple of years now and every time these tulips bloom they demand my attention in the garden. I also have "Black Parrot" tulips in the garden, though they are just at the bud stage. The "Black Parrot" blooms aren't as big and dramatic as the blooms of the "Flaming Parrot."

This spring I decided that I'm really not a big fan of daffodils. I have a clump of these garden bulbs because they were gifted to me by the same gardener that gave me the "Flaming Parrot" tulip you see above. If you look at the larger daffodil image above you may see that I created a border at the bottom of my wrought iron fence with a strip of weed blocking fabric. It doesn't look to bad and actually does help with blocking urban trash from being blown into the garden. I can't tell you how good it works at blocking weeds but it helps keep my garden a little neater than it otherwise might be.

The smaller daffodil is one that is sold as a "miniature" daffodil and I don't know where it came from because I don't remember planting that clump of daffodils in my garden. The blue flower is a wild violet that is growing rampant in my neighborhood at the moment. I'd like it a lot better if it grew in areas where there is suppose to be grass and not among my flower beds where I can't easily reach in and pull it out when it gets to be too large.

These are some of the tulips that are growing in my garden that I purchased at the ALDI grocery chain over the past couple of years. I have a variety of different colors blooming now and it kind of looks like someone dropped a bag of Skittles in my garden and up grew these tulips. There is no real plan here since all of the tulips I've planted don't have IDs and come in a medium sized box and cost about $4 to $5.

One a personal note: If you've been wondering why I've been quiet on this blog there is a hint in this video. Pay close attention when you see the ladybugs. I'm also part of the committee putting the finishing touches on Chicago Spring Fling so that has been keeping me a little busy. Can't wait for all the cool things happening at the end of this month.

What's going on in your garden?

Posts about starting seeds for your garden for newbies:

One Seed Chicago 2009

2009-04-28T11:06:00.000-05:00

You've probably heard of One Book, Chicago and participate in the program that gets Chicagoans to all read the same book at the same time. One Seed Chicago is a similar endeavor by local urban greening activists with the aim to get Chicago residents to grow the same plant.

The website for One Seed Chicago asks you image thousands of the same vegetable or flower linking "community gardens, yards and window sills across the City!" The imagery is striking and a noble one. The same plant being grown by thousands of people across the city- from an executive to the person who cleans the offices where the executive works and everyone in-between.

The results of the voting haven't been posted on the One Seed Chicago web page but I came across an unrelated press release that states the bean (any kind) will be this years seed. On the website for One Seed Chicago you can request a free seed packet if you'd like to participate.

If you don't live in Chicago how about growing some beans with us in solidarity? Or better yet, start a similar project in your neighborhood, city or state.

Update: 4/28/09

Over the weekend I attended the Green & Growing Fair at the Garfield Park Conservatory. The photo I added above is of the Blue Lake Pole seeds NeighborSpace was handing out. You can now officially request your seed packets to grow your own beans for One Seed Chicago

Never grown plants from seeds? See these tips I've posted before:

Plastic bottle seed starter.
Sandwich bag seed starter.
Seed starter pot from newspaper.
Paper tube seed pot holder.
Homemade seed pots.

Houseplant BINGO! Part 2

2009-04-18T00:13:00.004-05:00

OMG, did you hear that Ashton Kutcher got one million followers on Twitter? Yeah, I don't care either.

I was watching him on Oprah when I realized I was really immersed in a game of Houseplant BINGO! It looks like a Dracaena of some kind in the background.
But here is what I'm wondering; Why is that houseplant leaning like that? Is Mr. Demi Moore a practitioner of Hortitorture?

Houseplants usually lean like this towards a light source when they don't get even lighting. but there appears to be no window in the direction the houseplant points to. Maybe this is characteristic of houseplants in Hollywood. The houseplant figured he better lean into the shot if he or she wanted to be on Oprah. I can't blame the houseplant everyone nowadays is looking for their fifteen minutes of fame. I'm no fan of Ashton Kutcher and would be more interested in reading tweets by the houseplant behind him. As a matter of fact with the Botanicalls kit you can hook your houseplants up to give you Twitter updates.

So what would it be like if Ashton Kutcher hooked up his houseplant to Twitter with a Botanicalls kit? I think it may be something like this:

Yoga was really great. Don't feel balanced though.
about 9 hours ago from TwitterBerry

I can see some light over there. I'm going to lean towards it.
about 11 hours ago from TwitterBerry

It must he happy hour somewhere. I need a drink! ASAP!!
about 11 hours ago from TwitterBerry

Someone put dried moss on my soil! WTF?
about 11 hours ago from TwitterBerry

OMG! MiracleGro is on Twitter.
about 11 hours ago from Txt

Ashton is crying in Demi's lap again. Ugh!
about 11 hours ago from Web

I'm going to be on Oprah! W00t! W00t!
about 12 hours ago from Web

#FollowFriday @Pothos.
about 13 hours ago from web

I just cried, again, watching #SusanBoyle. AMAZING!
about 13 hours ago from TwitterBerry

Or something like that. I'd read tweets by his houseplant before I'd read updates by him. If you're curious @Pothos is a real account set up to show how Botanicalls works. Whoever owns that Pothos does a bad job of watering it because it always seems to need to be watered.

Gardening Gloves From Ethel Gloves

2009-04-17T11:06:00.000-05:00

In late February when Ethel Gloves became a sponsor of Chicago Spring Fling I started an email conversation with Angela at Ethel Gloves about garden blogging. We discussed many issues that gardeners face when they start blogging including the pitfalls & triumphs. Recently, Angela offered to give me a pair of work gloves for men as a thank you gift for bouncing around ideas with her. I know me and know that something like a pair of work gloves would probably end up either getting lost or not used at all. I asked if I could instead get a pair of Ethel Gloves to give to a blogging friend. After I explain why I wanted to do this she agreed and offered me three more Ethel Gloves to give away.

If you're a regular reader of this garden blog you may remember me taking a long break last spring. You may even remember the post I made where I explained my absence after a few readers started asking what was keeping me from updating this gardening blog. My family's worst fear came to pass last October when my mother succumbed to her illness and passed away at the age of 56.

Through a large portion of my mother's illness and her subsequent passing- Ohio Mom, Cooking in Cleveland, was there for me. She offered me support and a shoulder to lean on when I needed it most. Sometimes I found it easier to talk to her than I did my own siblings or friends in real life. I'm not sure how we went from just knowing each other on a gardening message board to exchanging emails but however it happened I'm grateful it did. As you can probably tell from her screen name, she has kids of her own but somehow she still managed to find time in her life to be like a mother to someone-- a total stranger--who needed one. Ohio Mom you'll get a pair of these gardening gloves courtesy of Ethel Gloves. I hope you put them to use in your rooftop garden this summer.

