More Fling

*With Flingers*

Some blog readers may be tired of posts on Chicago Spring Fling already. I would imagine that each of us may have unique readers who may not visit other garden blogs and they might appreciate the chance to see more of Chicago's charms.

Our second day of Fling began with a truly scrumptious lunch buffet at Andie's restaurant. We had skipped the morning tour of the Bayless garden. After lunch the bloggers wait for the tour bus to pick us up for the next stop on the itinerary.



A visit to the home of Carolyn Gail, one of the CSF organizers and fellow garden blogger at Sweet Home And Garden Chicago. We had come to her home in a historic Chicago neighborhood,



In search of the perfect pink peony.



In a small urban garden a formal statue can give the feeling of a grand estate.



Here Carol of May Dreams Gardens poses for the camera, smiling a joyful smile.



I loved her pond. It was simple and to the point in a square wood frame, yet still provided a nice focal point and great interest with the large koi and single waterlily. It looked eminently doable, more so than the expensive elaborate rock waterfall and pond affairs that look so enticing.



Another wonderful idea of Carolyn Gail's were these faux stained glass windows. After the bloggers left, her windows must have been covered in sticky fingerprints because no one could believe they were fake.



The next stop of the day was the Ginkgo Organic Gardens, an all volunteer community garden that donates all of its produce to a local food bank that caters to low income HIV positive people in the community.



There was a pesky rabbit living in the garden hence the cages around the raised beds. This is one of 68 community gardens assisted by a non-profit land trust in Chicago. NeighborSpace secures the land permanently and helps with bureaucratic issues like insurance and access to water among other things. They don't do rabbits it seems.



While not the prettiest of gardens, this garden impressed me the most. I even thought the space could have been better utilized. There was room for more raised beds. What impressed me so were the volunteers who for a chance to garden, socialize and get some fresh air would dedicate themselves to helping feed the less fortunate. Bad blogger did not get the names of the two young men who talked to us about this garden, but they were maybe thirty somethings, not retired folks with plenty of time on their hands. That was impressive.



Next up was the Lincoln Park Conservatory, a glass house filled with tropicals. Been there done that. I used to live in a perfect greenhouse climate.



The collection was quite impressive and well maintained and if I lived in Chicago I would be sure to visit the conservatories often or get a job in one.



One room was filled with orchids and bromeliads.



There is a picture of this orchid on Tropical Embellishments.



The Lincoln Park Zoo was right next door so we wandered in and kept going until it was time to head back to the tour bus. We saw the rear end of snoozing lions and this masked bear from South America.



The gorillas and chimps were inside even though it was a nice day out. He looks kind of sad and it was a little distressing to see him watching hundreds of people file past and look at him on display. Then I thought of the perhaps millions of essentially house bound humans confined to smaller spaces and without even a garden to go outside to. Maybe he doesn't have it all that bad.



This segment of the Chicago Spring Fling ends with the pink flamingos.



Uh oh. Now I am imagining a flock of pink flamingos in the roadside vegetable garden. At what point will I get to charge a dollar a car to passing tourists?

How A Garden Grows

The official drought better be over. The current monsoon has created a dense lushness. The trees look fuller. The wild under growth part of the wild cultivated garden is extra robust. The editing process is an ongoing ritual.

In the long run though, scenes like this are part luck and big heaping of deliberate patience.



The preference for my own baby garden is to spend a lot less time editing. The forest and its smaller inhabitants are a mighty foe. They assert their dominance. Also my baby garden is not starting from a place of suburban bulldozed subdivisions with a blank slate. The forest is here. It must be lived with.

I was very happy to see when I returned home my editing weapon of choice. A full load of fresh wood chips had been dumped on my driveway. Let the smothering mulch be spread.



After a long weekend touring fabulous gardens in Chicago, the one place here giving me a great degree of satisfaction was the vegetable garden. Looking around at the ornamental parts of the garden caused a sense of dread. It is going to take a lot of work to make a fabulous garden in the wild forest.



The vegetables had grown in the week I was gone. That was nice. At least those that hadn't been eaten by the slugs and the grasshopper plague. What was really giving me that sense of satisfaction though was the order and feeling of control I found in the vegetable garden. It is a garden I am in charge of, not the wild forest.

The wood chip mulch is what allows me to shift the balance of power.



There has even been another expansion in the vegetable garden. The next section east was sprayed a couple of weeks ago to kill what was growing there for a strawberry patch next spring. The decomposition of the wood chips between now and then should make for a nice planting soil come spring. If I can wait that long. Maybe I'll need more corn or potatoes and can borrow this space for the summer.



As I wander the wild cultivated garden there is no shortage of plants I see that would be perfectly at home in a more civilized place. A large drift of this native Goat's Beard, Aruncus dioicus would be fabulous.



This un-named, unknown, slightly buried shrub rose is different. Maybe I'll weed around it, mulch it and visit it where it lives. I don't really want a lot of roses in the civilized garden.



