Green & Growing Urban Gardening Fair This Saturday

The Green & Growing Urban Gardening Fair is this Saturday at the Garfield Park Conservatory. If you've never been to Chicago's only urban gardening fair here's what to expect: Gardening demos, workshops, plant vendors, live music and activities for kids.

The fair takes place throughout the conservatory at 300 North Central Park Avenue on Saturday, April 30th from 10am-2pm.

The winner of One Seed Chicago 2011 will be unveiled at the fair and seeds will be distributed to attendees.

Don't miss it.

March Gardening Events in Chicago

The Chicago Flower & Garden Show                                                
March 5-13th

Buy tickets online or at Navy Pier.
Tips for discounts for tickets to Chicago Flower Show. 

Peterson Garden seed swap.
Sunday, March 06 4pm-6pm
RSVP here http://petersongarden.eventbrite.com/

Wicker Park Garden Club
Workshop-Tool Sharpening
Saturday, March 19 10am-Noon or 1pm-3pm
Choose a time. $15. Pay at the Door.
RSVP wpgarden@aol.com or call 773-278-9075

Washington Park Conservancy
Garden tool sharpening & cleaning workshop
Saturday, March 26 10am-12pm
RSVP: 773-203-3418
Washington Park
5531 S. King Drive.
Chicago, IL

One Seed Chicago voting continues until April 1st. Pick your favorite seed and vote for it. The winning seed will be mailed out to you for free. Encourge your friends to vote for their favorite too.

Sweet Saturdays and Seed Swap in Chicago

Sweet Saturdays kicks off this Saturday at the Garfield Park Conservatory. Sweet Saturdays are held the two Saturdays before Valentine's Day. You can tour the conservatory, learn about which plants are used to create many of our sweets, sample some tasty treats, listen to live music and kids can play in the craft area.

The Lurie Garden is setting a romantic mood for lovers this Valentine's Day. See what evenings you can take an illuminated stroll in the garden with your special someone.

On February 12, 2011 the Lurie Garden hosts a seed swap at the Chicago Cultural Center in the 1st Floor Garland Room for gardeners in the Chicagoland area. See here for more information on how to register and how to pack your seeds. 

Visit the home page for the blog to see the latest posts by Chicago Gardeners. Lots and lots of pictures of snow. We've had a couple of new members since the last update. Tired of the snow? See the year-round-gardens The Garden of Live Flowers found at the Art Institute.

If you're a member of the Chicago Gardeners blogroll and would like to meetup with other members during the Chicago Flower & Garden Show in March, please shoot us an email ASAP. You can find the email address on the homepage of the blog.

One Seed Chicago & Seed Starting Workshop

Voting is now open for One Seed Chicago 2011. If you're not familiar with One Seed Chicago, it is an urban greening project that puts up three seeds for a vote and allows Chicagoans to vote for their favorite seed. The seed that gets the most votes by 4/01/11 will be distributed for free to Chicagoan that voted. This year's candidates are eggplant, radish and chard. This year One Seed Chicago is encouraging backyard gardeners across Chicago to share the bounty of their gardens by cooking meals for family and friends featuring the candidates.

In the coming weeks One Seed Chicago will be publishing recipes from celebrity chefs in Chicago, foodie bloggers and Chicago garden bloggers at http://www.OneSeedChicago.com . If you're a gardener in Chicago they're encouraging you to blog about the One Seed Chicago project telling your readers who you're voting for and encouraging them to vote for their favorite candidate. There are graphics you can use for your blog post or buttons for your blog here. If you blog about One Seed Chicago 2011 send a Tweet to @OneSeedChicago or post a link to your post to the One Seed Chicago Facebook page.

Seed Starting Workshop.

The Wicker Park Garden Club is holding their annuals plant propagation workshop on Jan 8th. Here are the details of the workshop along with information on how to RSVP.