Carolyn, Sweet Home and Garden Chicago, I'd like to give you a pair of these gloves but you're already attending Chicago Spring Fling- you'll get a pair then as part of the Ethel Gloves sponsorship. I wanted to thank you openly for hunting me down on the Internet while I was gone and checking up on me. If it wasn't for you (and a few others) expressing interest in my whereabouts I don't think I would have returned to this blog.

Walk2Write, of Walk 2 Write in Florida, I don't know you very well but back at the beginning of February you left the following comment:

"I hope your efforts to promote garden blogging are richly rewarded. Good luck with Spring Fling too!"

I wouldn't be my mother's son if I didn't believe in blessings. At the time when I read your comment I thought it was just a very nice thing of you to say. But for some reason I kept going back to the post where you left that comment. You may not even remember leaving it, but I read it over and over for a couple of days. By the 19th of the month I had a meeting scheduled with a newspaper publisher about the possibility of garden blogging on a website they are building. "Why me?" was my first reaction to the email inviting me to meet with them. After scheduling the meeting I found myself reading your comment again and then it all made sense. The second pair of Ethel Gloves goes to you.

Xris, Flatbush Gardener, I'd share a pair with you too but you're coming to Chicago Spring Fling and should be getting something then. While I was gone from garden blogging I got a kick out of checking my email and seeing your comments calling out the spammers in my comment section. Thanks for keeping an eye on my blog.

Rosengeranium, Indoor Gardener, I saw the blog post you made about me while I was gone and I really appreciate it. I'd give you a pair except you're all the way in Sweden. If you're ever in Chicago I'd like to buy you a cup of coffee or something to say thanks since I can't ship a pair of Ethel Gloves to you.

There are more of you out there that I'd like to thank for now I have to stop here. I've given away two pairs of Ethel Gloves in this post leaving two available. They are available to two garden bloggers with a catch. There's always a catch! Don't ask for a pair of these gloves for yourself-- nominate a fellow garden blogger to receive one.

You should be a garden blogger nominating a fellow garden blogger. You can be somehow related to the garden blogger you nominate-BUT you both must be garden bloggers. The garden blogger you nominate has to be one not attending Chicago Spring Fling. The garden blogger you nominate for this pair of gloves must live in the United States or Canada. Write a post (you don't have to link to me) or send me an email if it is too personal, explaining why the garden blogger you are nominating deserves a pair of these gloves.

What I'm looking for are stories of friendship between garden bloggers. We'll be making many new friends this spring during Chicago Spring Fling. This contest is my attempt to share some of Chicago Spring Fling with those who can't make it. This contest closes on April ~~16th.~~ April 30th.

Ethel Gloves has also provided a coupon code good for 10% off your purchase. Enter "BROWNTHUMB10" into the "Discount Code" field on any of the screens at checkout. The code is good through June 6 and timed to continue until the end of Chicago Spring Fling. Visit Ethel Gloves & see the their blog- Ethel in the Garden & leave a comment if you got one of these blog for free. If you're a fan of the White House veggie garden-Ethel Gloves sent a gift package to the First Lady, her mom & the two First Daughters. You can follow @EthelGloves on Twitter.

If you're a garden blogger you're invited to attend Chicago Spring Fling. Hurry-registration closes this Sunday!

Since that comment by Walk2Write I've had several opportunities presented to me. On Monday I signed a contract to be a garden blogger for the newspaper publisher referenced above. As I went through my cell phone calling family members to tell them the news- I came to my mother's phone number. Immediately the tears began to flow and I wanted nothing more than to be able to share with her what has been happening lately. As I looked at her listing in my cell phone "Why me?" didn't cross my mind. I knew why. I've had someone blessing me my whole life.

Update 4/17/09

I've extended the deadline for nominating a garden blogger for the gloves because I got busy working on SF and haven't had time to keep up with the emails. This should give people some extra time in case they didn't see this post. The deadline is now 4/30/09. Thanks

Macy's Flower Show 2009

2009-04-10T11:52:00.000-05:00

Macy's on State Street ushers in spring with the flower show Dream in Color. For someone like me, who professes to hate pink flowers in the garden it sounds more like a Nightmare in Color. So I was surprised at my reaction of Dream in Color, I actually liked it! The annual flower show at Macy's on State Street is a holdover from the Marshall Field's era in Chicago. Full disclosure; I once worked at Marshall Field's when I was going to school and I was one of the anti-Macy's crowd when they bought the beloved Field's. I swore up and down to anyone who would listen that I would never step foot inside of "Macy's." Today was the first day I have been inside the store since it stopped being Marshall Field's.

A week or so ago, Marisa Reeves (Media Relations Manager for Macy’s East, North Region), offered to set up a tour of the show for local garden bloggers with the Jon Jones (Visual Director for Macy's on State Street) & Todd Pope (Branch Manager for Green View's Oswego location). My Skinny Garden & Garden Girl found time in their schedules to attend. And that is how my boycott of Macy's & pink flowers ended.

I'm a realist and I know that the purpose of the flower show is to get people into the store and hope they buy or become loyal customers. Gimmicks like this usually don't appeal to me but the show is a lot of fun and realistic. What do you mean by "realistic?" A lot of times flower shows like this tend to lean towards the theatrical and use plants that the visitor can't grow in their Zone. Dream in Color uses a combination of perennials that can be planted in Chicago interspersed with flowers & plants that are too tender and won't survive a Chicago winter. But you can actually walk away from Dream in Color with inspiration that is practical and a plant list you can find at a local garden center to start a garden in Chicago.
Besides ideas for plants for your garden and color combinations you can use in your garden you can also gather ideas for gardening in small spaces like patios, decks and that annoying spot between the street and the sidewalk that nobody ever knows what to do with.
I think we could talk My Skinny Garden into wearing one of these if Macy's would become a sponsor of the national garden blogger gathering Chicago Spring Fling.
My favorite installation is the flamingo topiary. If I recall correctly each flamingo had over 2,000 kalanchoes painstakingly added. The frames had to be rotated so all the plants would receive equal amount of light to prevent them from becoming lopsided.
Here is an overhead view of the garden installation. The topiaries are underplanted with tulips, azaleas and chrysanthemums. The turf is created with wheat grass that has to be cut by hand and maintained during the run of the flower show.
This is an overhead view of the Walnut Room.
As you can see, even the fountain in the Walnut Room was turned into a garden and has been invaded by pink flamingos.

