By Carol Cichorski, on April 24th, 2012 The wheels in my brain are turning. This is always a scary thing for Mike. He sees steam spurting out, fire spewing, and moving parts everywhere. I promised him a life of naps and homemade pierogis. Perhaps, just perhaps, that isn’t exactly what happened. He has yet to see a homemade pierogi. On the plus side, who needs the calories anyway? Exercise is much better for you. With this project, he will get exercise.
We had contractors out last year bidding on building us a patio and some pathways. We already have the bricks. Oh boy, do we have the bricks. You may remember these 15 pallets of bricks from postings last year.
That was when we learned that even with our own bricks, it would be $5,000 to $7,000 to have someone else do the work. That is not going to happen. So this brick pathway is going to be Mike’s initiation into doing some of the work himself. He hasn’t done anything like that before, but his motto is “figure it out”.
First, I have some figuring out to do. I need to know exactly what area I want him to work on. That is pretty easy – right in front of the barn shed doors. The steel plate in front of the doors is less than lovely. The surrounding grass is a problem, especially when it comes to cutting it. Though the lawnmower is right inside the barn, the shape of the area is not good for an easy mow. Brick will suit our low maintenance goal better in the long run. In the short run, there is a lot of work to be done.
This project needs to be done in tandem with others that will make good use of the rental equipment and good use of the dirt that is generated.
- To justify renting a sod-cutter, I will also get a zinnia bed and an extra 18″ of garden around the edge of what we call the ‘front 40’.
- To use up the dirt, we’ll add some to the zinnia bed and to one of the dahlia beds. More importantly, we’ll build up an area by the pond that really needs it.
See how quickly ‘pretty easy’ becomes ‘big project’!
By Carol Cichorski, on April 19th, 2012  Oh yes, we will have dahlias for sale. The big advantage to buying them at one of the sales is that you are getting a plant, not a tuber. This puts you way ahead of schedule compared to planting the tuber outside in mid-May.
It’s the same concept as annual flats – sure you can plant seeds outside in mid-May, but then you wait so long for them to look like anything. Dahlias purchased at a sale will start blooming some time in August and continue through frost.
They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with plants typically over 3′ tall. You can plant them among your other plants, or have so many that they get their own garden. In our case, that would be two gardens. Yes, two gardens of just dahlias.
Some of ours are already outside hardening off.
 Mike started them inside in the middle of February. He starts with a million tubers (ok it only seems like a million). They get potted up, and they start sending up shoots. Each shoot becomes a plant. We were up to about 325 last week, and expect to have about 500 total.
Envious? You wouldn’t be if you saw our electric bill. On the other hand, you would be if you saw his two dahlia gardens in the fall. I cut flowers pretty much every day, and still there is an abundance of blooms on the plants.
Take a look at the picture below. You can tell this is a man’s garden – I guarantee you there are no cannons in my part of the garden.
Local plant sales that will have dahlias include:
Bloomingdale Garden Club Plant Sale
Mike and/or I will be there on Saturday, May 5th
9 AM – 2 PM
Bloomingdale Village Hall at 201 S. Bloomingdale Rd.
Central States Dahlia Society Plant Sale
May 5th & 6th
10 AM – 4:30 PM
Chicago Botanic Gardens
Rolling Meadows Hometown Plant Sale
I’ll be there on Saturday, May 19th
9 AM – 2 PM
William D. Ahrens Building at 3200 Central Road
Elk Grove Garden Club Plant Sale
Mike will be there on Saturday May 19th
10 AM – 3 PM
Farm House Museum Campus at 399 Biesterfield Road
Central States Dahlia Society Plant Sale
Saturday, May 19th
10 AM – 2 PM
Kinsch’s Garden Center, 301 W Johnson St., Palatine
If you are looking for sales outside of the Chicagoland area, let me recommend the Colorado Dahlia Society website.
By Carol Cichorski, on April 15th, 2012 Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world. ~Virgil A. Kraft
I bring you the beauty He has brought to the garden I tend.
Candytuft
Coral Bells
PJM Rhododendron
Lungwort
Red tulips and pansies
Senetti Blue Bicolor (annual)
Pachysandra
Hyacinths
Pansies
Rock cress
Do you want to know what else is blooming in the April garden? To see what other bloggers have blooming on the 15th of every month, visit “May Dreams Gardens – Bloom Day” for our Garden Bloggers’ Bloom day entries.
Do you want to know where and when Mike will have dahlias for sale? Our first sale is May 5th. More details coming soon.
By Carol Cichorski, on April 9th, 2012 Pinkeye and invasive plants have something in common – you don’t want to share them. Any more details on Pinkeye would constitute TMI, so let’s just say having it this weekend did keep me away from the grandchildren, but did not keep me out of the garden. There I spent the afternoon dealing with invasive plants as I continue aiming towards a low maintenance garden.
We hope to get together with Mom, our kids, and these two next weekend. By then, I should be all done with the contagious Pinkeye.
