Chicago Garden

Give a Community Garden this Valentine's Day

2010-02-09T19:26:19Z

Looking for an alternative to a bouquet of roses this Valentine's Day? Why not give a community garden through a Openlands contribution of $50.00. Your contribution will be used to create new and support existing community garden in underserved urban areas.

Besides the feeling of doing something good, your sweetie gets a certificate, monthly e-mails about Openlands activities throughout the region and the bi-annual Openlander newsletter.

Azaleas, Camellias and Cyclamen in bloom at Garfield Park Conservatory

2010-02-08T19:14:27Z

It may be winter outside but you couldn't tell by the colorful blooms under glass at the Garfield Park Conservatory.

These pictures were taken this past Saturday during "Sweet Saturdays" at the conservatory on Chicago's West Side. The next, and final, "Sweet Saturday" is on February 13, 2010 from 11-4PM. Take the family for the demonstrations and flowers or pick up some last minute gifts for Valentine's Day. Check out the photo gallery below for more photographs of blooms.

Treehugger can't tell Mexicans from Cambodians when Defending School Gardens

2010-02-02T00:14:39Z

I've been reading most of the articles and garden blogger attempts to counter the article by Caitlin Flanagan, that I think is a hilarious burn, in The Atlantic. Most of them seem to be emotionally based reactions with lots of pom poms, but offer very little of the defense the titles promise.

After speaking briefly with Michael Thompson, of the Chicago Honey Co-op, at a recent event I came away wanting to be drawn into the camp of the people who are up in arms over Caitlin Flanagan's attack on school gardens.

I came across an article that I thought would finally show me that Caitlin Flanagan was wrong.
Today, someone I follow on Twitter retweeted a link to another "defense" of the school garden program, this time on Treehugger. I was pleasantly surprised by the job the guest author did in the first half of the article. I found myself thinking, "now that's a defense" until I got to this section.

Right above the paragraph of the article that accuses Caitlin Flanagan of "condescending" to Hispanics, is a pretty neat picture of a school garden. As an amateur photographer, blogger who likes to use original photography in posts and casual student of semiotics; this picture jumped out at me. What does a charming photo of Cambodian kids, in a Cambodian school garden, have to do with the a response to an article that "attacked" a school garden in California and putting the kids of Hispanic immigrants to work the school's fields instead of teaching them English, math & science?

Nothing.

Granted, most people who look at the article and accompanying picture will probably not notice that the kids in the picture are not Hispanic, but I can. The inclusion of this picture is symptomatic of the colonial mindset found in some in the locavore movement that Caitlin Flanagan touched on in her article.

The Treehugger article begins to loses me and goes down hill from there. It loses me completely when it makes an argument I've seen repeated elsewhere. Somehow Caitlin Flanagan is dismissing the idea of food deserts. Really? What she's really doing is dismissing the patronizing beliefs held by many locavores, activist, gardeners and foodies. She starts with her friend's statement,

"There's only 7-Eleven in the hood."

Then visits an empty Ralphs in Compton and contrasts the grocery chain with the bustling Superior Super Warehouse where many of the customers are Hispanic buying traditional food items. The comparison of the two grocery stores isn't suppose to dispel the food desert theory, but dispel the elitist views of "the hood" and the shopping habits of the poor and minorities who live there. As a resident of "the hood," that was my favorite part (besides the mean-spirited Alice Waters snark) of the article. For once, someone was talking about food deserts and didn't need to perpetuate the stereotype of the ignorant minority victims of the biased grocery store industrial complex.

It is sad that someone like Caitlin Flanagan can see food desert dwellers not as hapless victims but active participants; capable of making good food choices, while some others are married to the view of the contrary. Why is that?

Until some of these well-intentioned: gardeners, activists, locavores and foodies can see the people they are supposedly defending and trying to help as equals and not an interchangeable mass of brown, not much progress will be made.

Winter Bonsai Exhibit at Chicago Botanic Garden

2010-01-29T21:46:53Z

The Three Friends of Winter is an exhibit of deciduous bonsai trees at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It runs from January 29-31, 2010 from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. Check out the video of the exhibit post by the Chicago Botanic Garden to their YouTube channel.

The witch hazel is amazing!