There are many tablescapes and items throughout the store that can give you inspiration. I don't know how I'd pull this off but I have to have blue trees like this in my garden.
I know these planters aren't very pratical but I really like the way they look. Notable tablescapes not pictured:

Ralph Lauren table featuring the Red Pogada china collection
Martha Stewart table featuring her Modern Daisy china collection
Wedgwood/Waterford table inspired by Showtime's The Tudors featuring Wedgwood's Oberon china collection along with crystal stemware and serving pieces from Waterford

I actually took a picture of the tablescape inspired by The Tudors but didn't include it because I figure that tablescape will be visible in other locations.
I called this one the Hewlett-Packard Garden because it was built around the HP Mini. The peonies in the design by Vivienne Tam are picked up by the real life tree peonies. We were told these mini-notebooks have been displayed as clutch purses on the fashion runways.
I loved this square topiary planted with succulents on the first floor. Like I said, there are a lot of neat ideas you can take from the displays on the first floor for gardening in small spaces. This one is an interesting topiary shape I never would have considered-but it works.
Fashion & flowers collide all over the place. The Betsey Johnson garden seems a little subdued and not as over the top as I was expecting. I'm not sure if this was intended, but viewing this garden installation I thought the trees looked rather menacing and looked like they were lurching over the fairy-like mannequins. Since My Skinny Garden and Garden Girl had also been to the Chicago Flower & Garden Show the first thing that came to mind was the bee topiary in the installation by the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, when we saw the dragonfly topiary.
A view of the flamingos and cherry trees from the second floor. If you attend Dream in Color you should enter either through the Randolph or Washington entrances so you get to walk underneath the giant flamingos. There are fifteen cherry trees used throughout the show and they had to be put, alternately, in a greenhouse and in refrigerated trucks to get them to bloom for the show. If I remember correctly all fifteen will be replaced at some point in the show to keep the flower show fully stocked in cherry blossoms.
Whenever you're in Macy's you should make it a point to look up and see the amazing Tiffany Ceiling.
On the left is Jon Jones, Visual Director for Macy's on State Street. On the right is Todd Pope, Branch Manager for Green View's Oswego location. Green View is the floral partner for Dream in Color. Together with Marisa Reeves they provided us with an educational and funny tour of the flower show. Jon, if you read this I could probably make a centerpiece of one of the large flamingos. Todd if you need to unload any of those plants I could probably find two or three garden bloggers who would take them off your hands. Thanks for the tour.

Dream in Color is free to the public and runs from April 5th- April 19th. See website for more details. Don't miss the following:

Flower show tours by the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners every Thursday-Sunday throughout the duration of the show, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., & 3 p.m.

Rose Gardening tips by the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners every Friday & Saturday through the duration of the show, 12:10 and 12:40 p.m.

Family Fun Day
Saturday, April 11, 5th Floor Children's Department, 1-3 p.m. Kids will learn the basics of worm composting, including learning about Red Wigglers.

Family Fun Day
Saturday, 18, 5th Floor Children's Department, 1-3 p.m. The Traveling Bug Brigade by the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener staff.

I didn't post pictures of the garden displays on the first floor so as not to spoil it for you if you're in the Chicago area and would like to attend. There is more to see that what I posted. And for the record, it will be a cold day in hell or take one awesome flower show for me to ever call the Sears Tower "Willis Tower." I'm just sayin'

You may be interested in these posts of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show 2009:
Dancing Stones
Hope for a Healing Planet
Greening Up
Reflections: An Asian Inspired garden
Rooftop Garden of the Future
Garden Marketplace
Paradise in a Parking Lot
Chicago Flower & Garden Show 2009

Bean Bush Royal Burgundy One Seed Chicago

2009-03-24T13:29:00.000-05:00

I've made my seed selection for One Seed Chicago. The bean I will be growing will be Bean Bush 'Royal Burgundy' from Botanical Interests because I think the pods will make interesting garden photos. Botanical Interests, like Renee's Garden, is a sponsor of Chicago Spring fling.

I'm the kind of gardener that will buy seeds from wherever I can, but these two seed companies are making me consider buying exclusively from and endorsing smaller seed companies in my gardening endeavors. Their embrace and support of garden bloggers is enough to make me come to this realization and their seed packets are impressive enough to seal the deal.

In the post 'Edible Gardening in 2009' I provided pictures of the seed packets from Renee's Garden to illustrate just how much seed sowing information is part of the seed packaging. Botanical Interests also uses the seed packets to provide good information on the seeds they sell.

The front of the seed packet gives you information on sowing the seeds and how long it will be until you can harvest your crop. Flip the seed packet over and you can cut out a plant label that has been provided for you with all of the necessary information from how long it takes to emerge, how deep to plant the seeds, how to space them and thinning of seedlings.

Before you go opening the seed packet or cutting out the plant label that has been provided, you may want to carefully open the seed pack and look inside. The inside of the seed packet has been printed with all the seed starting tips and information on growing the mature plants and harvesting your crop. There is even an illustration of what the seedling looks like to help identify them and information on how you can use the crop in the kitchen.

I've been part of a few seed swaps and have read many gardening forums and it seems to me seed suppliers usually get blamed for selling "bad seeds" when in reality the reason the seed sowing attempt failed was because of gardener error. Even green thumbs sometimes need a few tips, especially with seeds they've never grown before. But more importantly, newbie gardeners and experienced gardeners new to growing from seed need the information the seed packets from Renee & Botanical Interests provide. They leave little room to blame the seed source if seeds don't germinate or the plants don't do well.

It is also a very clever marketing because unless you're a seed nerd seed packets get tossed; but these seed packets are designed to be more than gardening ephemera. These seed packets are for keeping and are intended to be used as reference material. The next time you're looking to buy seeds for your garden you're likely to find the empty packet in your seed bin or desk drawer and remember the success you had with these companies and order from them again. They also make garden geeks like myself, who feel like the large seed companies should provide more information on seed packets, write posts fawning over these well designed seed packets.

I'm probably not the only hobby gardener that has ever wanted to start his or her own seed company and I'll probably not be the last. If that dream ever comes to fruition I'll have inspiration from two seed companies on how to sell seeds- the right way.

If you're new to gardening or starting seeds you may find these previous posts of mine useful.

Seed Collars
Paper Tube Seed Pot Holders
Homemade Seed Pots
Ghetto Greenhouse
Sandwich Bag Seed Starter
Direct Sowing In The Garden
One Seed Chicago 2009-
Edible Gardening in 2009

If you need gardening information try Google for Gardeners. It is the a custom Google search engine where I hand-pick only the best gardening websites for inclusion. It isn't for shopping but for finding information about gardening.

