Chicago Flower & Garden Show, Workshop, Macy's Flower Show

Here is a roundup of some post by members of the Chicago Gardeners blogroll. Look over the archives of each of the blog's linked to find their other posts on the show.

Chicago Garden
Garden Hits and Misses at Chicago Flower and Garden Show.

Garden Girl

Sun & Moon at Chicago Flower and Garden Show.

Sweet Home and Garden Chicago

Sneak Preview: Chicago Flower & Garden Show.

K-Town Homestead

I'd Rather be Gardening.

Welcome...

The newest members of the Chicago Gardeners blogroll are The Worm Girl News and The Garden at Liberty. If you'd like to become a member of the blogroll simply add http://chicagogardeners.blogspot.com to your blogroll on your blog and send an Email to let us know and we'll add your feed along with the rest of our blogs. With our numbers growing perhaps this year we can have some kind of local garden blog gathering at some point.

Save the Date

If the Chicago Flower and Garden Show has you searching for more greenery and blooms, you're in luck. Macy's Flower Show returns March 28-April 11, with the theme "Spring Is In The Air." We'll post more details soon.

Workshop

Get your tools ready for Spring with this tool sharpening workshop at the Wicker Park Garden Club. Saturday, March 20 - 10am-noon or 1pm-3pm - $15

Held in Wicker Park Home - Address Given to Registered Student

Reservations: wpgarden@aol.com (773) 278-9075 (Pay at Door)

Tool Sharpening Workshop - Richard Tilley, Jim Angrabright, Larry Clary, www.wpgarden.org

Learn how to sharpen your pruners, loppers, shovels, and other hand-held garden tools. Bring your hand-held tools-- go home with sharpened tools.

Movie

"A Chemical Reaction" will be screened at Columbia College Chicago on March 20.

2/1/10 Newest Members And Events

Welcome the newest members of the Chicago Gardeners Blog/FeedRoll. For those of you using Blogger check out the Table of Contents at www.GardenBloggers.com for some tips if you'd like to experiment with modifying your blog's template.

City Diggity Balcony gardening in Chicago.

Finding My Green Thumb Culinary trained gardening newbie in Chicago

The Yarden Established gardener focusing on growing vegetables in Chicago

K-Town Homestead Homesteader on Chicago's West Side.

The Suburban Gardener Suburban gardener with an appreciation of flowers.

Visit http://chicagogardeners.blogspot.com to see the latest posts of all the local garden blogs we're collecting . If you're a garden blogger in Chicago and would like to join the blog/FeedRoll just add a link to this blog in your blogroll or link list and let us know and we'll add your feed to the list of feeds on the right.

News

February 6 & 13, 2010: Sweet Saturdays at the Garfield Park Conservatory.

March 6-14, 2010: The Chicago Flower & Garden Show.

Writer and member of Chicago Gardeners, Beth Botts, writes about the budget cuts facing the University of Illinois Extension.

Garden Girl

I'm a native Chicago northsider and long-time south suburban resident. A passionate life-long gardener, I grew up in a gardening, farming family, helping tend the humongous organic vegetable garden and ornamental plants of my childhood home, spending time on my grandparents' farm in the Missouri Ozarks, and visiting the Nebraska farm our family has owned for generations.

I'm currently deciding whether I'm enjoying a sabbatical or retirement from corporate America after my job elimination a couple of years ago. In the meantime I've started a garden design/coaching/maintenance business and work a couple of days a week at the mom-and-pop nursery down the street. Beginning February 2009 I'll attend the Master Gardeners training program at the local county extension office. I'm looking forward to sharing my passion for gardening through the volunteer program.

Since moving in with my new husband about four years ago, I've been gardening in the shade of three mature silver maples, and blogging about it since early 2008. Not my favorite tree, the maples do give us lots of shade while sorely testing my patience and gardening skills. What the squirrels don't dig up, the maple roots strangle. It's been trial and error figuring out what will survive, never mind thrive in the shallow roots that seem to suck every last ounce of moisture from the soil in midsummer, but I can spot a maple seedling at thirty paces now.

Gina from My Skinny Garden

I was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee and moved to Chicago almost eight years ago on the count of a boy. It was the best thing I've ever done in my life - I love it here and I'm never leaving.

On May 21st, 2007 I went to the Forest Park farmer's market to buy some organic tomatoes. While there, I became pissed off over the price of the tomatoes and decided that I ought to be able to grow some myself. So, I went straight to Home Depot, bought a bunch of organic vegetable plants and set out to plant my first vegetable garden. I had no idea what I was doing. Seriously, I dug the holes right through the sod - it was brutal! (I didn't know I was supposed to remove the sod first) It took me four hours to finish but once I showered and recovered from the back-breaking digging, I realized it was the only four-hour block of time that I had not thought about my job, at all. From that moment, I was hooked on gardening.