African "Sausage Tree" Fruiting at Lincoln Park Conservatory

2010-01-23T06:38:48Z

Kigela africana, or Sausage Tree, is a native of the southeastern region of Africa. This is the second year the tree has set fruit at the Lincoln Park Conervatory, the picture in this post is from last year. The fruits can weigh as much as 20 pounds each and measure 2 feet long. The tree gets its common name from, well, just look at it!

As the video below from ABC7 explains the sausage is actually a berry and has the tree has many medicinal uses.

Did Cheryl Burton just imply what I think she implied about Jerry Taft?

Garden Book: Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail

2010-01-23T00:19:06Z

Before the term "garden blog" was even coined there was Gayla Trail's You Grow Girl. A few years back when I discovered the internet was good for things besides playing online games I stumbled upon You Grow Girl. While the site and blog seemed to be populated mostly by hip, urban and crafty young women, the subtitle for the blog, "Gardening for the People," resonated with me so I stuck around to read the blog and eventually participate in the forums and became a fanboy. Around this time it was still pretty novel for a blogger to go from blogging to being a published author or pop culture personality, so the fact that Gayla Trail went from being a "blogger" to an author fascinated me. The You Grow Girl book was soon added to my personal gardening book library.

Of Gayla's first book, the Publishers Weekly's Editorial Review on Amazon says: "...there isn't much "groundbreaking" advice here-the book itself is a competent guide to getting a little dirt under your fingernails." What was groundbreaking about the book (and blog it was spun from) was the populist gardening tone and appeal to younger gardeners. For the first time younger gardeners had an author they could relate to, that explained gardening wasn't hard-it was easy, fun and an outlet for creative types. Gayla's second book, Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces will be available February 2, 2010. After spending the afternoon pouring over the beautifully photographed and illustrated 205 pages of my review copy of the book, I think it should've been subtitled "Edible Gardening for the People."

Like Bob Flowerdew's Grow Your Own Eat Your Own, Grow Great Grub presents edible gardening in a way that is accessible to all; particularly people with limited space and finances. Within the pages of Grow Great Grub you won't find fruits and vegetables growing in fancy containers, you will find them growing in items you may have around your house like: buckets, pails, wooden boxes and tin cans.

The conversational tone of the text demystifies mulching, composting and fertilizers without talking down to the reader. The section on garden pests and plant diseases will help vegetable gardeners identify common problems without resorting to harsh chemicals. DIYers will appreciate projects like the no-till raised-bed, self-irrigation container (homemade version of the Grow Box & EarthBox) and trashcan potatoes. Cooks and foodies will appreciate recipes like roasted zucchini dip, root vegetable fries and the cold cucumber, mint and yogurt soup that is making my mouth water while typing this. There is even a section on canning and preserving and extending your garden harvest (printable canning labels available in back of book). Newbie gardeners will appreciate the advice on choosing containers, companion plantings, seed starting and planting chart, a chart for predicting when your crops will be ready to harvest and the planting advice.

What kinds of vegetables are covered in the book? The usual suspects (beans, greens, peas, cucubrits, alliums, peppers, brassicas and more) that you'd want to grow in your edible garden. There are also suggestions for more unusual edibles and root vegetables, which in my opinion don't get enough attention in the vegetable garden.Then there are the fruits like blueberries, citrus containers, currants and gooseberries, melons along with herbs and edible flowers.

Just like You Grow Girl came along at a time when younger gardeners needed a writer that spoke to them, Grow Great Grub is being published at the perfect time. The surge vegetable gardening has recently experienced, for better or worse, is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Younger, "casual gardeners" will appreciate having so much information condensed into one book. The information is presented in a fun and casual manner that doesn't talk down to the reader, making the information easy to understand and retain. It is like getting gardening advice from your friend who has been gardening for a years and is happy you're finally jumping on the bandwagon. While the book is targeted at people with limited space like patios, rooftops and balconies; the information is sound and can be applied to those with larger back or front yards who want to grow fresh food. Lastly, I want to mention the book's design because good gardening books are common, but well-designed gardening books are rare. The book's design is wonderful, probably the most beautiful book on vegetable gardening I've ever seen.

Grow Great Grub is published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of The Crown Publishing Group and will retail for $19.99 in the U.S. when it becomes available in February 2010. You can visit You Grow Girl or follow the author on Twitter. Visit the Grow Great Grub website to preview the book and preorder.

Is Alice Waters "Cultivating Failure" with Edible Schoolyard Program?