Paper Tube Seed Collars For Direct Seed Sowing

2009-03-17T16:43:00.000-05:00

I couple of years ago I purchased some ridiculously expensive seeds. I knew I was going to direct sow the seeds in the garden and I knew that eventually I'd forget where they planted and would probably get neglected. That same day I had made a number of homemade seeds pots, in particular some paper tube seed pots and I got the idea to take the paper tube seed pots outdoors in the garden.

Out I went into the garden with extra paper tubes, some seeds and a pair of scissors. I cut the paper tube into sections about an inch tall and sunk them into the soil, I then placed a couple of seeds inside of each of the sections of paper tube and watered them in.

Here's an image of the paper tube seed collars to give you an idea of what it looks like. I took advantage of the warm weather we're having in Chicago today and took my nephew with me into the garden to help me direct sow some seeds. I'm direct sowing Asclepias syrica, Common Milkweed, seeds that I took from some Asclepias seed pods I found in an empty lot this past winter. Common Milkweed is a native perennial plant to Illinois but doesn't produce fertile seeds without cross-pollination, but since I found a patch of them growing together I'm being optimistic. I'm also planting Asclepias currasavica in the garden in the hopes of boosting my butterfly variety this year beyond the 'Red Admiral' Butterflies that already visit the garden in droves.

I don't do a lot of weeding in my garden because even the lowliest of weeds have a benefit of some kind if I think about it, but making seed & seedling collars out of paper tubes helps me remember where I direct sowed seeds in the garden. I find this really helpful especially with seeds that I've never grown before and can't recognize the seedlings from weeds. The seed collars also come in handy the times when I give a garden chore to the nephew (4-year-old) who is always looking to "help." Sometimes I'll let him pull some weeds or dig around in the dirt and with the seed collars he knows what is a "plant" that should be left alone or not stepped on.

The seed collars also help me conserve water because instead of watering all of the garden to keep the seeds moist before they sprout, I can keep the watering concentrated to the areas where I know new seeds have been planted.

If you want to get fancy you can write the name of the seeds on the sections of the paper tube before or after you cut them. Unlike the plastic plant & seed markers the paper tubes will eventually decompose. I suppose that you could also plop a seed collar around an established seedling to protect it from garden slugs and snails. Coat the seed collar with a repellent the same way Margarita Glasses are salted. I'm a big supporter of using items recyclables to grow seeds but if you're new to growing from seed or gardening in general direct sowing seeds where you want them to grow in your garden is a great option, just follow the instructions on the seed packet.

More Seed Starting Posts:

Paper Tube Seed Pot Holders
Homemade Seed Pots
Ghetto Greenhouse
Sandwich Bag Seed Starter
Direct Sowing In The Garden
One Seed Chicago 2009
Edible Gardening in 2009

Chicago Flower & Garden Show 2009

2009-03-10T12:24:00.015-05:00

I think I've pretty much covered everything I wanted to cover for the Chicago Flower & Garden Show. Thanks to everyone at Sheila King Public Relations who extended me and my fellow local garden bloggers press passes to enter the garden show. The two images below is a panoramic view of part of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show. You can click on them for a larger look.

Thanks to Bill Aldrich of Chicagoland Gardening magazine for inviting local garden bloggers to be part of a discussion panel on garden blogging and publicizing the event so well.

Because of the generosity of Renee's Garden our group had heirloom lettuce seed packets to give away to the people who attended our garden blogging panel. For more info on Renee's Garden seed packets see my post Edible Gardening in 2009. I highly recommend Renee and her seed company more. If you're looking to buy seeds for your garden please support Renee's Garden.

Because of the garden blogger panel I got to meet the women behind My Skinny Garden, Garden Girl, Mr.McGregor's Daughter in person for the first time. GG, MMD and myself showed up early the day of our discussion panel and walked around for a bit and took photos of the garden installations. The discussion panel went really well even though beforehand I could tell people were really nervous. I think we converted a few people to become garden bloggers. We even had some garden writers in the audience. Beth Botts, garden writer for the Chicago Tribune, showed up to our panel. After the panel Linda Krohne Nitchman, columinst & freelance writer, came up to us and offered to sponsor our memberships into The Garden Writers Association. Denise Corkery , horticultural writer, from the Chicago Botanic Garden also attended our discussion panel. I had a great time meeting all these garden writers and bloggers.

I hope in the future the Navy Pier people play nicer with the Chicago Flower & Garden Show people. When we were booked to do our panel discussion on garden blogging we were told there would be no Wi-Fi because of the cost. It is a little hard to give a presentation on something technical like garden blogging when you can't do demonstrations or show people what it is you're talking about. The night before we were scheduled to present I got the idea to take my laptop and hook it up to my cell phone and borrow the internet connection so we could have internet access at the show to show our attendees our garden blogs.

I'm a sucker for topiary so I want to give a shout-out to the these two garden installations.

I want to give the first ever What The Frangipani?!? Award to the Geo Garden installation by the Museum of Contemporary Art. I don't know what this is suppose to be. A Chicago pothole? Something from Star Trek: Voyager? The day of the media preview I thought it was some kind of mechanical garden that was stuck and they were waiting for the repair man.

Ideas and inspiration are all over the place. From building and gardening sustainably to plant choices and color schemes. I guess the overall theme of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show this year was water. I get it. Water is scarce and precious commodity that we should all conserve and protect. But Chicago isn't exactly Phoenix, Arizona and when it is raining for the first three days of the garden show it is a little hard to drive home the point about water conservation in particular since the place that houses the garden show extends into a ginormous lake.

I would have liked to have seen more garden installations like Paradise in a Parking Lot because it shows what people can achieve when they decide to undertake an urban beautification project. I understand the need for vanity projects by the cultural institutions of Chicago at the show but they could easily have attached themselves or sponsored more gardens that showcased the power of community. So much of the show looked "expensive" and some of the green technologies displayed are out of reach for many working class and poor Americans who would benefit from these kids of updates to their homes. We're in a recession and all the indicators are pointing to people being interested in learning to grow their own food and there was little of that at the show. I realize that a garden show of this size is planned way in advance but there was enough floor space for some last minute additions.

The garden installations at the show are beautiful but it seems like the designers are stuck either in replicating the mass plantings of Europe or copying Asian gardens. I don't know much but I would hazard a guess that people outside of Europe & Asia may grow a plant or two.

I didn't make a post on the garden installation "Del Agua Viene La Vida" (life comes from water) by the National Museum of Mexican Art because my photos didn't come out good. But I'm thinking of going back to photograph that garden. It was dark and I'm not accustomed to photographing in artificial lighting. Here's a video I took which isn't that great

but gives you an idea of what it looked like. More stuff like this please. It doesn't even have to be specific to one ethnicity but show us something different than Europe and Asia.

