By Carol Cichorski, on September 20th, 2011  How can it be that today is September 20th? Summer has come, and summer has gone.
Already, my garden screams AUTUMN. The garden has an overall appearance of being less tended at this point. That’s because it is. That’s because I like it that way in the fall. There are spent blooms with seeds for the birds, leaves that are a tad more yellow, and everything borders on overgrown (sometimes on the wrong side of the border).
The flowers though, oh, the flowers. There is so much in bloom.
I’ll tease you by saying there of are lots of dahlias. In our yard, that’s a given. You’ll have to come back another day to see those.
For now, just take a look at this abundance!
If you still don’t want to believe me that it’s autumn, look at the calendar yourself. Oops – you got me. It shows that fall doesn’t start till Friday, which is September 23rd. I beg to differ based on my garden. I bet The Growing Place in Aurora/Naperville would disagree as well. They grew these great scarecrows for their Fall Harvest Party last weekend.
For more fall events at The Growing Place, check out their calendar. The Growing Place is offering a cornucopia of garden related classes including containers, bulbs, birds, and fall color and winter interest. If you’re ready to leave the garden to exercise your creative side, they have classes for you as well. The mosaic classes sound irresistable to me. You’ve seen the top of my blog page showing my mosaic, so you can see why those would appeal to me. The beginners class is 9/24 and the intermediate class is 10/1.
Last weekend was also Pioneer Days in Elk Grove Village. The Garden Club hosted the Scarecrow Factory, where families got to exercise their creativity. Those pictures will be coming soon.
Too impatient to wait for scarecrow and pumpkin ideas? I understand. Click on September and October 2010 in the archives at the top right.
By Carol Cichorski, on September 16th, 2011  Pink. Today I am doing pink. More like PINK than pink. On the 15th of each month, bloggers post on what’s blooming in their garden. I want to fully comply, but I’m just going to have to stick with one category, or this blog will go on for days. So pink it is.
Our honeysuckle qualifies as pink. The honeysuckle would be overgrown if the Sweet Autumn clematis near it wasn’t such a garden thug. I can’t show you the overgrown clematis, because it isn’t pink.
This Kidd’s Climax dahlia certainly qualifies as pink. It also qualifies as huge and outstanding. As you can see, they named it Climax for a reason.
 Many many dahlias are blooming now. With 100 plants, even a bad growing year like this one results in a lot of flowers. You’ll just have to believe me on that. I’d show you a picture, but I can’t, because they aren’t all pink, and I already told you we are doing pink so stop asking.
Mike starts our dahlias in the basement long before spring. By the time they go in the ground in late May, they have a great head start. His dahlias start blooming in early August, and thrive through mid-October.
The Kiara Pompadour in our birdbath is pinkish, so I’ll let you see that one.
 A few more lovelies include pink cleomes and pink zinnias.
Oh, there is more, but I’m going to stop soon. First I need to scare you a bit. See this Autumn Joy sedum. Its pink. That means autumn is here. Yep, scary. Ok, now I can stop.
What else is blooming in the September 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.
By Carol Cichorski, on September 12th, 2011 Big fish, little fish, same problem. Big pond, little pond, same problem. Big or small, something always wants to eat the fish in your pond.
Your pond could be big enough to be fed by a waterfall like Richard and Peggy Judd’s…
Your pond could be as little as this one, also at the home of Richard and Peggy Judd…
Either way, there is some animal one step up on the food chain who wants your fish to be dinner. It could be a raccoon. It could be a heron. It could be your own darn cat. So why don’t the creatures on the Judd’s lovely wooded lot eat the fish? Inquiring minds wanted to know. We wanted to know why our pond looked like this..
And their pond looked like this…
Ok, it would be quite a stretch to think that our pond would look like theirs if we took off the grid. The good news is that we have taken off the grid, thanks to the advice of Richard Judd. It has been a few months now. The fish are doing fine, and they are ever so pleased with their more attractive surroundings. You can even see what we are doing that the Judds did. Mike now has fishing line running around the pond. We added the little bells to make noise, which has perhaps done absolutely nothing, but we did it anyway.
