10
05
2008
Categories : My Chicago Garden
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1
05
2008
Brian of cybology.com, and member of the Men’s Garden Club of Villa Park (not just for men!), just clued me in on a compost gold mine.
If you’ve ever looked for different kinds of compost/manure/etc at the local stores around you, you probably have noticed that all the big box stores seem to sell the same brand. It’s best for your garden to have multiple different kinds so it doesn’t get loaded to one side or the other of the nutrient scale. Well Brian found the gold mine.
Meinke’s Garden Center on Touhy Ave.
5803 Touhy Ave.
Niles, IL 60714
847-647-9455
The bags are 1cu Ft. costs varies. They have Duck, Sheep, Chicken, Bean/alfalfa, mushroom, cow and goat compost. Sweatness!!!
One was 4.75
One was 7.95
the rest were 6.95.
Basically it’s between O’Hare airport and the lake at the cross streets of Des Plaines Rd. and Touhy….If you know where the leaning tower is in Niles….you are almost there just a little further East and it is on the South Side of the Street.
Categories : My Chicago Garden
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30
04
2008

Man! I can’t win this year. Two days of below freezing have completely obliterated my poor little tomatoe plants.
You can see the row of 3 tomatoes in the first picture. Yeah…that’s them…the brown lumps of goo. Just two days ago they were busting out of their store pots begging to be let loose. You can see, if you squint, the forth tomatoe behind my king kong, take a beating, show me some more SNOW, I dare you..oregano. It over wintered with the garlic just fine and is going gang busters frost or no. You can see the lettuce is popping up too. I had a simple layer of straw over them for the last two days of frost.
I also noticed that I forgot to try and protect my two squash plants over on the other side of the house *sigh*. They have some tip burn it looks like but I think they may have survived. I’m not too concerned with stunted growth as they are in a tight area anyway.
Forecast looks good for above freezing temperatures, though still cool. But something else to watch for. It’s severe weather time (eg: tornados) and the College of DuPage folks are out storm chasing this week and Paul Sirvatka has posted that we are heading into a period of potential severe weather for Illinois.
If you don’t have a NOAA weather radio you really should. A couple of my weather nerd friends swear by the Midland WR-300 ($50) or WR-100 ($30). Your local Radio Shack should carry the WR-100 if you don’t want to order via the web. That reminds me. I need to get one!
Categories : My Chicago Garden
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28
04
2008
Categories : My Chicago Garden
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20
04
2008
Well it happened. In preparation for this weekends garden activities, I put my seedlings out in the cold frame to harden them off with a bit of outside weather a few days ago. And with all the hustle and bustle I forgot they were there!!! They got fried when I forgot to lift the windows during the 70 degree weather this morning and the temperature went over 100 degrees. By the time I got to them I had lost nearly all the plants. An entire early seedling set down the toilet. I think the hardiest of them, the one tomatoe and the two squash may have survived. But I don’t have much hope for the cucumber, cabbage, cauliflower and the cherry tomatoes. I can’t believe it! I’m going to have to scramble to replace the dead plants with store purchased varieties if I want any early harvests. I could have kicked myself. That’ll learn me.
I replaced the cabbage and cherry tomatoes from seedlings at Home Depot this evening and they’ll go in tomorrow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen cucumber seedlings so I planted a few seeds next to each seedling I set out in hopes that if the seedlings die the seeds can take over. I remember seeing cauliflower at Menards this morning so I’ll go there after hitting Planters Pallette tomorrow morning to see what they have. I’m taking a day off from work due to the awesome weather and a bunch of garden stuff needs doing ASAP.
On one good note, I got the potatoes cut and ready for planting tomorrow. And my wife is actually warming to the idea of the front grass area (between the low front yard fence and the road) being turned into a squash bed!! Wouldn’t that be a hoot….monster squash plants as the front border! heheheh
Categories : My Chicago Garden
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Looking forward to seeing how the native garden grows. It’s always so small to begin with. And I like the cedar siding photo - nice job.
Gardening with natives makes natural sense.
Five years ago there was a nasty scratch of land outside of the Blue Line Logan Square CTA station in Chicago’s north west side. It was hard packed dirt filled with litter and danger. Over the past five years several local community groups and over 400 volunteers have worked to transform this area into the Paseo Native Prarie Garden. Although this garden is in the midst of the city, it is not a city park and doesn’t recieve any city funds or maintenance. It grows from the concern and contribution of those who care and those who volunteer.
An annual plant sale to benefit the Paseo Praire Garden will take place this Sunday May 18 from 1 pm to 4 pm at the garden located on Kedzie Avenue between Wrightwood and Milwaukee Avenues. all proceeds go to purchse dirt, new plants, and mulch.
Last year a platform and benches were added to the garden and the first innaugral public performance of a play will take place following the sale at 4pm.
Come and join us, purchase plants to support our efforts, walk through the garden, and visit us often to keep up with the natural growth and changes from season to season.
i’ve been working on learning more about soil tests, and i’d suggest a simple pH test for the soil on the blueberries, as they do much better in acid soil.
i like the idea of the cucumbers arching over the lettuce to keep it cooler in the heat of the summer. thx, eric.
What do you use/recommend for the pH test? I’ve seen the various gadgets at the big box store and a few nurseries but I haven’t tried one…for fear it will read completely wrong. And I’m too lazy to get a full blown IL extension office soil test.