While going through the photos I took at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show I laughed when I noticed that I captured a little girl trying to eat the fake fruit on display in the Dancing Stones garden.

LOL. I love that the adults near her are oblivious to what she is doing.

If there is something you see in the background of a picture and you'd like to see more of it let me know and I'll try to take more photos when I go back on March 15th to take in the show without the pressure of creating content for this garden blog. If you are in the area I highly recommend attending the show.

Related posts from the Chicago Flower & Garden Show 2009:
Dancing Stones
Hope for a Healing Planet
Greening Up
Reflections: An Asian Inspired garden
Rooftop Garden of the Future
Garden Marketplace
Paradise in a Parking Lot

If you're a gardener in Chicago see my post on One Seed Chicago. If you're interested in helping pollinators in the garden see my post on The Buzz on Bees. Looking for gardening information? Try Google For Gardeners.

Dancing Stones

2009-03-09T23:18:00.007-05:00

Dancing Stones is another garden installation at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show that like Reflections and Hope for the Healing Planet is Asian inspired.

From the floor of the exhibition hall Dancing Stones doesn't look like much. It has some shrubs, a fountain some great trees and a nice patio.

From above, Dancing Stones looks completely different. The trees and shrubs and hardscaping flow together and guide your eyes as if down a river through the garden. It is a shame most people attending the garden show didn't get to see it this way.

Notched were made in the stone pavers to accommodate the river stones. Another idea I like that I'm thinking of incorporating into the path in my garden. I got a chance to speak to Hans Hirsch of Krugel Cobbles about the garden after the crowds dwindled. I told him how much I liked the view from above and he suggested he should go up there and look at it. I also asked him what I had been wondering for two days; "Why is the garden called Dancing Stones?" He told me that it is because you have to do a little dance as you walk along the pavers and decide if you want to step on the stone pavers or on the river stones. Duh! He also pointed out that little kids seem to "get it" because they walk along the paths the way they envisioned people would, dancing. I tell you kids at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show are really smart.

After he mentioned it, I had to try it for myself.

Related posts from the Chicago Flower & Garden Show:
Hope for a Healing Planet
Greening Up
Reflections: An Asian Inspired garden
Rooftop Garden of the Future
Garden Marketplace
Paradise in a Parking Lot

Sorry for all the posts the past couple of days but there has been a lot cover.

Paradise in a Parking Lot

2009-03-09T21:41:00.005-05:00

The Paradise in a Parking Lot garden is a departure from gardens like Reflections, Rooftop Garden of the Future & Hope for the Healing Planet. When I first saw it I during the media preview of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show I thought to myself that people would either love it or hate it.

The day the show opened I made sure to spend some time near the section of the garden pictured on the left just so I could eavesdrop on the reactions. You can click on the image for a slightly larger view. When the show opened the section on the right had even more garbage strewn about. But the garbage had information written on it on how to conserve newspaper and how to re-purpose plastics and Styrofoam containers that end up in the landfills.

If the name of the garden brings to mind the Joni Mitchell song that's because this a twist on the song. Instead of paradise being paved over-this time paradise rises out of the parking lot. I heard one little girl point to the section on the right and tell her mom that it was "WALL-E" that same evening my nephew and niece were watching the movie when I saw them. Kids are smarter than I give them credit for. Heck, that kid who was reminded of WALL-E is smarter than the adults who were standing around saying they didn't "understand" it.

I'm not really sure what to call these three planted towers but they were really cool and gave me an idea I'd like to incorporate into my garden. The garden was designed by Community Garden volunteers and the kites you see in the background were crafted from recycled paper and plant material by children in the Park Kids Grow Programs. This is probably my favorite garden because it emphasis the power that people have when they come together to create something beautiful and enhance the quality of life around them.

Related posts from the Chicago Flower & Garden Show:
Hope for a Healing Planet
Greening Up
Reflections: An Asian Inspired garden
Rooftop Garden of the Future
Garden Marketplace

Hope for the Healing Planet Garden

2009-03-09T20:27:00.006-05:00

The Hope for the Healing Planet Garden exhibit at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show is another Asian inspired garden. It has a more natural feel to it than Reflections because it uses a lot of wood.

This is a view of the garden from the top level of the hall floor. You can click on it for a slightly larger view. When I was up there taking photographs the attendees of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show were getting a kick out of the real birds in the hall that kept landing on the roofs.

Hope for the Healing Planet has three circular tilting rooftop gardens that represent planets and the plant material is hardy to Zone 5. I really like these rooftop gardens because I never would have thought of having them tilted this way. The other rooftop gardens on display are either flat roofs or pitched and from above these three just stand out.

The hardwood used to build the decking is farm-harvested and the water in the ponds is recycled rain water. The Shoji screens on the right are opaque allowing you to see just silhouettes of the people who are walking up the ramp into the garden. From my understanding the circular roofs are a teaser of the 16,000-square-foot rooftop evaluation garden opening at the Botanic Garden's Rice Plant Conservation and Science Center in September.

Related post from the Chicago Flower & Garden Show:
Greening Up
Reflections: An Asian Inspired garden
Rooftop Garden of the Future
Garden Marketplace

Greening Up

2009-03-09T15:15:00.017-05:00

I've covered the Reflections garden and the Rooftop Garden of the Future at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show. This exhibit is called Greening Up and it is a four-season garden set around a replica of a typical Chicago garage. The display was divided into four quadrants and each quadrant showcased a different garden style. The garage in the center of all these gardens has a living roof.

This I guess is the winter garden and while nice I'd rather not think about winter right now. I'm in the mood to put it behind me. This garden does a great job of illustrating the need for plants that provide interest in the garden during the winter.

Another view of this garden shows the living roof better. There is a rain barrel that collects runoff water. A living wall leans against the wall of the garage. To the left is a potting area and in the foreground there is a water feature that isn't show in this photo.

Another side of the same garage the colors and plantings are more subdued. In the center there is a cold frame and to the left there was another chair.

Between the two gardens shown above sat this one which was my favorite of all four quadrants, it should have been a display by itself. There's a potting shelf to the right of that the yellow pole leads up to a bat house and next to that there is a compost bin.

On the opposite side of the same garden there is is awesome garden path created from circular pieces of wood. To the left of the path there was a fire pit dug into the ground. The black cannas and the light flowers from the foxgloves really work together.