I'm not sure how long you are a "novice gardener" before you graduate to "avid gardener", but I consider myself a novice. I still kill lots of stuff, but it keeps me sane, and helps me make friends.

I started a blog about my garden in order to prove to my family back home that I really had an actual garden (if you knew me, you'd know why they'd doubt me) but in the meantime I've come to rely on my garden blogging friends for all kinds of advice. They've saved me from some gardening disasters of epic proportion.

I'm a healthcare administrator by day, but at night and on the weekends I garden, and write about it, and obsess about how I can make a career out of it.

Lake Chicago Shores

The gardener at On the Shores of Lake Chicago hasn't gotten around to submitting a bio but I thought I'd at least publish a link here on her behalf for the work she's doing on CSF.

Sweet Home And Garden Chicago

I'm a transplant from Sweet Home Alabama. Except for the long, cold Chicago winters I love Sweet Home Chicago, thus the name of my blog.

I grew up on a farm in rural Northern Alabama where we were green before it was cool. We grew almost everything we ate including the chickens, pork and beef. That's about the best master gardening course that I know of -rigorous on-the-job-training starting at around age 10.

After relocating to Chicago I got married, raised 3 kids, and held a full-time job. My two passions-Gardening and Art were put on the back burner.

Once the nest was empty and I had clocked 30 years on the job I jumped head-first into painting and garden design and haven't regretted a single moment since. I took up garden blogging two years ago as something to do in the long Chicago winters and have made many like-minded friends and fellow garden geeks.

Last year the first meet-up of garden bloggers took place in Austin and it was a huge success. As much as I would have liked to go I wasn't able to attend due to my garden design business. This May is Chicago's turn and I am looking forward to meeting my cyber space friends in person.

In March last year , without prior notice or warning, Google's Blogger of Note selected Sweet Home and Garden Chicago. I awoke to 100,000 visitors in one week. Talk about 15 minutes of fame !

I'm kind of opinionated and some would even say sassy. I blame it on being the middle child and old age. You wouldn't know it now but I used to by shy. You can get away with a lot more stuff when you get old.

And, oh yes, I know that many readers are puzzled when they look at my photo and my last name . No, I haven't had cosmetic surgery. I'm married to a gentleman from the South - of Korea. So much for the saying that " East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. "

Looking forward to seeing Y'all in May.

MrBrownThumb

MrBrownThumb is the nom de plume of a gardener on Chicago's Southwest side. His interests in gardening began when as a kid he watched The Karate Kid movie franchise and was fascinated with the bonsai Mr. Miyagi trained. Eventually his interest in plants evolved and now cover a range of topics related to gardening. After five years of living without plants in 2005 he started the MrBrownThumb blog as a place to host some images and experiences related to gardening. It eventually blossomed into a "legitimate" gardening blog that covers indoor & outdoor gardening, cacti & succulents, houseplants, seeds, plant propagation, bugs he finds in his Chicago garden and general gardening tips & tricks. In 2007 he started www.AmaryllisBulbs.org, another blog this time devoted to the popular tender bulbs. In 2008 he started www.GardenBloggers.com yet another blog but this one dedicated to the mechanics of garden blogging focused on the Blogger platform.

MrBrownThumb holds a B.A in Marketing Communications with a concentration in Advertising that his mom liked to point out was going to waste since he never bothered to attempt to gain employment in the field post college. MrBrownThumb currently brings home the bacon selling stock photos and doing whatever creative thing he can do to make money in order to avoid getting a real job so he can stay home and tend to his Marimo. Besides blogging, plants, advertising and photography MrBrownThumb is also interested in the Social Web, urban beautification, garden proselytizing to at risk youth in his neighborhood, community gardens, learning to write about himself in the third person and he hopes to one day sit on several boards so he can casually drop that fact at parties. In the meantime he toils away on his little blogs and waits for the day Oprah or Martha Stewart discover him and make him bigger than P. Allen Smith.

MrBrownThumb can be contacted through his blog or using this contact form. He's always interested in meeting fellow wannabe plant nerds, showing people how to blog, seeing gardens and meeting gardeners he can cover on his gardening blog.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've removed the form below because recently I was contacted and presented with some unique opportunities for people interested in a more urban experience. We'll need to see where they can be fit into the schedule and maybe early Friday would work best. So for now the tours of the Lincoln Park Conservatory are on hold.