The invasive plants that got booted out of the garden are gooseneck loosestrife and monarda. I’m not going to show you a picture of them in bloom, because you would want them. The gooseneck is aptly named, as its delicate white flower has a beautiful arching shape. Monarda, or bee balm, is a plant we had admired again and again, then finally got last year. It tends to be a very large bush-like plant covered with flowers. There is a reason it’s large – you can’t keep it small.
Like so many invasive plants, if I had gooseneck loosestrife where it could not escape, perhaps it would have been a good thing. I did not. The long runners weave their way through the roots of other plants, making it hard to remove. If you leave just a little bit, it will come back with a vengeance. I had already tried restricting the loosestrife by putting it in a large container in the ground. That didn’t work and I am just not willing to go there again. I basically took out everything in the entire area trying to remove the roots in one piece. I don’t expect total success, but I did make a gallant effort.
The monarda, though just a year old, had taken over an area about 3′ in diameter. Its roots are close to the top, yet I still had to extract the iris and Asiatic lilies that it had encroached upon. I’ve now done a bit of research and it looks like I may be in for the same long-term battle I’ve been having with the gooseneck.
I made smarter choices for replacements. The Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea I got at the Garden Writers Association last summer had come through the winter well. I put it in the back, where it can grow to its 6-7′ height. I’m looking forward to blooms like these. They start out white and change to pink/red.
I put the two Baby Lace Hydrangeas in front of that one. They will be about 3-4′ tall. 
Ok, so it doesn’t look like much just yet, but part of the gardening experience is anticipation. I’ll fill in with annuals this year and wait for the show!
By Carol Cichorski, on April 5th, 2012 I welcome you to ‘Zone 5 Favorites on the 5th’. I’ve started posting on the 5th of every month, redirecting visitors to a favorite posting relative to zone 5. Last month we visited This Garden Is Illegal for Tomato Tastings 2011.
This month I’d like to take you to Digging, but I can’t. Digging won the award for Best Gardening Blog from About.com. My thanks to those of you who voted for me. I would take you to Digging, but alas, we can’t go to a zone 8 garden from Austin, Texas today — that is not exactly zone 5.
We’ll trek over to A Way To Garden instead. Margaret’s blog is from zone 5, and took second place. I have chosen her posting on pruning lilacs. My lilacs are blooming, as you can see, so the timing is perfect. She even has tips about making the cut stems last longer. I wish my camera could have added fragrance to the photo; the flowers smell so lovely. Better yet, stop reading this and go cut some lilacs for your house.
I’ve invited other zone 5 bloggers to join me for Zone 5 – Favorites on the 5th. If that’s you, please leave a comment so everyone will know you are part of the gang.
If you are a reader hungry for zone 5 sustenance, please follow the blogger’s links to feed upon their favorite postings.
By Carol Cichorski, on March 31st, 2012 This is about all of those great pictures that I haven’t taken. Because now I can! This is for all of the times I would have liked to brighten a picture. Because now I can! And about all of those times I wanted clear and crisp detail. Because now I can! And I can select my focus area, blurring out other areas, as you can see below.
There are advantages to having a son who is a professional photographer. Though I do wonder how we have reached a point in our lives where I am getting his hand-me-downs. In this case, its a very old digital camera, professional quality none-to-less. In its day, it probably went for $4,000. Now it wouldn’t cost much more than the little Canon Sure Shot I use for most of my pictures. I love the ease of use and small size of my Sure Shot, but there is a trade off. See paragraph one if you have a short memory.
 Walking around with the Canon EOS-1 is impressive, and a chore. I’d say it weighs about the same as a bowling ball. The batteries don’t last long, and like the camera, they are huge. The pictures will be even better when I get a zoom lens and I learn how to do the settings. Still, when I took it to the Chicago Flower and Garden Show, I was SOMEBODY. It screams “Don’t mess with me – I’ve got a big camera, a speaker’s badge, and a press badge. I am a Blogging Goddess.”
The up-side is the quality of picture and what Kevin can do with it. The format is TIFF, not JPEG. His LightRoom program works well with TIFF files. I certainly can’t say I’ll use the big camera all the time, or that I’ll be able to spend the time to learn LightRoom myself, and then spend the time to edit the pictures. That sounds more like Kevin than me.
Here’s Kevin when he held the leading role in a local production of ‘Singing in the Rain’.
 Photo and creativity by Kevin Penczak Gotcha! This is really Kevin working his magic to create something not quite real. You can see how its done at KevinPenczak.com.
Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter. ~Ansel Adams
By Carol Cichorski, on March 26th, 2012 It’s time to start sharing secrets. If you’ve seen the size of our gardens, you probably wonder how we do it. After all, this is a half-acre lot and Mike and I have full-time jobs and a life. I started leaning towards low maintenance gardening several years back. Many parts of our yard are low care or no care. Certainly not all of them. Anything I planted when I first got the gardening bug is high maintenance. We aren’t going to go there today. We will start talking about the areas that are low maintenance, the ones I talked about recently at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show.