The seating area of the same garden just off of the potting area shown above. You can click on the photos for a slightly larger view. If I could have this garden transplanted to my house I would do it in a heartbeat. It has everything I like, annuals, perennials, tropicals, cacti & succulents, edibles and makes a small space look really large and every square foot of the garden is well used. Greening Up was designed by the professionals of the Lincoln Park & Garfield Park conservatories.

Related post from the Chicago Flower & Garden Show:
Reflections: An Asian Inspired garden
Rooftop Garden of the Future
Garden Marketplace

Rooftop Garden of the Future

2009-03-09T01:36:00.006-05:00

The Rooftop Garden of the Future is very different than Reflections, the Asian themed garden, but in some ways they are very similar. I'm a sucker for modern design but I'm not sure how I feel about this rooftop garden. The part of me that likes the use of austere lines, reflective surfaces and sci-fi channel lighting drools over this garden.

You can click this image for a larger view of the Rooftop Garden of the Future. They were taken from the second top level of the show floor.

The materials used to build the rooftop garden are reclaimed. The electrical system is powered by solar panels.

Water is collected in cisterns and is re-circulated through drip irrigation. There is also a composter that recycles waste. The collection of succulents at the foot of the steps are a nice touch.
Here is a view into the rooftop garden from the floor of the exhibition hall. Back by the blue lighting there is a small pond that you'll be able to hear in the short video. This garden has everything I like; sustainable construction, good use of green technologies, looks- but I still can't help feeling like I should dislike it. It looks a bit like a nightclub or restaurant that is trying to hard to be hip and modern to entice sparkling water- sipping yuppies. I can almost see and hear them sitting there wondering out loud when Whole Foods will move into the neighborhood and make the gentrification process complete. The Rooftop Garden of the Future or a sound stage for CSI: Miami? I love this garden but I hate it because I do.

Related posts:
Garden Marketplace at Chicago Flower & Garden Show
Reflections: A spirited Garden of Asian Inspiration

Reflections Garden: Chicago Flower & Garden Show 2009

2009-03-09T01:27:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite featured gardens at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show is Reflections: A Spirited Garden of Asian Inspiration. The Chicago Flower & Garden Show guide tells us; "Asian gardens are entrancing, serene spaces-tranquil and timeless. Generally small in scale, they achieve considerable effect with a minimum of resources, relying on eco-friendly materials artfully arranged. Decorative touches include a Buddha and lantern fashioned from natural stone, while Japanese maple, ginkgo trees and weeping larch add to the contemplative mood."

Usually, copy exaggerates to sell something but in this case I don't think the copy does the product justice. This garden can't really be described in words and my pictures don't do it justice. Amidst the noise of the crowds, sound effects and the distracting lighting this garden give visitors to the Chicago Flower & Garden Show a place to relax. I recommend visiting this garden later in the evening when he crowds have dwindled so you can really appreciate it.

These photos below show what Reflections looks like from the second floor of the exhibition hall. You can click on this photo for a larger view.

Looking at these photos the garden and stone Buddha head look massive but inside the space the proportions don't seem so big. Oddly enough, when you're standing in the garden you notice how intimate the space is. The Buddha head that looks so imposing from above seems to fall into scale with the rest of the garden.

The "garden art" is kept to a minimum with two lanterns and a water basin to complement the Buddha head sculpture.

A river is created below one of the lanterns using small pebbles and river rocks. This is an easy way for a home gardener to create movement and interest in a garden that doesn't have to cost a lot of money.

During the media preview of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show I walked around basically on my own just looking and taking photographs. On my second pass through the floor of the exhibit I came across Rich from Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery. I was greeted with a "God bless, you!" that echoed across the almost empty exhibition hall. The next thing I know I was sitting in the garden with him while he told me stories about his youth and how he came to get started collecting and selling rare trees and shrubs, the hot dog stand his Greek buddy had on the west side of Chicago many years ago and how his friend would meet him in the parking lot brandishing a .45 ACP to escort him into the hot dog stand. I hadn't seen Rich in about ten years and only knew him casually but he treated me like a long-lost friend. If you visit the Chicago Flower & Garden Show make sure to go later in the evening so you get a chance to meet Rich when he isn't busy. You'll walk away a better person.

Related posts:

Marketplace at Chicago Flower & Garden Show

Watch Rich on the 30th Anniversary Special of PBS' The Victory Garden.

Garden Marketplace Chicago Flower & Garden Show

2009-03-08T12:48:00.007-05:00

When I went to the media preview of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show a few of the vendors were unpacked and I was able to buy a couple of things but I had to wait until the first day of the show to see many booth. If you're attending the Chicago Flower & Garden Show here are a few vendors I think you should stop by and visit at the Garden Marketplace.

Ted's Greenhouse is a place I've heard a lot about. I've never been able to visit the place because it is out in the suburbs. When I came across the booth I understood why everyone who knew I liked cacti & succulents always recommended I make the trek to Tinely Park. If you collect cacti & succulents in Chicago and you're only options for buying plants is either The Home Depot or Lowe's the booth by Ted's Greenhouse is worth the cost of admission for the Chicago Flower & Garden Show. I was overwhelmed by the variety of cacti & succulents available for sale, many of them I'd only previously seen in books, websites or garden blogs. The day of the media preview I came home with a Climbing Onion to replace the one I killed a year ago, Kedrostris africana a climbing vine with a fat caudex that is a member of the cucumber family and a Dorstenia foetida a member of the fig tree family. The cacti & succulents on sale here start at $2.00-which is less expensive than buying then in big box garden centers and the varieties are better.

I wish I could remember the name of these vendors but they have a large booth you can't miss in the Garden Marketplace. If you garden in Chicago and have serious zone denial or only have small window space to grow some plants visit this booth. The variety of tender bulbs for spring and summer planting left my head spinning. Many of these plants can be grown in pots and brought in during the winter or lifted from your garden and stored. The two owners are both holding different varieties of Elephant Ear tubers and those are not cow patties, they are huge Cyclamen tubers in their left hands. I purchased four new Amaryllis bulbs for my Amaryllis blog, a Voodoo Lily, African Blood Lily and one new Pineapple Lily.

If you're familiar with guerrilla gardening then you've heard of seed bombs. The SeedBallz are the same thing and this booth is another vendor in the Garden Marketplace you should shop. They employ people with disabilities to hand-roll and package all of the SeedBallz and each seed ball contains the same amount of seeds as a regular seed packet. You can choose from packets of herbs, wildflowers, sunflowers or Black-Eyed Susan SeedBallz. They're an easy way to garden either in your garden or containers. I got a packet of SeedBallz that I'm going to use to do some guerrilla gardening with.

Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery is another booth you should stop by if you're only plant sources in the city are big box garden centers. A great variety of rare trees and evergreens, dwarf varieties are great for containers and a good source for bonsai masters and enthusiasts alike. If you've never had the chance to meet Rich-you should find him either at this booth or at the Reflections garden. I've never met a better ambassador for the gardening world than Rich, the man is an inspiration.

I got to meet Annelise and her brother Geoff of CobraHead and talked a bit about Spring Fling and got to see their line of garden tools. They were pretty cool and humored me and struck their best American Gothic pose so I could take their picture.

Next to the booth for CobraHead I met Suzanne Nicksic of Organic Garden Co. She's a local garden designer and distributor of Instant Bio-Tea who preached the benefits of compost tea applications to me when we talked. I had such a nice time talking with her and was impressed by the passion she exhibited for gardening sustainably that I'd recommend her if you're looking for gardening or landscaping services in the Chicagoland area.

Media Preview Chicago Flower & Garden Show

2009-03-06T20:01:00.018-06:00

Update: These are my posts on the Chicago Flower & Garden Show (pictures and video).
Chicago Flower & Garden Show 2009-My roundup of the garden show
Dancing Stones
Hope for a Healing Planet
Greening Up
Reflections: An Asian Inspired garden
Rooftop Garden of the Future
Garden Marketplace
Paradise in a Parking Lot

Today I attended the media preview of the Chicago Flower & Garden show. It has been a number of years since I attended the Chicago Flower & Garden show so I wasn't sure what to expect. Below you'll find a few pictures to give you an idea of what the show looks like. I'm going to do something different than when I went to the Independent Garden Center Show. I'll take suggestions on what I should cover in this blog. Some of the displays left me scratching my head and some wowed me. The show stealer (IMO) is the light and sound display by Nathan Tomlinson from Chicago-based Sound Investment. It is a 24 minute show that starts off with birds chirping early in the morning and takes you through a Chicago thunderstorm and ends with a sunset. If you're attending the show make sure to look up. It shouldn't be missed-MrBrownThumb.

Paradise in a Parking Lot is one of those pieces that people are either going to love or going to hate. I loved it. This is a photo of one side of the display.

Reflections: A Spirited Garden of Asian Inspiration. I had a religious experience at this garden when I bumped into Rich of Rich's Foxwilliow pines. I hadn't seen him in many years and I'm glad I came across him. I'll create a post on that later.

I believe this garden is called Dancing Stones. The photo on the left is a view from the top floor and the one on the right is the view you see from the show's floor.

Rooftop Garden of the Future. View from above and view from the floor.

This one is called Greening Up and it is suppose to display the several garden themes around once structure each quadrant is different garden.

If you love the way the light and sound show interacts with this installation.

A smaller installation titled Victorian Vogue. The garden bed is planted with several annuals. The headboard and chair that you'll see at the show were still under construction while I was taking photos.

Tables in Bloom. A series of tables capes.

If you can't attend the Chicago Flower & Garden Show look over the floor plan for the Chicago Flower & Garden Show and you can make suggestions in the comments section on what I should cover. I'll post larger pics, plant details (where I can) if one of these installations really interests you and you'd like to borrow the ideas for your own garden. There is more on display at the show than what I posted here. After spending the last two hours looking over pictures I decided to only post a few. The Chicago Flower & Garden Show runs March 7-15 2009.

Edible Gardening In 2009

2009-03-04T11:24:00.008-06:00

I've been reading a lot about how growing your own fruits and vegetables is going to be huge this year. The bad economic news apparently has people turning to gardening to in an effort to feel like they have some control in their lives or they're turning to vegetable gardening in order to feed their families.

Whatever the reason people are turning to gardening it is welcomed news not only to the seed companies, who are reporting increases in sales, but to those of us who garden. All of a sudden family members who once made fun of my dabbling with plants and seeds are now calling and emailing me asking for advice. This year tiny urban garden in Chicago will be a lot more edible than it has in the past. I feel a bit like I'm jumping on the edible gardening bandwagon but in reality it is more out of necessity. Last year I was too busy to tend to my garden and this resulted in a lot of plant deaths-instead of replacing them with more perennials I'm going to fill the space with vegetables.

The other day I got a gift package of seeds from Renee's Garden that Renee wanted me to trial (more on that later) in my garden. You can click the image of the vegetable seed packs above for a larger view. One of the things that struck me about these veggie seed packs is the use of illustrations instead of photography. Renee's online garden seed catalog also makes use of the charming illustrations used on the seed packets.

The back of the seed packets is full of information good for the first time gardener. You can click the seed packet image for a larger view.

On the left side of the seed packet you get directions on when to plant, where to place, planting depth, spacing of seeds, days to germination and days to harvest once started.

There's a flap that has a quick description of culinary uses for the edible plants.

Folding the flap over reveals specific information that is more in-depth than the planting guide on the left. Why am I going on about this? I'm a seed nerd, I think seeds and seed packs are cool and I like that Renee's seed packages provide so much information on germinating the seeds and growing them. I still have empty seed packs in a box from seeds I planted years ago because I liked the packaging or information on the seed pack. Not all seed packs go into so much detail for beginners or make good use of all the space they have available to them. The seeds are pretty cool too-the mix packets come color coded so you make sure to plant some of each.

The other thing that appeals to me about Renee is how socially aware she is. She's signed the "Safe Seed Pledge" to not buy or sell genetically engineered seeds or plants. You can visit the About page on Renee'sGarden.com to learn more.

Here's a list of the seeds I received from Renee that are pictured above.

Butterfly Asclepias "Bright Wings"
Peppers "Thai Chile Duo"
Nasturtium Climbing, "Moonlight."
Strawberry, Alpine, "Mignonette"
Peas, Edible Pod, "Super Sugar Snap"
Peppers, Habanero "Red Savina"
Peas, Snow, "Oregon Giant."
Pak Choi, Baby, "Green Fortune"
Peppers, "Jewel Tone Sweet Bells"

I'm looking forward to growing all of these but in particular I'm excited about the climbing Nasturtium because I'm a big fan of this plant. The leaves & flowers are edible and if you're doing small scale farming you can grow it as a sacrificial plant. I've grown a few varieties of it but I've never been able to find the climbing variety for sale in a store. I can't wait for spring now.

If you've never grown plants from seeds before take a look at these past posts of mine. feel free to ask questions about starting seeds in the comments. I try to answer each and every comment left in the comment section.

Plastic bottle seed starter.
Sandwich bag seed starter.
Seed starter pot from newspaper.
Paper tube seed pot holder.
Homemade seed pots.
When I collect Nasturtium seeds.