Saturday, January 8

10am - Noon or 1pm - 3pm

(Choose one of the two sessions)

Richard Tilley, Doug Wood, Denise Browning

Wicker Park Home – Address Given to Registered Students

RESERVATIONS - $15 – Limited Seating - 30 per class

wpgarden@aol.com or (773) 278-9075

Pay at Door Cash or Check to WIcker Park Garden Club

"Winter is the time to think about what you'd like to grow next year. Take time to search web sites and catalogues to find something exciting either for your vegetable or ornamental gardens. The workshop covers the techniques of propagating plants from seeds and from other plants.

In the class you will learn techniques for starting seeds either inside under lights or outside in the garden. Richard Tilley will demonstrate how to create an inexpensive seed starting light set up, techniques and timetables for starting vegetable and annual seeds indoors, techniques of transplanting, growing on, and hardening off the young plants. We will discuss the time tables for growing vegetables from seed and how to you can extend your season with combination, repeat or periodic plantings. Doug Wood will discuss various techniques of starting ornamental perennials from seed (stratification, scarification, soaking), various timetables for these seed types, and discuss the options of starting these seeds inside or planting the seeds directly outside in the garden. In addition, he will discuss how to enhance the drama and extend seasonal color in your perennials beds by incorporating hardy and half-hardy annuals that you seed right in the beds. Denise and Richard will demonstrate techniques to propagate shrubs, annuals, and perennials from cuttings or from layering techniques.

RICHARD TILLEY grows thousands of vegetables and ornamental annuals in his growing rooms.

THE WICKER PARK GARDEN CLUB designs, funds and maintains 10,000 sq. ft of garden in Wicker Park - the Park - and produces an educational series for adults and children. The gardens are a Registered Community Gardens in the Parks Project in collaboration with the Chicago Park District. See www.wpgarden.org "

One Seed, Beer Under Glass,Thomas Street, Peterson Garden and Plant Sales

One Seed Chicago
The 2010 One Seed Chicago has been announced, you can read about it at www.OneSeedChicago.com

Thomas Street Community Garden
The folks at the Thomas Street Community Garden are having a workday on the 15th. Here is part of the Email sent out asking for volunteers.

"We're having our big AmeriCorps workday at the Thomas Street Garden (2655 W. Thomas Street), on Saturday May 15. We'll kick things off at 10 a.m. and run 'til sometime after noon. We should have 8-10 AmeriCorps volunteers showing up to help rebuild the flagstone circle with mortar that we've purchased. Other projects on the to-do list for Saturday are to build new raised beds along the fence lines in the veggie garden, install our glass bottle pathway in the parkway, harvest our compost, and of course, plant some perennials and vegetables. I've got a few more projects tucked away if we run out of work to do..."

Peterson Garden
LaManda over at The Yarden is leading the efforts to revive an original victory garden in Chicago's 40th Ward. Visit www.PetersonGarden.org to learn how you can become involved or help with this awesome project.

Beer Under Glass
Beth Botts at Growing in Chicago tells us about the Beer Under Glass fundraiser at the Garfield Park Conservatory on May 13, 2010.

Forest Park Community Garden
Our friends at the FP Community Garden are having a work day on May 15, 2010 if you can't pitch in to help the Thomas Street Community Garden because you're in the 'burbs stop by to help these ladies build some raised beds.

Plant Sales
Plant and seedling sales continue around Chicago. See this post for an updated list of sales where you can purchase herbs, flowers, perennials and vegetables for your garden while helping some great clubs and organization.

Macy's Flower Show, Chicagos Victory Gardens

The flower show on Macy's on State Street Chicago, opens on Sunday with the 'Spring is in the Air' theme. Yesterday two of the Chicago Gardeners blogroll members attended the media preview of the show. Check out their pictures.

Chicago Garden: "Spring is in the Air" at Macy's on State Street Flower Show
My Skinny Garden: Macy's Gets it Right With 2010 Flower Show







Also on Sunday, LaManda of TheYarden is producing a lecture on the history of Chicago's Victory Gardens. It sounds like part history lesson and performance piece and all fun. Tickets are only $7.00.

When
Sunday, March 28, 2010 at 2:00 PM
Where
Dank Haus Cultural Center
4740 North Western Avenue
Chicago IL, 60625-2013

You can purchase your ticket online here.

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.