Our low maintenance front yard looks beautiful right now. The yellow tulips and pansies catch your eye from the street. When you get closer, purple dominates.
The yellow and red flair tulips don’t count as low maintenance. Sorry. I love ’em, but once they are done blooming, we’ll have to leave them up till they dry out and then cut them back. Ah, but all the little purple flowers that are in there make it fun to walk up the path. The red bench sure gets your attention too. Don’t be afraid of color.
The vinca, or periwinkle, is a flowering groundcover. I like that combo – flowering and groundcover in a plant. The vinca is covered in purple flowers in spring. Though we try really hard to stay away from chemicals, there is one I need in the front yard to keep the area low maintenance. Grass-No-More is a spray that keeps that pesky grass out of my vinca. I tried to do it by hand. It just wasn’t doable with all of the roots intertwined.
Then there’s the scilla. Scilla goes were scilla wants to go. Which is fine with me because when it’s done blooming, it just whoosh, disappears.
The grape hyacinths spread as well. When they are done blooming, they disappear.
The purple and pink lungwort flowers will go as well, but the speckled leaves of the plant will stay.
The rest of the year, the vinca is so much better than grass. For one thing, it will grow under the tree, where shallow roots and shade preclude most anything else from growing. And you don’t have to mow it! Yep, low maintenance.
Stop back again to visit. Low maintenance is going to be a regular theme around here.
By Carol Cichorski, on March 20th, 2012  Is it the vernal equinox? Is it Mike? Is it me?
I’ve got this picture of eggs standing up on my kitchen counter all by themselves. It’s not a fake or me pulling a fast one on you. Mike came in the kitchen this morning, took eggs out of the refrigerator and in just a minute had these two eggs standing on end.
Rumor has it that he was able to do this because today is the vernal equinox. We have an equinox twice a year when the length of day and night are the same. The vernal equinox is the first day of
spring (today, yay!). The autumnal equinox is the first day of fall.
It is now 3 hours later and I’ve tried it myself – twice. Same eggs. I can’t do it! Is it me? Is there some truth to the tale and Mike got the timing just right? Is Mike more patient and he can always do this? No conclusions here. Just the facts.
By Carol Cichorski, on March 15th, 2012  She says: “Oh Max. Here comes Carol Cichorski and her ever present camera. What makes her so special that she is taking our picture at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show before it even opens?”
He says: “Don’t worry Snookems. Everyone from the Garden Writers Association can do that today.”
Snookems: “And I suppose they all had muffins for breakfast, a lovely salad for lunch, and even exclusive speakers of their own.”
Max: “Its true Snookems. Tony Abruscato is the new Show Owner. He’s already brought Hort Couture and your beauty to the show. He told them about his plans to do more.”
Snookems: “Oh Max. Did Dan Heimes speak too? He is the president of Terra Nova Nurseries. I just hate when others get close to presidents and I don’t.”
 Max: “Yes they did. Did you know Terra Nova Nurseries cross-bred 275,000 plants in 2010. By the time all was said and done, only 5 were high enough quality to make it into the catalog. All first class, like you my dear. I especially adore the new Heuchera Paprika”
Snookems: “Mrs. Witherspoon told me that Carol and that wonderful husband of hers enjoyed their first outside breakfast of the season. We should get out more; you look so pale. What else does she have that I don’t have?”
Max: “Pansies I’m afraid. They were one of the door prizes for the Garden Writers. She planted them herself, so now she can write about them for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens. Those other bloggers write about their blooms as well. There is no stopping them.” 
Snookems: “The husband also brought out that positively adorable red swing of theirs. I hear she sits out there waiting for him to come home from work. They both have jobs you know, how sad.”
Snookems: “She isn’t fooling anyone with those tulips. Even I can tell they are a prop for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.”
Max: “How true. It takes one to know one.”
 Max: “Well at least she is leaving now, my love.”
Snookems: “For the moment at least. She and Mike are both back on Saturday the 17th. He will talk about those delicious dahlias at 12:15. She will talk about low maintenance gardening at 2:45.”
Max: “Come sit with me. We can vote for her blog at About.com while we wait.”
By Carol Cichorski, on March 9th, 2012 Ah! Best Laundry Detergent got your attention. It got mine too. Best Laundry Detergent is one of the categories you can vote for at the About.com – 2012 Readers Choice Awards. Maybe I should be interested in something more esoteric, but I am going back on March 30th to see what the Best Laundry Detergent is.
So, as long as you are there voting for OhWhatA.com as the Best Gardening Blog, (you are, right?), check out the Laundry Awards as well.
And please join Mike and I at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show on Saturday March 17th. Mike will talk about dahlias at 12:15, and my presentation will be on Low Maintenance Gardening at 2:45.
|
|
|
