The West Chicago Garden Club

We have had our final monthly meeting for 2023.  The November meeting is always fun with our potluck dinner and member appreciation silent auction.  Our members earn “Garden Bucks” throughout the year by participating in our club and then “spend” them at this event.  Many new members joined us in 2023 and we look forward to seeing them again in 2024.

Our first meeting next year, will be in January.  We will continue to meet on the 4th Thursday of each month.  We try to hold other events such as fieldtrips, workshops and volunteer opportunities on other days of the week so members will be able to attend some events even if their Thursdays are unavailable.  Twilight Tuesdays were a great success this year and we plan to continue them next summer.

If you are interested in joining us, come to our January meeting.  If you enjoy it, an individual membership is $20.00 per year per person and a family membership is $30 per year for two individuals who reside at the same address.  For more information, take a look at the “Join us” tab above.

The Kruse House Garden is ever changing. Today the fading plants still provide a diversity of color and texture.

The Kruse Crew will be changing too. Billie Childress is retiring from working in the Kruse Garden and she will be greatly missed! For many years now Billie has headed up the crew, providing expert leadership, knowledge, generosity, and fun. Billie has led us down the right paths, resulting in a garden with “bones” and artistic structure.

Billie has donated numerous trees and perennials from her own gorgeous garden. The viburnum she donated twenty years ago has grown to fifty feet – it’s magnificent. The variety of perennials are like a kaleidoscope –vivid, beautiful and always changing. Billie has devoted an incredible amount of time and love to the garden.

Thank you Billie!

The Kruse House Gardeners have completed the last work day, officially closing out the 2023 gardening season at Kruse. It was a year of significant accomplishments with the refining of the bed front east side, the reworking of the bed at the end of the driveway, and the addition of many new plantings.

We leave you with these parting images of the garden in rapid transition: the fall asters and sedum in full bloom, the begonias and other spring potting plants reinvigorated by the cool fall days before the coming of a hard frost, and the cone flowers’ and other summer perennials’ withered blooms pointing ominously to the end of the season–all against a backdrop of colorful falling leaves. Enjoy!

(For more photos, see our October newsletter)