CSF Events Sunday, May 31st

Sunday, May 31st

Breakfast: We'll be gathering for breakfast at the conveniently-located Elephant & Castle restaurant adjacent to Club Quarters. Coffee and juice will be served beginning at 7:00 a.m. for early risers, and breakfast will be served at 8:00 a.m. To maximize our enjoyment, we'll have a private party room. Details on the menu are provided in a group email to SF participants on May 8th. The cost for breakfast is $26.05, and you may reserve your spot by paying for it via this PayPal link. Please reserve as soon as possible, but no later than Saturday, May 23rd, so we may provide a count to E&C.

10 a.m.

The Garfield Park Conservatory has been home to rare tropical plants for 100 years, opening to the public in April, 1908. We'll be exploring this Chicago gem, saying goodbye to new & old friends who leave on this day, and talking about issues related to garden blogging.

A short walk east from Club Quarters we'll board the El (elevated train) at Adams and Wabash for a 20-minute ride on the Green Line to our stop at the Conservatory's doorstep. The Green Line runs every ten minutes on Sunday. For those who might prefer a taxi, the six-mile ride from Club Quarters would be a reasonably-priced fare, and even more economical if cab rides are shared.

Directly behind the Conservatory lies Garfield Park, designed by noted landscape architect Jens Jensen, and the Garfield Park Lagoon. The last day of 2009 Chicago Spring Fling, we're planning a laid-back day enjoying the scents, sights and sounds of one more crown jewel of the Chicago Park District.

See Events Page for Friday, May 29th


See Events Page for Saturday, May 30th


See Chicago Spring Fling map

CSF Events Saturday, May 30th

Saturday, May 30th
9 a.m.
Tour of Rick Bayless's private urban/edible garden. This tour is only open to garden bloggers and special guests of Chicago Spring Fling. There is a reasonable cost associated with this tour of $12 per person. This is a private garden and the location of this event will not be made public. This will be the first event of the day and we will need to arrive there by 10.a.m. This event is limited to 45 people. We'll meet outside Club Quarters and leave as a group.

For those not attending the Bayless garden tour who have registered for Saturday's charter bus, we'll arrange for the bus to circle back and pick you up at Club Quarters at 10:30 a.m.


Saturday, May 30th 11:45 a.m.
Chicago Spring Fling attendees who didn't attend the urban/edible garden tour can meet us for a group lunch at Andies in Andersonville. The cost for lunch is 18.25 and includes tax and tip. Please have exact change. From here we'll board our bus for a short ride to Carolyn Gail's garden. She's graciously invited us into her garden for conversation and light refreshments. Carolyn will be raffling off her painting Jasper in May valued at $350 to an attendee on this day at her home.

Saturday, May 30th 2:15 p.m.

Ben Helphand, Executive Director of NeighborSpace, will give us a tour of the Ginko Organic Gardens.  The Ginko Organic Gardens were started to help ease hunger among residents of the Uptown neighborhood.  He'll talk to us about community gardening in Chicago.

Saturday, May 30th 3:30 p.m.
The gardens at the Lincoln Park Conservatory. We'll enjoy a leisurely stroll through the formal gardens outside of the conservatory or the rambling beds of Grandmother's Garden across the street, to continue our conversations from lunch within earshot of the roaring lions next door at Lincoln Park Zoo, the fluttering butterflies at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, and the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool Gardens. For those wishing to see the butterfly room, admission to the Notebaert museum is $9.00 for adults, $7.00 for seniors age 60+ and students. The Conservatory, outdoor gardens, and zoo are all free.


Saturday, May 30th 7 p.m.-?
Saturday's reservation at Giordano's - the quintessential Chicago pizzeria experience, (located at 223 W. JACKSON BLVD., an easy walk from Club Quarters,) - is set for 7:00 p.m. The menu includes an assortment of thin-crust and Chicago-style stuffed pizzas, salad, and soft drinks. It's all-you-can-eat and drink, and the *total per person including tip and tax will be $17.00 (exact change please)* We'll have discussions on garden blogging & door prizes for garden bloggers. Please fill out the form below to reserve your space & help us provide a count to the restaurant. Saturday's pizza party registration will close Saturday May 9th at midnight EST.