Sort of civilized anyway. I have the beginnings of my salvia for a huge swath that can flow down the hillside in a more naturalistic planting design like I just saw at the Lurie Garden in Chicago. That is pretty much what I already had in mind.



The thing is with the wood chip mulch I will have a much better chance of deciding who will be living on my hillside. The editing will be reduced by as much as 90%. I am seeing in my older mulched beds that some of the wild things will germinate on top as the mulch ages. Still, it seems to be restricted at this point to only a few species, far fewer than the whole gang of wild things that are possible.



The wood chip mulch can be refreshed over time. I just need to place a standing order with the tree trimmers that when they are in the area and need to dump a load of chips, I'm their man. In Hawaii I'd pay $85 bucks for a full load of chips. Here they are free.



So I can keep planting things like my first ever Japanese Maple in the baby garden that will be modestly civilized and mulch things when I have the chips.

I need an edge in this forest garden or I could spend my entire waking life weeding.



Sometimes I just want to wander around with the Spots taking pictures and enjoying things.

Around Millennium Park

A sculpture by Alexander Calder one block from the hotel we stayed at for Chicago Spring Fling which was within easy walking distance of Millennium Park.



Heading towards the park, the road dead ended right in front of the Art Institute of Chicago. Lucky us there was free admission after 5pm on the day we arrived.



The Lurie Garden speaks for itself.



A full plant list and tons of background information can be found at the link above if needed.



With a 10 million dollar endowment it is easier to have a focused and directed effort in a garden that is reminiscent of our own sunny utility easements.



What we can do here though is add salvias and baptisias.



A bit more amsonia would be good too.



Actually I think the key is just a whole lot more of everything coupled with dedicated weeding. Maybe one of those lottery tickets will pan out and I could spend the rest of my life weeding peacefully.



The Cloud Gate is another major draw in Millennium Park.



Your intrepid garden blogger and fellow traveler Aparina pose for a reflective portrait.



How cool is that. This sculpture totally draws the viewer in and becomes an interactive experience.



The garden at the Art Institute of Chicago was open on our second pass through this area and we wandered through for a look.



Black iris.



Sculpture placed in a large bed in the New American style of planting design.



And all that is just some of we saw in a couple of hours one afternoon in the big city.

Flame Azalea

The native Rhododendron calendulaceum is coming in to full bloom upon my arrival back to Monsoon World. Rain, rain and more rain continues. The main rhododendron show has finished. Now the native Kalmia latifolia and the native Rhododendron maximum will have their turn.



Hughes satellite internet is being particularly ornery about uploading photos and I have quite a few to share of the gardens in Chicago.



The Flame Azalea is filler during an intense green lull before the summer bloom kicks in and while Hughes begrudgingly allows photo uploads after several tries for each picture.

Up north I had high speed wireless on a lap top computer. Now it is back to the internet wilderness.

The Chicago Botanic Garden

is a true jewel of an institution. With more landscaped grounds than any person could possibly see in a day and the ever changing nature of a living display, this is a place that should be visited often by those who can. It was the first official stop of the garden bloggers Chicago Spring Fling.

A drift of bloom in the Heritage Garden's Asteraceae bed.



A field of poppies. Somewhere over there should be the Emerald City.



A bonsai collection was in the court yard of the Regenstein Center, the gardens education building.



A roaring well landscaped water fall separated the conifer collection and the Japanese garden.



I did enjoy the Japanese garden. My own new garden at home seems to be leaning naturally in this style direction some what. The high maintenance pruning and shaping of the trees and shrubs will never happen with me, but there are design elements worth mimicking.



A gate and wall frame the view into a garden.



The view into this garden from another vantage point. This garden was for viewing only and could not be entered.



The larger Japanese gardens were three islands connected by bridges.






Front garden at the Shoin Building, a recreation of a 17th-century samurai’s retreat.



The woodland gardens planted throughout were reminiscent of the high mountain forests of NC. Many of the same plant species we have here were growing as the understory plantings.



Though they were mass planted and heavily edited for better effect.



A veritable river of hosta flowed through one bed.



In sunnier locations, similar mass plantings created the same kind of plant drama. Amsonia blooms with a white crabapple (I think).



Alliums bloom before the daylilies and after the daffodils. Now where have I seen this planting strategy before?



The entrance to the fruit and vegetable gardens shows what the home gardener can do with edibles when they have too much time on their hands or a well paid staff.



For most of us though this portrait of the gardener, "The Sower" is more realistic. We tend to work alone and are lucky to be able to afford clothes.



People gawk at the roadside vegetable garden and Uncle Ernie enough as it is. They don't need to see anymore.

The Chicago Botanic Garden however is worth another look should the opportunity ever come again.

Buzz

Back home after a ten and a half hour drive from Michigan today,



My body is still buzzing a bit from the road trip. Things have grown and there is much to do. Tomorrow will be a fine day for that.

Zoom Zoom

It is time to go home. Thank you Aparina. Thank you Chicago.