Here is a closer picture…
Now go back to take a look at Rich and Peggy Judd’s pond again. Yep, a really close look. You can see the fish line if you really look for it. It’s been working for them, and it worked for us!
By Carol Cichorski, on September 8th, 2011  I know how to have some good old fashioned fun. Take one huge pile of old clothes, some bales of hay, and a bunch of kids. What do you get? A big mess that you wouldn’t want to have at home, so we have it at the farm. Better yet, the mess is transformed into 100 scarecrows. The Elk Grove Garden club is looking forward to helping you and your family make the perfect scarecrow for your yard. We do this every year and it’s a blast from the past. I know. I’ve been in charge of the scarecrow building for several years.
The Scarecrow Factory is part of Elk Grove Village’s Pioneer Day. Other activities include cannon demonstrations, Civil War music, historical crafts and games, a petting zoo, military reenactments, and work by local artists in the barn.
Pioneer Day is held at the Farm House Museum at 399 Biesterfield Road on Sunday September 18th, from Noon – 4 PM. $7.00 to make a scarecrow; no admission charge for the event itself. No need for your ipad, ipod, internet, or cable tv. Just bring your creativity, or use ours. For more details, contact the Elk Grove Farm House Museum at 847-439-3994.
Want to see more pictures? Take a look at one of last year’s postings, like this one. Want more scarecrow and pumpkin ideas? Click on September and October 2010 in the archives to the right.
By Carol Cichorski, on September 4th, 2011  Summer is quickly coming to an end. Have you done what you wanted to do this summer? I think Yuriy Ardashnikov and Daniel Sikora have. Mike and I were out of the garden today and I talked to Yuriy and Daniel at Busse Woods in Elk Grove Village. (Note how seamlessly I tied this back to gardening since this is a gardening blog.)
Their kayaks are built for racing, and race they do! I couldn’t help but be curious when they mentioned that. The web is wonderful thing – I came home and learned that Daniel took third place this year for Class 20 in the Des Plaines Marathon. Yuriy didn’t do badly either – he took second place.
Yuriy said today was a perfect day for kayaking, with it being a little cooler. The five mile Busse Lake is a nice size as well.
 We’ve also come to Busse to rent a canoe and enjoy the leisurely pace. The boat rental concession is open through October 31st, from sunrise to sunset. That’s about 7AM to 7PM this time of year. Cash only please. Come in the entrance off of Higgins, right by I-290 (53).
Not quite that ambitious? Come sit on a log and watch like some other folks were doing. They told us that DuPage County requires a license for kayaking, and Cook County (which Busse is in) does not.
Even less ambitious than that? Stop in for a breakfast picnic and a nap like we did today. Willow Creek Church has a full food court, and we got ours to go. Then we took our traditional breakfast nap.
 There is plenty more to do at Busse. I bike there regularly. I roller blade there as well, but somehow the bike was my chosen method of movement this year. I like that I can do the 7.8 mile loop, leave right from my house, stop to enjoy the beauty, and still be home in less than 2 hours. I tend to avoid Saturday and Sunday mornings, which in turn helps me avoid crowds. Go later in the afternoon and watch the sun sparkling on the water.
You can also hike it, walk it, run it, sail it, fish it. Enjoy that beauty that our natural resources provide. Rest, relax, breathe slowly, be calm, be refreshed. There is still time before the Chicago winter hits.
For more details, go to the Cook County Forest Preserve Website.
By Carol Cichorski, on August 31st, 2011 Time for you to fill in the blanks. Look at the pictures below to get some help.
Me and the web… A __________________ ____________________ in _________________.
A  in 
Go ahead, fill in the blanks… Continue reading Happy 1st Anniversary To OhWhatA.com
By Carol Cichorski, on August 25th, 2011 I’m told that salvia is planted at every gas station. That it is basically the bane of the plant world. That the gardener planting salvia doesn’t deserve to be called a gardener. No creativity. Boring. Expected.