2010-01-18T01:16:08Z

I believe that gardens are good things; I believe that exposing kids to gardening and other outdoor activities are good things--I believe this with every fiber of my being. Yet, I think the article Cultivating Failure by Caitlin Flanagan for The Atlantic is a thing of genius. If you're a fan of Alice Waters you probably won't feel the same. Similarly, some gardeners are not feeling the love because they see the article as an indictment on gardening-they're internalizing Ms. Flanagan's writing-instead of asking themselves if she has a point.

Strip away the scathing and hilarious takedowns of Alice Waters and Ms. Flanagan actually poses a couple of great questions. Why are the students at the Edible Schoolyard program performing lower on tests than their peers at schools that don't have school gardens? As someone who believes in the benefits of adding school gardens and including them in the curriculum, this is what I want to know the most. How is it that exposing kids to something that brings them closer to nature and the food they eat not improving their test scores?

Corby Kummer, food writer for The Atlantic, took to his blog to pen School Gardeners Strike Back, a lengthy rebuttal of Ms. Flanagan's article that ultimately admits:

"Guerrero had no test scores to refute Flanagan; that's never been a focus of the Edible Schoolyard. But nor has the program ever relied on the public funds Flanagan says can't be wasted in what is demonstrably one of the lowest-performing state school systems in the country."

As good as the idea of kids and gardens make us feel, that's not going to get them into college and into good paying jobs. When I leave the house at night I'm not worried about getting mugged or shot by out of work doctors, lawyers and teachers.

When I was a kid I couldn't name anything more boring than math and science. I was certain that I would never have a need for math and science when I grew up, now I see that math and science is all around me every time I step into the garden. It is in the planning of the garden and spacing of seeds and in my efforts to propagate plants. If only I had known then what I know now.

Maybe these kids are performing lowers on tests than their peers in schools without gardens because of issues at home. Or maybe the issue is that people have been swept up in the cult of personality that is Alice Waters, a restaurateur and activist for locally grown food. As good a job as George Clooney did on ER and as hard as he works to raise awareness on various issues; I would not want him meddling in the curriculums of the medical schools that will graduate the people who will someday be performing open heart surgery. Call me crazy.

The second question that Ms. Flanagan raises is if having the children of immigrants picking lettuce during school instead of concentrating on teaching English, math and science is a good idea. It seems like a cruel twist of fate. The comparison she makes is jarring and makes you think. I'm of the belief that gardening, like charity, should begin in the home. Let's build gardens in schools where the kids are encourage to play and learn, but leave teaching to the teachers. I like the work being done in California by La Mesa Verde in conjunction with the University of California Extension. They build organic vegetable gardens in the backyards of low-income families and provide organic gardening and nutrition courses with UCE's Master Gardening Program. Teach the parents, teach the kids.

I'm sorry Alice Waters groupies and fellow gardeners, but Caitlin Flanagan is right. Unless the purpose of the Edible Schoolyard program is to create a generation of under-educated, under-paid and voiceless migrant farm workers, it is indeed cultivating failure and that's not a good thing.

Hybrid Garden Seeds are not the Enemy

2010-01-10T04:33:03Z

In the conversation about the dangers of genetically modified seeds and the benefits of heirloom seeds happening across the internet it seems like hybrids are be getting a bad reputation. The word "hybrid" sounds scary and conjures up images from the nightmares you have after viewing a science fiction movie. The truth is that hybrid plants have been around a long time. Simply put, hybridizing is the creation of new plants from plants that already exist. Sometimes even the supporters of GMOs fail to understand that hybrids are not synonymous with GMOs.

For an example see the comment by "Zigster." Hybrids are indeed commercially available, and that's OK. There is nothing wrong with hybrid seeds, plants, vegetables or flowers. Hybridization occurs all the time in nature without help from humans in lab coats.

Look at the image at the top of this post. On the left is a "black" columbine that I grow in my garden, I grew it from seeds given to me by a gardener. After the blooms have been pollinated and the seed pods mature I scatter seeds around the garden and let the seedlings grow to create more of these "black" blooming columbines. In the spring of 2009 the bloom on the right emerged in the garden. I only grow the "black" columbine and all of the columbines growing in my garden have come from seeds I saved and sowed. So, where did this purple and white bloom come from?

Chances are that the original seeds for my "black" columbine were hybrid seeds and this one plant reverted and now displays characteristics of its grandparents. But this does not account for the fact that I have a couple of generations of these plants grown from seeds I collected and sowed, which all look alike.

