A Little Bit About Gardening

Archive for September, 2011

Collecting Seeds

Fall temperatures and the flowers are producing seeds!  Collect some and let some fall for the birds to munch on.  Just remember a few things when collecting. collect each type of seed individually store in an envelope and label with type and year store in a cool, dry, and dark place til spring share them [...]

My Birthday Sunflowers In the Gallery

Black Scabiosa In the Gallery

Fire Pits

It’s the time of year that’s perfect to sit by a nighttime fire.  Fire pits can be as simple as buying a metal dish, or a little more work and making a permanent place in your garden.  Being a distance of 25 feet from any house, garage, or deck is optimal, but living in the [...]

Canning Class

Home Canning Workshop from Wicker Park Garden Club Oct. 8 Home Canning Techniques Learn Techniques, Light Lunch, Take Home a Pint of Canned Good   Dina Petrakis, Instructor Wicker Park Garden Club www.WPGarden.org   REGISTRATION REQUIRED – $30 Pay at Door  wpgarden@aol.com or (773) 278-9075 Held in a Wicker Park Home Address Given to Registered [...]

Castor Bean

The Chicago Park District has used castor bean plants intermixed with prairie grasses to make a striking entrance to their park building.  With its deeply lobed palmate leaves and a height between 6-10 feet, it’s grand, but don’t eat it!  THIS PLANT’S SEEDS ARE VERY POISONOUS, AND IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO BE GROWN IN [...]

Happy First Day of Autumn!

Happy seed collecting time!

Baby Watermelon In the Gallery

Under the Gourd Vines, In the Gallery

 

Thoughts on Soil

This past week a friend of mine bought organic soil that had a gnat infestation.  Not totally unheard of, but annoying none the less.  Luckily, this pest does nothing to your plants, only annoys you.  Not so great when you re-pot all your indoor plants and suddenly are swarmed by gnats.  Gnats like these are [...]