Related from GardenBloggers.com

Seed Sites Get Social-Post on the social networking sites by Renee'sGarden.com & Botanical Interests.

In the news:

Recession grows interest in seeds, vegetable gardening

If you've made it this far:

Renee offered me these seeds out of the kindness of her heart. I didn't ask for the seeds, I didn't hint at wanting seeds, I didn't offer to blog about her and her seeds-she just offered them to me while we discussed growing plants from seeds. In that same spirit in which they were given to me I'm offering to share part of my good fortune with one of you. I'm going to share half of; both peas, the Baby Pak Choi and the Habanero Chiles seeds with someone from the comments section. I've preselected a number, if your comment is that number the seeds are yours if you want them.

Google For Gardeners Update 2-12-09

2009-02-12T20:37:00.003-06:00

Moments ago Google For Gardeners reached a milestone. I added the 500th site to the search engine dedicated to finding gardening and plant information through Google. Thanks to all the people who have submitted recommendations for the search engine and thanks to Google for allowing people like me to create a custom search engine out of their product.

500 websites about gardening may not seem like a lot considering how many are out there but when you take into account that I had to look at each site, decide if it was valuable to a gardener and, I count up the hours I've spent doing this- my head starts to hurt.

How does it work?

Short answer is that it is a Google Custom Search Engine where the websites you get in the results are hand-picked. I started this custom search engine because when I was looking for information related to gardening I would get annoyed that the most "relevant" results were websites selling me some kind of product. What I wanted was to learn about a particular gardening subject, not buy a plant. I started to add websites, blogs, hobby sites, plant societies -you name it- as long as the purpose of the website isn't to sell products or services.

Recently, I noticed that there is a button on the homepage for Google For Gardeners that allows you to add it to your website or blog. I've spotted it on a couple of blogs and websites and I'm glad that people are finding it useful.

If you have a suggestion for a website or blog that should be included send it to me and I'll see about adding it. If you do a search on it on a particular subject or plant and don't get a result let me know and I'll look for websites to add. I may have made a mistake here or there in choosing a site to add so, if you spot a result that is just a store or pushing a product let me know and I'll see about removing it from the results. I've made exceptions here and there for a site I thought had good information but not many.

Burpee Seeds At Home Depot 2009

2009-02-12T13:10:00.006-06:00

A few years ago I requested a catalog from Burpee but I never got it. My zip code is probably not seen as very desirable to people in the gardening business so I pretty much stick to buying retail. That's the case with Burpee, I couldn't tell you what is in their catalog but I can tick off what I like that they're offering in retail settings. I really enjoying growing my own plants from seeds and I buy from whoever is selling them. This year though the Burpee seeds at Home Depot seem to be uninspired and there isn't much for an ornamentalist like myself to choose from.

I wanted to buy the Burpee Cypress Vine seed pack I saw at Home Depot but didn't because it looked to be mislabeled to me. The name of the seed pack says "Cypress Vine" but if you look at the photo of the plant is isn't what is commonly called Cypress Vine-it is Cardinal Climber. I already grow a mix of pink, red and white Cypress Vine and posted pictures of it in the post "When I collected Cypress Vine Seeds". You can look at the photos in that entry and compare them to the photos of the packet at Home Depot. They're in the same family and very similar looking except Cypress Vine has the prettier shaped flowers (they look like 5 point stars) and nicer foliage than Cardinal Climber. If I'm not mistaken I believe Burpee is also selling the mix of Cypress Vine I already grow but I didn't bother to check the labeling and didn't notice this "mistake" until I was uploading the photo to this entry.

The other vine I think you should try is Thunbergia Spanish Eyes. I don't grow this one but I do grow the more common Black-Eyed Susan Vine and will be buying Spanish Eyes. It produces great foliage that grows quickly up a fence to create a privacy screen for your garden-also looks great as a trailing plant in containers. I was looking through a houseplant book from the '50s recently and was surprised to see Black-Eyed Susan vine listed as an indoor plant. I'll have to remember to grow mine in a pot and try it out as a houseplant. Two years ago I saw Black-Eyed Suan Vine for sale in a garden center and they were going for $15.00 and were pretty small plants. I'm glad I like to grow plants from seeds as much as I do.

If you're new to growing plants from seeds here are some tutorials to help you get started:

Seed starting in plastic soda bottles

Seed starting in plastic baggies

Seed starter pots from news paper

Home made seed pots

Paper tube seed pot holders

The Buzz On Bees

2009-02-11T12:21:00.010-06:00

While going through my hard drive looking for photos to upload to my photo blog I've noticed a trend. I spend a lot of time in the garden photographing the bees that visit. I think I've mentioned here before that my favorite pollinator in my urban garden is the bumblebee but until recently I hadn't noticed that I had quite the bee fetish that my photographs seem to indicate I have. This epiphany of mine has lead to me deciding I want to be part of the solution and do my part in protecting bees. Below you'll find a number of links that you can visit if you want to become involved too. Your recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Participation:

BeeSpotter-"Partnership between citizen-scientists and the professional science community designed to educate the public about pollinators by engaging them in a data collection effort of importance to the nation." Average people like you and I photograph bees in our areas and help create a tally of variety of bees found in Illinois. There is probably a similar effort in your state.

The Great Sunflower Project-Get free sunflower seeds to plant in your garden. Keep a count of the bees you find in your garden and enter the tally online.

Pollination Canada-Become a Pollinator Observer anywhere flowers grow and submit your information.

Bee groups & blogs:

Chicago Honey Co-op
Solitary Bees
Longworth Allotment Apiary Group

Resources/Information:

Bumblebee Conservation Trust-UK
American Beekeeping Federation-US
Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees-U.S.
Go Beekeeping-Info for the hobby beekeeper
North American Pollinator Protection Campaign
Creating Homes That Please America's Wild Bees
Urbane Bee Gardens-Great website with lots of information for attracting bees
The Xerces Society-International, nonprofit that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.
BeeProf-Portal of bee related news.
Gardening for Bees -Recommended plant list if you want to turn your garden into a bee garden.
Google For Gardeners-My Google Custom Search Engine. I used to search for the info listed here.

Chicago Public Radio: Effects of Bee Colony Collapse Disorder

Native Bees: Meet Your Neighbors-Chicago Wilderness Magazine article on the native bee species in Illinois.

I'll be making this post on bees a permanent link in the header and updating it as I come across more information. If you have any suggestions for links and projects like the BeeSpotter & The Great Sunflower Project leave a comment or use the contact form to drop me a message. The threat that bees are facing is a worldwide problem so links don't have to be specific to Chicago or the U.S.