The other option, which at the moment makes the most sense to me, is that this bloom is itself a hybrid. Peering into the gardens around my own I discovered that several of my neighbors have planted columbines of various colors. When I planted my columbines they were the only ones around for blocks. Today, the bees have access to pollen from of a variety of columbines and a bee must have pollinated a columbine in my garden with the pollen of a neighbor's columbine.

If I saved the seeds from the purple and white columbine and sowed them in the garden the blooms that result would not look exactly like the one pictured above. If I wanted seeds that were true to type (that looked exactly like the purple and white columbine), I would have to pollinate my "black" columbine with the same columbine the bees pollinated mine with.

This would have to be repeated over and over every time I wanted to produce more plants that bloomed the same as the purple and white bloom. In seed catalogs, these seeds are described as F-1 hybrids. F-1 stands for first filial generation, these exhibit characteristics of both parents, in this case the purple from my columbine and white from another. Saving and sowing seeds from F-1 hybrids will result in lots of variation and blooms that don't look identical to the one you collected seeds from.

What are Open-Pollinated Seeds?

Recently a blogger, who blogs for a garden publisher, wrote that open-pollinated seeds give people control over their food. Sadly, the statement is indicative of the politicizing of seeds, gardening and agriculture that is leading to lot of confusion. If you are looking to make a political statement with your seed purchases-- open-pollinated seeds will not help you stick it to the man, because it is just a descriptive label.

Open-pollination is just the means by which the plants will reproduce. Some plants will cross-pollination aided by wind, water, insects or animals (including humans). Self-pollination is possible by plants that have both male and female parts on either the same flower or another flower growing on the same plant.

Corn needs cross-pollination, tomatoes can self-pollinate. When seeds are labeled as being open-pollinated that just means that the pollination occurred either by cross-pollination or self-pollination (without aid or intervention) and should results in plants that are true to type. Unlike the controlled methods (usually involving hand-pollination) that is common with hybridizing. The black columbines in my garden are open-pollinated, I do nothing to ensure they are or aren't pollinated by outside pollen sources. The opposite of open-pollination is not hybrid.

As a seed saver /trader if someone tells me that they have open-pollinated seeds I take that as a warning that the transfer of pollen has been left up to nature and when nature is doing the work chances are that you may end up with some variance, like the purple and white columbine above. Seed producers will usually isolate plants (grow them a distance apart), or grow only one variety, to keep this from happening, but there is always a slim chance that your open-pollinated seeds will exhibit some variance.

What are Heirloom Seeds?

Generally speaking, heirlooms are plants that have been grown by farmers and gardeners and the seeds saved every year and replanted. Like antiques, these fruit and vegetable seeds are handed down from generation to generation. Heirloom lovers say that heirlooms are better than hybrids because they have better taste, can be grown from saved seed and keep the genetic diversity of what we eat alive. If one type of seeds could be said to help you have control over your food, heirlooms seeds would be them. One thing to keep in mind is that if you grow more than one variety of something in the garden there is a chance that your plants can cross, creating hybrids, defeating the purpose of you growing heirlooms.

Personally, I am of the opinion that whatever gives the gardener the greatest sense of satisfaction is, ultimately, what matters. Neither hybrids, nor heirlooms are better if the gardener growing these seeds fails in germinating the seed or does not get a chance to harvest a crop. Lately heirlooms have been riding a wave of popularity as people seek to shop according to their conscious, buy seeds they can save and sow later or reconnect to a simpler time. Growing heirloom fruits and vegetables is a worthy endeavor, but...

If you come across lists, blogs, websites or garden personalities trumpeting heirlooms while warning you not to buy hybrids take the information with a grain of salt. Heirlooms are no more pure than hybrids. At one point heirlooms had to have been hybrids; little of what we now eat looks exactly like it did in nature when humans realized it could be eaten. You cannot go to South America, where tomatoes are native, and pick 'Mortgage Lifter' tomatoes in the wild.

Some sources and seed sellers are blurring the lines of what is an heirloom. A variety 40-50 years-old is considered an heirloom.

