By Carol Cichorski, on July 15th, 2011 I was afraid. Very afraid. Afraid that inviting the Dahlia Club, Elk Grove Garden Club, and Bloomingdale Garden Club to visit our yard in mid-July would be a time of green. As in green everywhere with nothing much in bloom. After all, the garden was spectacular in late June with the roses and Asiatic lilies blooming for Alex’s birthday party. By mid-July, they would be gone, and I’d be left with green.
I suppose there are bigger and badder things to be afraid of than green. I should (and do) truly consider myself blessed that my life is filled with a healthy loving family, and that we have jobs in this downturned economy. So if the worst thing I have to be afraid of is too much green in my yard, I’ve got it good. So yes, I’ve got it good. I know it. I do appreciate it. Hugely.
Still, I also wanted more. More than just green. And I got it! Let’s look at just this one area of the garden, and then dissect it.
I could also be afraid that my color palette is not perfect. But I’m not. I read the books that show which color combinations go best together. I’ve seen the color wheel. I just don’t care. God knows what he is doing with color. The sky is perfect with blue. The sun is perfect with yellow. And my garden is perfect with whatever colors He has me put there. So when my pink phlox is next to dark red daylilies, I’m lovin’ it.
 I’m also not afraid of putting something in the wrong place. The yellow evergreen we bought for a pittance from Rich’s Foxwillow Pines was tiny. We were at a flower show and Rich had $5.00 pines. That is in my price range. It was tiny for years. Like one foot tall tiny. We’ve moved it a few times, and you wouldn’t call it tiny anymore. Mike teases me that my plants are on wheels. Eventually, I get it right.
 How about invasive? Should I be afraid of invasive? Ok, you’ve got me. I’m afraid of invasive. Well, maybe not really afraid, lets call it aware. I’m aware the goldenrod is invasive. You just have to look around to see that. What I needed to be was educated. Solidago, which you see here, is not invasive. I also learned that goldenrod gets a bad rap for causing hay fever. No more fear of goldenrod.
If you’re afraid of getting it wrong, don’t be. Gardening is a process. A very much continuing process. You make mistakes. You learn. We did. And we still do.
What else is blooming in the July garden? To see what other bloggers have blooming on the 15th of every month, visit May Dreams Gardens for our Garden Bloggers’ Bloom day entries.
By Carol Cichorski, on July 12th, 2011 A beautiful pond eludes us. We try. Really we do. Mike put in a pre-fab pond several years ago, complete with a small stream and headwater. But we can’t seem to really get ‘there’. By ‘there’, I mean it just doesn’t look like a miniature version of this one that we saw on a pond tour several years ago.
To see ponds like this one, you need to go on a pond tour. It just so happens that the Midwest Pond and Koi Society (MPKS) has not one, but four, pond tours coming up.
Saturday, July 23, 2011: Southwest & West – Aurora, Batavia, Bolingbrook, Downer’s Grove, Geneva, Lisle, Naperville, Oswego, Plainfield, St. Charles, Warrenville, Wheaton, Woodridge.
Sunday, July 24, 2011: South – south side of Chicago, Indiana, Joliet, Lemont, Lockport, Mokena, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Tinley Park, and Willow Springs.
Saturday, July 30, 2011: North/Northwest – Arlington Heights, Addison, Carol Stream, Elgin, Des Plaines, Glendale Hts., Glenview, Kildeer, Mt. Prospect, Morton Grove, Niles, Northbrook, Palatine, Prospect Hgts., Roselle, Schaumburg, Streamwood.
Sunday, July 31, 2011: Central – Berwyn, Brookfield, Chicago, Countryside, Elmhurst, Hinsdale, La Grange Park, North Riverside, Oak Brook, Oak Park, Riverside, River Forest, and Westmont
The tours are open to all, with guidebooks being sold at a variety of places. You buy the book, then make the rounds at your own pace.
Mike and I were members of MPKS for a while. Learning about ponds seemed like a good idea before building one. Mike was interested in the technical end. He needed to know what to do to make it work without spending a lot of money on equipment, and of course he wants to do it without chemicals.
See this picture we took on the pond tour in 2005? See the water flowing through the stream, down the waterfall, and into the pond? See the equipment that makes it happen? See anything cleaning the water? Appropriately, yes, you see the picture, and yes, the water is flowing. Also appropriately, no, you don’t see the equipment that makes it happen or the filter.
 I was interested in the aestetics. I don’t want to see pond liner. I don’t want the pond to look like it was plopped down in the middle of nowhere. I don’t want it surrounded by an avalanche. I want it to look natural, like it has always been there. That’s how this one looks. This stream flows from somewhere unknown. Is there a liner? I don’t know, and that’s how it should be. Lots of groundcover. Natural grading.
The ponds on the Midwest Pond and Koi Society tours have been done with a variety of expertise – everything from ‘I did it ALL myself’ to ‘This was done professionally’. If you want to see water features of the professional caliber, Aquascape is a Chicagoland design and installation company who sponsors mini-tours. Like MPKS, there will be a group of ponds to see in one area.
