The West Chicago Garden Club

By Ruth Kyme

Nina Koziol is a horticulturist and garden writer who tends plants on a deer-infested acre about 40 miles from Chicago. She has written garden articles for the Chicago Tribune for 22 years as well as for Chicagoland Gardening, Old-House Journal, Organic Gardening and The American Gardener. Nina writes for ILCA’s The Landscape Contractor, PlantersPlace.com, and for The Chicago Botanic Garden’s web site. She has been teaching horticulture, garden design and residential landscape design history at the Chicago Botanic Garden and The Morton Arboretum since 1997.

Painting Your Garden with Plants: Shade: A garden shaded by trees or buildings is often a challenge for the gardener who is faced with low light levels, tree roots, and soil that is often dry. Through Nina’s
presentation, “Painting Your Garden With Plants: Shade,” we will discover solutions and ideas for artful plantings that can help us create effective combinations with optimal color, texture, and form. Take your shade garden beyond hostas with native wildflowers for spring and flowering perennials for summer and fall.

Meeting Location: St Andrew Lutheran Church (NE Corner of Prince Crossing & Geneva Road.)

Meeting Time:

• 6:45PM Arrive & Mingle
• 7:00PM Business Meeting
• 7:15PM Program

By Mary Anderson

“April is the cruelest month.”

I had always heard this quote and thought it referred to April’s fickle weather, especially the prospect of snow showers right when you thought we just couldn’t get any more. But I found out T.S. Eliot was way darker—he was writing about a character in his poem who was so melancholy and despondent he rejected the rejuvenation that April represents. How could anyone hate a swath of grape hyacinths or a joyful bouquet of daffodils?
Poor man! He really needed a gardener for a friend….

The gardeners at the Kruse house definitely celebrate a new season of growth each year. But cruel April didn’t allow us to get started outside, as our first April date was 38 degrees with gusty winds. So we spent our time in the Kruse house basement winter sowing and preparing for a future day of planting sprouted seeds: zinnias, hollyhocks, coneflowers, alyssum, among others. You can find them soaking up the sun and rain by the back steps at the Kruse house, and later on in various beds where we are confident they will flourish.
The next week we started clean-up. And on our Second-Saturday-of-the-Month Volunteer Day, we continued in earnest. We tackled the Spurge Scourge, trying to get all the underground runners of this particular variety of spurge that is poisonous. We also identified some trees that winter winds battered and we had to cut them down. Power saws! And debris!

2nd Saturday Volunteers

We called the landscaping company that mows at the house and they brought a truck for us to fill up. And we filled it!
So now we’re almost set to get to the fun stuff. We have plans for the border garden, including a hosta hill; we are looking for ideas for the front planters; we are looking forward to Wasco coming to plant the new tulip tree; and we want to add to the fencing along the east side (no Tom Sawyering when we paint it!).

And we are just anticipating seeing the garden in its glory from month to month over the Spring and Summer and Fall, never once considering April’s introduction to Spring as anything except glorious! We’d love to share all this with others, so come by to visit the garden any time.

And something else I learned recently: Being in nature can boost your attention span. The benefits are many! Be inspired to join in.

Tags: Kruse Garden