While researching this blog post I have came across several online seed sellers listing 'Rutgers' tomato seeds as "heirlooms," "non-hybrids" and "open-pollinated." Here is a perfect example of why demonizing hybrids is silly. The 'Rutgers' tomato was a hybrid developed by breeder Lyman Schermerhorn at the height of the tomato canning industry in New Jersey. Once only grown commercially it is now available through seed catalogs and is a popular tomato among home gardeners, and there are several strains of it available as open-pollinated seeds and is now considered an "heirloom." Tastes and attitudes shift and while 'Rutgers' may once have been a big bad hybrid of the commercial world; there is now a generation of gardeners who are seeking it out because the taste reconnects them to childhood memories of sitting down to a bowl of Campbell's tomato soup.

Recently, a garden blogger contacted a popular heirloom seed company after reading The Boycotting of Monsanto-Seminis Seeds post to ask about the source of their seeds. Here is the reply the blogger received:

Thanks for your inquiry! I appreciate your concerns.
ALL our seeds are open-pollinated, non-hybrid, non-GMO types. We sell NO treated seed; however some of our seed is conventionally grown so therefore some of our seed is not organic. To the best of our knowledge we are not offering any PVP (protected) varieties; all our varieties are public-domain, and therefore seed-saving is legal. (It is also strongly encouraged!) We don't do any business directly with Monsanto-Seminis, and we don't knowingly do business with their subsidiaries or with anyone who even offers their seed for sale. Some of our seed is imported by us; it says so right in the catalog. Some of our seed is purchased from wholesale distributors, and the truth is we do not know in most cases where their seed is produced.

If hybrids, given time, can become open-pollinated heirlooms and your favorite heirloom seed company is purchasing seeds from wholesale distributors without knowing where the seed is produced-- is the garden the best place to make a political statement? Probably not. Gardening is a seedy business.

Hybrid seeds are not the enemy, not even close.

White House Veggie Garden Inspires African American Gardeners, Seed Company Hopes to do Same.

2010-01-08T02:46:41Z

Beyond the Obama head planter and the Chia Obama, the First Family has created an interest in gardening among many, but among African Americans in particular. "We had a lot more gardeners last year," said Dr. Shemuel Israel, President of the North Lawndale Greening Committee on Chicago's West Side. He credits the recession and First Family with the sudden interest in gardening and urban agriculture in the neighborhood. The enthusiasm was not always so high.

In 2005 when the North Lawndale Greening Committee reached out to older members of the community for help with programs tailored to neighborhood youth, there was a feeling of reluctance by some who felt they had already done their fair share of farming. Many opted for supervisory roles in the youth gardening projects.

When you consider that, these neighborhood elders were part of the great black migration from the South to northern cities that peaked in the 1950s; it is understandable that they do not have a romanticized view of gardening and agriculture. After all, they came north to be part of the industrial economy and hoped to leave behind all things associated with the painful memories of agriculture.

"African-Americans--who have been very frank with me-- say that gardening is 'what the slaves did,' and they want no part of it," said Barbara Melera, owner and manager of the D. Landreth Seed Company in New Freedom, Pa., the oldest seed house in America. This year the D. Landreth Seed Company is celebrating its 225th birthday and issuing a commemorative seed catalog to mark the occasion. Ms. Melera says that she's gone back through the history of the D. Landreth Seed Company catalogs and picked out the "neatest" things in those catalogs to include in the commemorative seeds catalog, which will be the last one given away for free. It will certainly be a collector's item because it will contain information that gardeners and garden historians will not find anywhere else.

Another reason the seed catalog for Landreth's 225th birthday is creating a buzz is the inclusion of the African American Heritage Collection. The African American Heritage Collection marks the first time a seed company has created a seed collection that targets African American gardeners. When African Americans discover that they have a rich culinary history that predates slavery, they view vegetable gardening in a completely new light, according to conversation Ms. Melera has had. "This is one of my accomplishments I'm most proud of," says Ms. Melera of the seed collection. The African American Heritage Collection is collaboration between Ms. Melera and Michael Twitty, a community scholar of traditional African American food culture. The heirloom seeds are (comprised of seeds already in the Landreth catalog) listed with information on culinary use and where they originated from in Africa or the Caribbean.

With the First Family, serving as an example and now the African American Heritage Collection of seeds the time is right for groups like the North Lawndale Greening Committee to reap the rewards of their hard work and usher in a new generation of gardeners.

"We do a lot, but there's more work to be done to teach people to grow their own food...and of course about urban beekeeping," says Dr. Israel.