Transportion
We've reserved a 52-passenger ADA charter bus for Saturday. The bus will board at Club Quarters Hotel at 9:30 a.m. with stops at each of our destinations, then back to Club Quarters at about 5:00 p.m. For those not attending the Bayless garden tour, we'll arrange for the bus to circle back and pick you up at Club Quarters at 10:30 a.m.

Seats on the bus are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. We've reserved the largest bus available, and with the number of participants registered for Spring Fling it's possible we could reach or exceed capacity.

The cost per person is $26.00. In order to expedite this process you may reserve your seat by paying for it via PayPal here, with no additional registration forms to complete. Payments are being accepted today through April 30th.

If the bus is filled to capacity, the cost could drop to as low as $20.00 per person. If that occurs we'll refund overpayments in cash at Spring Fling. Because we can't predict how many people will reserve a seat, we felt this would be the most efficient way to manage reserving and pricing seats. We hope you'll join us on the bus Saturday. Please let us know if you have any questions.







See Events Page for Sunday, May 31st.



See Chicago Spring Fling map.

Events

Friday
Chicago Botanic Garden: This 385-acre Botanic Garden features 23 display gardens and three native habitats, uniquely situated on nine islands surrounded by lakes.

Start Times: Leave Ogilvie Station at 8:35 a.m. arrive at Glencoe Station 9:16 a.m. A later start time for those who may have missed the first train: leave Ogilvie Station at 10:35 a.m. arrive at Glencoe Station 11:16 a.m. We'll be using public transportation to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Typically suburban train lines leaving the city during morning rush hour are fairly empty. If we get to the train station early we hope to all ride together on one train car or two.Trains going back into the city when we'll be on our way back typically have lots of room as well.We'll be picked up at the train station by Chicago Botanic Garden trolleys who will shuttle us to the entrance of the Garden. We anticipate this will be a low-stress, comfortable, economical trip. A round-trip ticket on Metra costs $8.70.

The Chicago Botanic Garden has published a webpage just for Chicago Spring Fling to help you make the best use of your time. 

Lunch:
The Chicago Botanic Garden has a wonderful Cafe.

End Time:

There will be one special return trip leaving the Visitor Center everyone should be on board by 2:10. This Trolley will meet the train leaving Glencoe at 2:42 p.m., arriving Ogilvie at 3:35 for the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park at 4 p.m.

Friday, May 29th 4 p.m.
Millennium Park: The Lurie Garden
"Designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel, this 2.5-acre garden pays homage to the City's motto, "Urbs in Horto" (City in a Garden), which refers to Chicago's transformation from its flat and marshy origins to a bold and powerful city. Highlights of the garden include the dramatically lit, 15-foot-high "shoulder" hedge. This physical representation of Sandburg's famous description of the "City of Big Shoulders" encloses the garden on two sides and protects the delicate perennial garden. A graceful hardwood footbridge over shallow water divides the garden diagonally between "light" and "dark" plates."

The Lurie is just a quick 12 minute walk- straight down the street from Club Quarters. After the Lurie you can spend as much time as you like exploring Millennium Park and the surrounding area or head to the hotel to freshen up to get ready for the reception . See CSF Map.

Friday, May 29th 6:30 p.m.-?
Group gathering and reception. Door prizes and raffles for garden bloggers. Our reception will be held at Elephant & Castle, adjacent to Club Quarters Hotel, with cocktails at 6:30 p.m., and dinner at 7:00. The reception is open to all registered participants and special guests of Spring Fling. We'll enjoy a private party room with a British-style dinner to include salad, dinner rolls, garlic mashed potatoes, veggies, London Broil, Chicken & mushrooms, desserts, and cold and hot beverages. We'll have a private, cash bar in our party room. Besides enjoying a great meal, we have some wonderful surprises in store, including gifts for all garden bloggers in attendance thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. The cost per person is $31.20, and you may reserve your spot by paying for your meal via this PayPal link.

See Events Page for Saturday, May 30th


See Events Page for Sunday, May 31st


See CSF Map