37 Comments

Posted on July 10, 2018 by gardeninacity

Birds, Butterflies, and Bison at the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

An hour’s drive southwest of Chicago is an 18,000-acre prairie preserve called Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (pronounced Mi-DAY-win). The preserve was created mostly out of lands that had belonged to the now-closed Joliet Army Ammunition Plant. Today the land is part of the U.S. Forest Service and is operated in partnership with the The Nature Conservancy and other groups. There is a large volunteer organization called the Midewin Alliance.

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Posted on July 8, 2018 by gardeninacity

Monarch Caterpillars!

We believe strongly in doing our bit to help the Monarch butterfly, whose migrating population has declined about 90% in recent decades (you can read more about saving the Monarchs here). And so we have lots of Milkweed (Asclepias spp.), which is the only genus of host plants for Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars.

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Monarch Caterpillars on Butterflyweed.
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Posted on July 5, 2018 by gardeninacity

It’s Clematis Time!

We got back from Michigan on Saturday, and I like to think that our various Clematis varieties had put on a show to welcome us home.

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Clematis ‘Jackamanii’
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Posted on July 2, 2018 by gardeninacity

Baby House Wrens!

We’re home! Judy and I got home just last night from the Upper Peninsula. There are a lot of developments in the garden, almost all positive, which I’ll get to soon. However, we’ve spent much of today doting over the baby House Wrens in the yellow birdhouse right outside our back porch.

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Baby House Wren waiting for a home-delivered nosh.
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Posted on June 28, 2018 by gardeninacity

On The Shores of Lake Superior

Our cabin is just a few yards from the Lake Superior shoreline.

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Posted on June 25, 2018 by gardeninacity

Greetings From The North Woods

I’m writing from a cabin on the shores of Lake Superior, in a remote spot near Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. We’ll be here for the remainder of the week.

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This farmhouse was close to halfway between Chicago and St. Paul, so we rented it for our weekend family gathering before heading north.
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Posted on June 21, 2018 by gardeninacity

Blue Days In The Garden

June is a month for blue flowers. High summer is a time for reds, oranges, and (especially) yellows. But the transition to summer is a quieter time, notable for blues and whites. Let’s look at some of the blue flowers currently blooming, then shift to something completely different.

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Posted on June 19, 2018 by gardeninacity

The Lurie Garden in June (2018)

In late May and June the River of Salvia flows through the Lurie Garden. I visited Lurie with camera in hand on the 14th and 15th of this month. There were patches of the river that were done blooming, showing only bare flower stalks.

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Posted on June 14, 2018 by gardeninacity

To Chop, Or Not To Chop

Late May and early June are the days to cut back your tall perennials in this part of the world. I’m talking about cutting back before flowering, not after. Which is to say, cutting back to achieve a more compact, bushier, and less floppy plant.

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This is me cutting back dead plants in early spring, so a bit off topic, but you get the idea. 
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Posted on June 12, 2018 by gardeninacity

Soggy Delights At Mettawa Manor

This past weekend was a rainy one, but Judy and I weren’t going to let that deter us from going to a garden tour of Mettawa Manor, organized especially for members of Lurie Garden.

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Approaching the house at Mettawa Manor, which was built in 1927 as a wedding present for a young bride.
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