Today the North Lawndale neighborhood is home to many community and backyard gardens, the Chicago Honey Co-op-- an urban beekeeping cooperative--and the Betty Swan Community Arboretum, an Urban Forest Education Center where residents, students and Treekeepers learn about caring for city trees.

The D. Landreth Seed Company has sold seeds to every president from George Washington to FDR. Will President Obama be calling them anytime soon to make a purchase of this historic collection of seeds? Lets hope so.

You can contact Dr. Israel via Twitter. Watch a neat documentary on the North Lawndale Greening Committee's garden walk by Rebecca Parish. Request a commemorative seed catalog from the D. Landreth Seed Company at www.LandrethSeeds.com or by calling 1.800.654.2407

Burpee Home Gardens aims for Twitpic Gardeners

2010-01-06T03:26:24Z

On a beautiful summer day a happy young woman walks through her lush garden with a basket in her hand. While surveying the paradise that she's created for herself she notices that her tomato plants are crowded with delicious red tomatoes. The look of contentment on her face turns to sheer joy at the sight of her bounty. She does what every gardener does before harvesting a crop, she snaps a picture of it with her smart phone and uploads it the internet, no doubt to Facebook or Twitpic, with the caption "from MY garden!"

This scene is from a commercial posted on the internet that will be airing this spring to support the Burpee Home Gardens product line. "Isn't it great? It will be airing across the country," said Erica Zipp, Account Executive at Bader Rutter the marketing agency responsible for the commercial, when I spoke to her today. Indeed, the commercial struck a cord with me even though probably a couple of years older and far less affluent (if the size of the garden in this commercial is any indication) than the target audience. As a garden blogger I'm regularly taking photos of what I'm most proud of in my garden and uploading them to the internet.

Filmed at the gardens of the Ball Horticultural Company in West Chicago, IL., the commercial is part of a marketing campaign that will include social media to introduce Burpee to a "new, younger, more casual gardening audience." The commercial reminds me of several products I saw at the Independent Garden Center Show in 2009 that were created to appeal to this casual gardener by simultaneously demystifying gardening and framing a garden as an object to be proud of. Lately I've been wondering if this casual gardener does indeed exist or is just a figment of the garden marketer imagination. After this commercial airs if I start seeing non-garden bloggers sharing Twitpics of backyard tomatoes I'll have my answer. I wonder if W. Atlee Burpee were alive today; would he follow me back on Twitter?

Burpee was founded in Philadelphia in 1876 by W. Atlee Burpee at the age of 18 with a $1000.00 loan from his mother. Today, Burpee is owned by George Ball Jr., and is probably better known as a seed company to older and established gardeners. Last year the Burpee Home Gardens line was available in the Gulf States and the Mid-Atlantic regions. The complete line, more than 100 varieties, of Burpee Home Gardens plants will be available at retailers across the country this year.

Lets "Grow Together" with One Seed Chicago

2010-01-01T20:12:35Z

Get 2010 off to a great start by growing together with One Seed Chicago. One Seed Chicago is a project of NeighborSpace, Chicago's land trust for community gardens. Every year One Seed Chicago puts three seeds up for a vote, Chicagoans vote for their favorite and the winning seed is sent to them for free in the mail.

You can grow your One Seed Chicago seeds in your garden, windowsill, container garden or community garden. You don't have to be an experienced gardener to participate, just have a desire to beautify Chicago by planting more gardens. Teachers can request a classroom size packet of seeds to get kids involved.

Voting takes place from January 1, 2010 until April 1, 2010 and the winning seed will be announced at the Green & Growing Urban Garden Fair at the Garfield Park Conservatory on April 24, 2010.

To vote simply fill out the form at www.OneSeedChicago.com and follow the blog for events, news and information on growing your seeds.

If you have a blog or a website you can download graphics here for a post here encouraging your readers to vote and get free seeds. You'll also find smaller graphics for making badges that you can use to link to One Seed Chicago.

Where to Buy Cacti in Chicago

2009-12-29T06:19:44Z

Winter is a pretty good time to get into the collecting and growing cacti and succulent plants around Chicago. Pretty soon they'll start to fill stores with outdoor furniture, potting soil, planters, spring flowers and bulbs. Before that happens there is a small window of opportunity for plant lovers who like collecting the weirdly shaped and prickly plants that cacti and succulents comprise.

