The West Chicago Garden Club

We went on a Field Trip to The Chicago Botanical Gardens and had a great time. It was a moist morning, but after our box lunch in The Pullman Room the sun came out and it was just glorious.

I tried something new this year, I raised my tomatoes in straw bales and have a great harvest. Straw bales offer several advantages over planting directly in the soil including keeping the soil bound pathogens away from the plants and eliminating weeding. It’s always fun to experiment and try something new in gardening, especially when it works.

I kept a record of the process that you can see in a PDF file by clicking here.

February Recap

U of I Extension speaker Peggy Doty used quotes from Aldo Leopold’s book, A Sand County Almanac, to describe how we can garden responsibly. She pointed out that we control what happens on our land. We can provide the plants that are essential to the food chain, or not. Peggy used many personal examples dappled with humor to convey her message. I dare say we all took home a truth or two that will affect how we garden.

“Whoever owns land has thus assumed, whether he knows it or not, the divine functions of creating and destroying plants.” Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist.

Thank you for completing program evaluation results. 23 surveys were returned.

• 17 “very satisfied” with numerous positive comments
• 6 “somewhat satisfied”

March program

• Note date of program is Thursday, March 31st. That’s the 5th Thursday instead of our usual 4th Thursday.
• GC member Ed Max will present a program on organic vegetable gardening
• Ed is an avid organic gardener and heirloom tomato nut. He will tell us about the best heirloom varieties and teach us how to collect, save and grow the seeds of heirloom tomatoes.
• Ed is a landscape designer, certified naturalist and arborist. His firm, Max’s Greener Places, does landscape renovations and new design.
• Ed always helps out with our annual plant sale by donating heirloom tomato plants and he can answer just about any question a customer can come up with. He’s also great at identifying mystery plants!

Ed’s friendly, informal presentation style will invite your participation and capture your interest in this fun program on growing organic vegetables! Come and learn about growing your own food.

Did you know

Of the 75 million households that garden, 44% will grow things they can eat! This trend has spawned the popular phrases “garden to table” or “locally grown”. Growing food at home is becoming part of an everyday lifestyle.

As always, contact me with program ideas, concerns, or questions.
Billie Childress, 630-862-1213, billiedc@sbcglobal.net