The West Chicago Garden Club

It must be a little bit sinful to spend an inordinate amount of time admiring ones’ work—and being so very pleased  . . . the  hyacinths, the old tulips, the blooming pear trees—red buds and lilacs—spring has come to the Kruse garden.

The work in the garden started in early April with the major spring clean-up.  We were very happy that Pam and June came to help.  With the five of us and the landscaping crew, we had the property shaped up by noon.  Since leaves aren’t raked in the fall but just blown to the sides, the clean-up generated two and a half truck loads of debris.  We removed a dried evergreen tree and had a ginkgo tree planted.  Many thanks to Chuck and Shirley Schramer for the donation of the tree.  The leaves will glow like golden coins in the fall. Continue Reading »

Spring was slow to arrive to the Kruse garden.  So rather than talk of what may be sprouting in the garden let’s look forward and ask some questions.  In August are the sedums flopping in your garden?  Are the groundcovers messy and weed infested?  Are the summer perennials falling and leaning into each other?  Are you so discouraged that you hope for an early frost?  If so we want to share some experimentation we have done at the Kruse garden in pruning, shearing, cutting back for height, longer bloom, and flop prevention.   It is a garden that has to look reasonably nice with a minimum of care.

We can start with a book.  The “Well-Tended Perennial Garden” by Tracy DiSabato-Aust, 1998, is very useful.  It provides a guide as in “should we or shouldn’t we” shear, prune, or cut.  Her motto is “Shear Without Fear”.  It gives impetus.

To start, a lawn mower or string trimmer is wonderful for cutting spent flowers of Ajuga, trimming periwinkle, ivy, winter creeper groundcovers.  It could be done any time in the growing season when the groundcovers are too tall or too weedy. Continue Reading »