Ah…but every plant has a place. A purpose, even. So though our large garden is mostly perennials, I did plant 2 trays of annuals this year. Most of those two trays were admittedly salvia. The repetition of red in many of my borders draws the eye from bed to bed. 
It’s very subliminal. I bet you think you are seeing salvia, a rose, and cleome in the close-up to the right. And of course you are. But red repeated is also strong enough to get you to look all the way to the back of the yard. This unites a garden bed that otherwise might feel like ‘crappus collectus’.
Salvia also provides color in areas that have no perennial blooming at the moment. Novice gardeners often expect their perennials to bloom all summer. Sorry folks, even if you plan well, there are areas with no color at times.
Salvia’s bright red is even strong enough to pull your eye all the way to the other side of the yard to see this:
So there. I’ve admitted it. I plant salvia. And next year I may plant more – two trays wasn’t really enough. Hate me if you must, but at least you know there is a method to my madness.
By Carol Cichorski, on August 22nd, 2011 What makes this a perfect pesto recipe? It’s not the ingredients. It’s the storage technique. I’ve seen lots of pesto recipes, perhaps even the one you use. I encourage you to use whichever one you want. But be sure to use this storage technique if you want pesto throughout the year.
Got no basil? Try your local garden center. We were at Goebbert’s last weekend and they had lots of pots of basil that hadn’t sold. Big and beautiful.
Pesto
2 cups basil, tightly packed fresh leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup parsley, lightly packed fresh
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, quartered
Place all ingredients (only some of the olive oil) in food processor. Process until mixture is finely chopped but not mush. Add olive oil as needed.
The perfect storage technique, shown here with a triple recipe: Line large baking sheet with plastic wrap. Drop pesto by large tablespoonfuls onto plastic wrap. Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap. Freeze until firm, about 2 hours. Remove pesto patties and place in freezer container. Cover and store in freezer up to 1 year.
By Mike Cichorski, on August 18th, 2011 Carol promised you a gardening tip, and I get to deliver.
Steve Meggos hosted a garden walk for a variety of garden clubs last night, including the Central States Dahlia Society. Steve is one of the best dahlia growers/hybridizers in the nation, while his brother Louis grows exemplary roses. What a talented family.
Two of the topics of conversation were the incredibly poor weather for dahlias, and Japanese beetles. While we are particularly incapable of altering the weather, I find I am again having success in the battle against the beetle.
Japanese beetles do a lot of damage, so I offered up what I use, and that I find it very effective — Bayer Advanced 3 in 1 Insect disease & mite control.
My strategy:
- Mix 3/4 oz to 1 quart of water.
- Put it in a spray bottle and leave it in the garden.
- When I see a beetle, I give it a mist/spray right between the eyes and walk away.
That’s it! I check in 10 minutes or so and find the bug dead, and the bloom sees no other bugs for the rest of its term. You can also give each bloom a preventative shot to avoid them “from the get/go”. You don’t need to drench the flower or plant. One shot for small flowers, 2 shots for big ones will do it.
By Carol Cichorski, on August 14th, 2011 
The time of dahlia anticipation has ended. The time of dahlia appreciation begins.
Mike has about 100 dahlias in our garden. So many that they warrant their own Dahlia category on this site.
The dahlia blooms you see here are just a promise of what is to come over the next few months. Mike does some disbudding of dahlias, including those that would have bloomed too early for his liking. Now its time to let more bloom, though he will still disbud some to encourage larger blooms.
 Speaking of promises, Christian and Lynn made their promises this weekend as they became husband and wife. Our congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Gorgas. The flowers could not come close to the beauty of the bride, but they did try. This lovely dahlia arrangement was among those (by their local florist) that graced the tables.
The dahlias below made the trip with us to Michigan for the wedding. You see them here at Regine’s home.
We’ll have lots more dahlias to show you over the next few months. And I’ll post a dahlia tip in just a few days.
What else is blooming in the August garden? To see what other bloggers have blooming on the 15th of every month, visit May Dreams Gardens for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom day entries.
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