July 16th, 2011
City: Palatine
Self-Guided Tour Times: 10:00AM – 5:00PM
August 20th, 2011
City: Downers Grove
Self-Guided Tour Times: 10:00AM – 5:00PM
September 17th, 2011
City: St. Charles
Self-Guided Tour Times: 10:00AM – 5:00PM
This might just be the way to up your game if you’ve been considering a pond. Or maybe its just a way for you to enjoy someone else’s pond. Either way, plan a day or two to visit.
By Carol Cichorski, on July 7th, 2011 The question ‘1 bucket raspberry bush + 7 years = ?’ is one to give serious thought to if you are considering planting raspberries. No, this is not one of those questions like ‘If a train leaves Boston at 8 AM, and travels 52 miles per hour, what time is it in St. Louis?’. Believe it or not, the answer to the raspberry question is Continue reading 1 Bucket Raspberry Bush + 7 Years = ?
By Carol Cichorski, on July 7th, 2011 Raspberry Lemon Muffins
Taste of Home, Annual Recipes 1999
A favorite recipe of my neighbor Lynn. And just where does Lynn get her raspberries? See 1 Bucket Raspberry Bush + 7 Years = ?.
2 C flour
½ C sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 eggs beaten lightly
1 C (8 ounces) lemon yogurt
¼ C butter or margarine, melted and cooled
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ C fresh or frozen raspberries
In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Combine eggs, yogurt, butter, lemon peel and vanilla; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in raspberries. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 °F for 18-20 minutes or until muffins test done. Yield: 1 dozen.
By Carol Cichorski, on July 4th, 2011 We started our 4th of July celebration with a red, white, and blueberry delicious breakfast, enjoyed of course, outside in the yard. These things just seem to happen. I’m making breakfast, and Mike casually says something like ‘If you add some bananas and blueberries to the watermelon you’re cutting up, bet you could make it look like the 4th of July’. Next thing you know, this happens…
Then this…
And eventually, this…
My life is like that. I plan short, sweet, simple. I’m not good at short, sweet, simple.
Breakfast turns into a photo shoot with Mike, Regine, and I transporting the masterpieces to the table, and Kevin putting in a command performance as the photographer.
Or I go to a flower show at Mike’s urging and we have to move to a house with a bigger yard for me to garden in.
Then there is the mosaic. You’ve seen the mosaic. The garden and garden gate has become my signature, gracing the front page of this blog. Lynn thought we should take a mosaic class. I did. Others made a tray or trivet. Mine, 3′ x 8′ on the kitchen wall.
I just love it when ideas fall out of my head (even if someone else officially plants them there) and they land on fertile ground!
By Carol Cichorski, on July 1st, 2011 Edith Holden, today you have been pre-empted for an important message from one Miss Gracie Meitzler. Edith, I have enjoyed posting religiously on Muse Day from your “Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady”, but not today, not this Muse Day. Today belongs to Gracie.
Gracie and her mom, Carrie, gave my garden TLC while I was in Orlando for two weeks. My granddaughter’s second birthday party was at our house the day after I returned. Thanks to Carrie and Gracie, my garden was gorgeous.
Gracie, inspired, took pen (well maybe not literally a pen) in hand to bless me with this:
GARDEN
Place of pleasure, beauty and love
Brainchild of the gardener
Where God’s creation clearly shows
All this is the garden.
Reds and greens to blues and whites
the colors of the rainbow show
God made each and every one
With paintbrushes, He had some fun
Then the peace of a job well done
Brings beauty and love into one
As God and man work together
all things grow with help from weather
The beauty of the garden shows
even through the rains and snows
Enchanting
Grace Meitzler
Whereforth cometh the inspiration to wax poetic? Garden Bloggers’ Muse Day, where Carolyn Choi of Sweet Home and Garden Chicago, invites bloggers to share our favorite poems, songs, verses and quotes about gardening on the first of the month.
By Carol Cichorski, on June 28th, 2011 I’m definitely not in Disney World anymore. In Disney World I would not have to pick between soffits/fascia and a brick patio. The soffits and fascia would be beautiful on my castle, the surrounding patio and grounds would be gorgeous, and Prince Charming would be awaiting my return from my recent business trip.
Alas, reality strikes and we will choose the soffits and fascia over the brick patio. Fortunately, I do get to keep my Prince Charming. And the grounds are gorgeous.
 We’ll save our 1500 bricks for next year, collecting up ideas in the interim. In my quest for ideas, I came upon the Sunset website – you know, books and magazines. The tab on Patios had some inspiring pictures. I know this one isn’t brick, but it captures the essence of my thus far unformatted design plan.
I want to use a mixture of materials. The very rough plan incorporates bricks, pavers, plant materials, mosaic, and Allie’s footstep in a stepping stone. Eclectic, informal, fun, like me. And judging by the expected cost, I’ll have plenty of time to plan a project that will again challenge every brain cell and every muscle in Mike’s body.
Dream on, Princess Carol. Dream on, readers. Peruse the Sunset website for ideas on Garden-to-table guide to tomatoes, Front yard makeovers, Earth friendly, Creative small-space gardening, and 41 gorgeous garden paths. Did I just say garden paths? Hmmm. Could those be made out of brick? Gotta run now. Research time.
