Aug 20 2026
August 27 Meeting: Grow Your Vegetable Garden Year-Round
By Ruth Kyme
Our speaker this month is Nicole Jagelieski. Nicole is a certified garden coach. Helping people incorporate growing their own herbs and vegetables into their busy, modern lives is her passion. Even if you believe you have a “black thumb,” with the proper setup, Nicole believes in your ability to grow more food on your patio, in your backyard, or on your balcony than you know what to do with.
During her presentation, ‘Grow Your Vegetable Garden Year- Round, Even in Chicago,’ Nicole will unlock the secrets to growing a thriving kitchen garden in your own backyard and providing fresh vegetables and herbs for ten months of the year! This comprehensive course is for all levels, teaching you how to set your garden up to harvest continually – far beyond the typical summer tomatoes and cucumbers.
Imagine fresh herbs and salad greens in early spring, vibrant summer tomatoes, and crisp greens and root vegetables throughout the fall. Enjoy the satisfaction of growing your own food nearly year-round, and take control of your health and well- being
Everyone is welcome to come to a meeting and learn about our club.
Meeting Location: St Andrew Lutheran Church (NE Corner of Prince Crossing & Geneva Road.)
Meeting Time:
- 6:45PM Arrive & Mingle
- 7:00PM Business Meeting
- 7:15PM Program
Don’t be fooled to think that Fall is here just because stores have ghosts and goblins and Halloween candy everywhere. Summer is still going strong and the Kruse House gardens have an abundance of blooming annuals and perennials to prove it. The containers by the front door have a beautiful display of annuals with color in hues of pink to purple and dapples of variegated green.
Our winter sown hollyhocks on the side of the house are growing strong amid the marigolds and cosmos.
A few weeks ago, we removed the two cotoneasters in the front bed by the driveway. It’s much more open now and a perfect spot to showcase the newly planted Limelight Hydrangea and perennials.
o install a couple of imaginative compost bins, one made of dog play fences and garden fence panels; the other a donated compost bin from Kerry! We will continue to find other means to collect and compost our garden trimmings to showcase how these methods can be applied to other people’s yards.
What do we, the Kruse Crew, do in July? We deadhead, cut back plants to encourage a second flush of blooms, check what plants need to be divided in the fall, what plants need to be moved because they’ve been crowded out, admire the color combinations of the pots, eat cake and cookies during breaks, or just enjoy how the garden is coming about!
Talk about application! We want to focus our attention this month on the educational side of volunteering. We continue to learn not just from our monthly speakers, visits to other’s gardens on our Twilight Tuesdays, field trips to different nurseries but also from *each other*! Kruse house is the application side of all this knowledge, not just to showcase the Museum but to showcase plants, techniques, color combinations, and color successions that you might be apprehensive in starting in your own home.
In volunteering, we learn firsthand what the most aggressive weeds are, what to plant in the front of the garden, the back of the garden, what colors go well, when to divide plants, winter-sowing, composting, etc! We experience firsthand successes and failures! So, if you want to get your hands dirty, join us for a couple of hours, maybe weekly, maybe once or twice a month, a couple times in the summer, we don’t ask for much! You might gain a new plant, some seeds, or a tremendous knowledge of gardening! If you have questions or are interested in volunteering, please talk to Christina, Kerry, Dee, Jean Ann, Chris, Barbara, Mary A, Judy, or Marilyn at the President’s picnic.
- Membership