Big box stores: Hate to admit it but Home Depot and Wal-Mart are the best kept secret for cacti & succulent enthusiast. Towards the end of the first week of the new year and the middle of the second week they've pretty much unloaded all of the holiday stuff nobody wanted to buy at clearance. It is still too soon for much besides seeds, so they stock the greenhouses with indoor plants like cacti and succulents. Home Depot, Lowes, Menard's Wal-Mart should be added to your list of places to visit in search of newly arrived plants. Home Depot and Wal-Mart is where I purchased my Desert Roses (Adenium Obesum) and my String of Hearts Vine (Ceropegia Woodii). I was particularly excited about the Desert Roses because I wanted one for the longest time, but didn't want to pay the price online stores were asking for. I got all of mine for between $2.00 and $3.00 each.

Of the independent garden centers in Chicago my favorites for cacti are: 1)City Escape 2)Sprout Home 3) Grand Street Gardens. City Escape ranks #1 for the quantity. Besides individually potted plants they also have a lot of dish gardens and topiary planted with succulents plants. Sprout Home ranks #2 because the selection is smaller, but I've noticed they carry a lot of rarieties and oddities which better suit my tastes. Grand Street Gardens, where the picture above was taken this summer, ranks #3. Although, if I was only collecting Living Stones (Lithops) I definitely would visit Grand Street Gardens because the times I've been there their selection of Living Stones was amazing.

When buying cacti at big box store looks out for the fake flowers onto the plants. Cacti naturally produce some of the most beautiful flowers you will ever see, but growers apply these fake flowers on them (with hot glue) because they do a good job of tricking customers into believing the flowers are real. The flower on the left is real, the flowers on the right are fake. If you look under the flower bud and see a gob of dried hot glue, that's usually a pretty good sign the flower is fake. If you use the label cloud on the mrbrownthumb garden blog you can see the other cacti & succulents in my collection.

Do you have a favorite source in the city for cacti that I didn't mention? Feel free to leave a comment and tell me about it.

The Boycotting of Monsanto-Seminis Seeds

2009-12-28T07:17:51Z

Like Santa, you should check recommended seed seller lists, twice.

The seed starting season is just over the horizon and it looks like the popularity of vegetable gardening, due to the recession, will continue for the foreseeable future. This is good news for seed companies and companies that cater to gardeners. You know who this is bad news for? The Monsanto Company. In 2005 Monsanto purchased Seminis, the largest developer of fruit and vegetable seeds in the world. Many of the seeds you buy at garden centers and nurseries, sold under the brands of various smaller seed companies, come from Seminis.

Vegetable gardening, once the hobby of the olds and the poors, is now very fashionable. You have mommy bloggers, survivalists, foodies, urban homesteaders and people who now want to live sustainable lifestyles, hug farmers and retweet the recent exposé by the AP of Monsanto-- all rubbing elbows with the blue hairs and garden nerds.

These well-meaning individuals are sounding the alarm about the dangers of Monsanto and its army of GMO plants after they read a book or saw a documentary by Michael Pollan. Google "How to avoid Monsanto seeds" or "Boycott Monsanto seeds" and see for yourself. You'll probably come across a list or two that is making the rounds containing the names of companies that buy seeds from Monsanto/Seminis. There are also lists of companies that are "safe" to buy from because they don't sell seeds from Monsanto/Seminis. One such list that is being passed around can be found on a forum called Mothering.com. It was posted by someone called FarmerCathy on 1/08/08 and gives a list of seed companies that are "safe from Monsanto seeds." I'm not a big fan of making lists like this because it reminds me of a darker time in America's history, but I can understand that people who feel passionate about the issue would make them or pass them on.

What concerns me here is that there usually isn't much vetting of the list makers and information contained therein. For example; the safe list I mentioned above recommends buying seeds from Seeds of Change, yet the parent company of Seeds of Change is Mars Inc. Look at the Seeds of Change website and see if you can find a prominent mention of this on their homepage. There's a major disconnect where companies that purchase seeds from Monsanto are blacklisted while the one owned by the makers of Snickers, is mapping the cacao tree genome and patent holders of a technology that can keep the colors of M&Ms from bleeding into cookie dough by applying a "thin inorganic coating," is considered "safe."