This article is a continuation of We’re Planning a Patio and Oh No, The Patio. There will be more.
By Carol Cichorski, on June 25th, 2011  In the ‘Nobody Does It Better Category’, our nominees are: (drum roll please)
Disney,
Disney,
Disney,
And last but not least, Disney.
The winner is: (drum roll please) … Disney!
It’s no surprise that Disney’s creativity and attention to detail are unsurpassed. Well, there is One who I’d give a bigger and better award to, but I’m limiting my entrants to mere humans. In this world that God created, the Disney experience is Perfect World as opposed to reality.
I present to you exhibit one, two, and three: Topiaries from the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival this spring, compliments of my friend Bette.
 There were great gardens everywhere, but she and Don especially liked the topiaries. Bette calls it ‘Disney Imagination at work’.
The topiaries are constructed on a framework by the Disney horticulturalists, and then plants that are living or have been living (such as leaves for color on faces and rattan or bamboo for some parts of the sculptures) are added.
The Epcot Flower & Garden Festival is a two month annual spring event. April is a great month to go to Disney World because it is not 95 degrees in the shade, and children aren’t running all over the place.
The Festival and cooler weather were both long gone by the time I came to Orlando for business in June, so my Disney experience was Typhoon Lagoon. Creativity and Perfect World were still at Disney, as were some topiaries, like this one at the awesome Disney Marketplace.
Now, if only my return flight home hadn’t been delayed by 3 hours because of a Florida storm. Let’s put Disney in charge of the weather and the Orlando airport, because ‘nobody does it better’.
By Carol Cichorski, on June 19th, 2011  Florida is not zone 5. All that sun and heat makes a difference. The Marie Selby Garden proves it. You walk in through the greenhouse, but don’t really notice when you leave it, because the outside is every bit as tropical as the greenhouse itself. It was 95 degrees on the June day we visited. Believe me, if felt tropical. Fortunately, the peaceful Selby Garden is quite shaded, providing a respite from the heat for a few hours.
Marie Selby’s is an estate garden in Sarasota, FL. I like those even better than huge botanical gardens because they are so personal. My favorite is Dunbarton Oaks in D.C. Ahh, but that’s for another day. Today, I am at Selby with Bette and Don. Bette was the vice-president of the Elk Grove Garden Club when I was president. She and Don have since retired to Florida, where I’m on a business trip.
Selby is in a residential area on 12 acres, with a lovely view of the Sarasota Bay.
Selby is perhaps best known for its living collection of more than 6,000 orchids.
Selby is also an established authority on other epiphytes including bromeliads, gesneriads, and other plants. These banyan trees fall into the epiphytes category. The banyan is a fig that begins its life as an epiphyte when its seeds germinate in the cracks and crevices on a host tree. As mature trees, they develop aerial roots that strengthen into prop roots to support heavy limbs. These large fig trees were planted by the Selbys in the 1920’s. Very impressive, and very shady!
It doesn’t matter what kind of fern this is. I can’t grow it back home, so you don’t get to know what it is.
Selby Garden also hosts special events, like the upcoming Fourth of July Celebration 2011 and the Garden Music Series. Sarasota is an easy 2 hour drive from Orlando. Just a bit further are the lovely beaches of Siesta Key that we also visited. We got to Crescent beach around 9:00 to get a parking spot. It was already warm enough to swim in the 85 degree water. (No, that is not a typo.) Then, as the heat intensified, we headed to the shaded garden.
Yep, business trips to Orlando are tough, but I think I’ll survive this one. Next, Disney World!
By Carol Cichorski, on June 15th, 2011 Has there ever been one of those plants that you want year after year but just refuse to spend the money on? There was for me. It was the globemaster allium. Every spring I’d see them in other people’s gardens, and I’d say to myself ‘This is the year I’m going to pay the ridiculous price and get those’. Then when the bulbs came into the nursery in the autumn, I’d look at the $8 – $10 price tag for one bulb and I’d say ‘I am not doing that’.
 As you can see by the pictures, I found a way to get the globemaster bulbs. Even better, I found a way to get them without paying for them. My birthday is in October. I don’t know why it took me so long to ask for them as a present. I guess I couldn’t see anyone else spending that much for a bulb either. Last year, I finally broke down. Not enough to buy them myself, but enough to have my kids spend their money.
So was it worth it. Oh My Gosh – Yes! They are huge. They are also lasting well. I bet it’s been 3 weeks and they are still going strong. To make it even sweeter, Jim Kassner stopped over and said his 3 globemasters have turned into 12. Yes 12. I can hardly wait for next year!
I can even repurpose my alliums in the autumn. Take a look at this cute allium haired scarecrow that Cathy sent me a picture of last year. Kinda makes you want to start saving your pennies, doesn’t it? Or maybe just lie about when your birthday is.
What else is blooming in the June garden? To see what other bloggers have blooming on the 15th of every month, visit May Dreams Gardens for our Garden Bloggers’ Bloom day entries.
|
|
|