I have nothing against Seeds of Change and am at this moment considering buying seeds from them, and to their credit they have pledged to not sell GMO seeds. But, if I was a new gardener concerned about Frankenfoods I'd probably like to know that by buying from them I was supporting a company like Mars, Inc. That information is inexplicably absent from the list of "safe from Monsanto seeds." If you are serious about avoiding Monsanto/Seminis seeds in your garden it isn't as easy as taken what you read on the internet as gospel.

How do you keep your garden safe from seeds produced by Monsanto/Seminis and other companies who are not aligned with your ideology?

You're going to have to do research that's harder than reading lists that have been copied and pasted around the internet.

Step #1 Pick up the phone and call the seed company you want to buy from and ask if Seminis supplies their seeds. If Seminis is their supplier keep looking until you find another seed company.

Step #2 Repeat Step #1 until you find a company that doesn't. Or at least until you find a seed company that carries the particular seeds you want that aren't supplied by Seminis. Some companies may only carry certain seeds from Seminis, and you may end up having to make a moral trade-off if you really want to grow a particular, flower, vegetable or fruit.

You should also learn to collect and save your own seeds or try buying some cool heirloom varieties of the veggies you want to grow. Don't judge me too badly when you see me at Home Depot buying Burpee seeds, a gardener has to do what a gardener has to do.

How to Kill a Poinsettia

2009-12-27T20:45:58Z

I can't think of a plant I hate more than the poinsettia. My intense hatred of this tropical plant, native to Mexico, has little to do with its association with Christmas and holiday cheer. My hatred of this plant stems from my childhood and spotting it in the windows of burger joints, Laundromats and storefront offices around Chicago. Even before I knew I liked plants, I knew I hated poinsettias

By the time summer rolls around Chicago these poinsettias are tall spindly things with barely two leafs. They grow desperately towards florescent light fixtures or smash their ugly faces against windowpanes in a pathetic attempt to either illicit sympathy from passersby or to get some light. A plant that doesn't know when to give up the ghost will need some help in passing onto the big greenhouse in the sky.

How to Kill a Poinsettia in Three Easy Steps

Unfortunately for the poinsettia, and its haters, most people who buy them don't know how to care for them so they remain lush, healthy plants. So, here are some tips on how to kill a poinsettia that someone either gave you for Christmas or that you bought in a misguided attempt to decorate your house, office or small business.

1. Cold. Being tropical plants they don't like cold temperatures. Place it on your deck, patio, balcony, fire escape or garden today. The snow covers a multitude of sins, even plant murder. For the faint of heart; placing it in a drafty window or near a door where it will be subjected to regular blasts of cold air works too. It is a slower death, but gets the job done.

2. Drown 'em. Poinsettias like even moisture, not too soggy and not too dry. When you're watering your houseplants give your poinsettia extra water. If they still have that ridiculous foil wrapping around the pot pour a bit of water in there to ensure soil remains constantly wet.

3. Darkness. Place it dark place where it will not get any sunlight or be able to grow upwards to any light fixture. The leaves will soon drop and you can throw it away because everyone knows that a houseplant with no leaves is pretty much dead.

Any one of these three steps will lead to a quick death for most poinsettias. Combine two of the steps if you notice your poinsettia isn't getting the hint. I omitted allowing them to dry out as a method of poinsettia murder. A droopy poinsettia may illicit a sympathetic watering from someone who doesn't know you're purposefully trying to kill your poinsettia. Alternately, you can go on vacation and forget to put anyone in charge of your poinsettia or put it in the care of someone with a black thumb. When you come back from your vacation you will be rested and poinsettia free.

The Poinsettia FAQ on the University of Illinois Extension has good info for those who actually like poinsettias.

Winter Flower Garden and Train Shows in Chicago

2009-12-18T23:45:54Z

Looking for a garden fix this weekend? Visiting the winter flower shows around Chicago is a good way to surround yourself with plants and flowers during these dreary days. If you have family and friends visiting for the holidays get them out of the house and into one of the conservatories for a couple of hours. The free Winter Flower & Train Show at the Lincoln Park Conservatory is a must, especially if you kids who like model trains. The Holiday Flower Show at the Garfield Park Conservatory, gives you a nice backdrop for family pictures. Both of these are free and easily accessible by CTA.

If you're up for a short trip check out the Wonderland Express at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Here's a video I made last year of the Winter Flower & Train Show at the Lincoln Park Conservatory:

You can see more picture of the Winter Flower and Train Show at Lincoln Park Conservatory Show here.