The West Chicago Garden Club

By Kerry Perry

The garden was put to bed in late fall. Not much was cut back as we wanted to protect the habitat for overwintering bees and other insects. There was a beautiful blanket of snow a few weeks ago and I only wish it had stayed longer. The recent warm weather brought immediate melting and now the yard is brown and somewhat dull. But, ahhh…the anticipation of spring! We’ll be ready and waiting for new growth.

“The tiny seed knew that in order to grow, it needed to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, and struggle to reach the light.” – Sandra Kring

Several Snowdrops Galanthus woronowii bulbs were planted in the far NE sec�on of the garden. They will be among the first flowers peeking their heads out of the snow in early spring.

One of my favorite photos is of the bench by the garden shed and the old maple in the background. It looks so peaceful, tranquil and pure.

Join the Kruse Crew Wednesday mornings, generally April through October. It’s a fun learning experience and you have the opportunity to get your hands dirty.

By Christina Covarrubias (Photos by Kerry Perry)

The Kruse garden is still looking glorious in its autumnal hues! The monkshood wins the award for latest perennial to flower here this year and our small clump of trout lily is growing and flowered in its very orchid-like way. 

A special thank you to our Wednesday Kruse Crew- Kerry Perry, Barbara Darrah, Chris Gicela, Dee Soustek, Marilyn Santos-McNabb, Jean Ann Saarnio, Mary Anderson, Judy Knaak, and Karen King- for your gift of time, plant knowledge, talent and muscles over the past 6 months. Your fellow Kruse gardeners bundled up for our last day in the garden, October 29th.  We celebrated the end of another beautiful garden season and walked around with pencil, paper and camera in hand for over an hour planning for next year. We will need about 3 times as many hours and gardeners next year if we want to check everything off our plans! Anyone else a little delusional with their garden plans or is it just me?!?

Last month we shared our Wasco trip selecting a new tree. As we were looking around for another tree, the Wasco tree expert kept suggesting tree varieties and we had to reply “we already have one of those” to so many of the trees he suggested. It’s the sign of a great garden legacy to have such diversity of established trees in our almost one acre garden. With this tree diversity comes multi-seasonal interest and an extended autumn season. 

Enjoy the fall foliage photos!

Ghouls in our Garden by Christina Covarrubias

Flowers in the garden are typically thought of as calming and cheerful but what about the plants that are dangerous? Some lovely flowers come with a warning like roses with thorns. Other flowers -though beautiful- need to be handled with caution. Keep reading for examples we have in our garden.

Monkshood Aconitum v. is a delightful, dark purple fall-blooming perennial standing approximately 36″ tall -however all parts are poisonous.

Castor bean Ricinus communis is a unique annual, in our area, with palmate red or green leaves and bright red ball-like inflorescences, its fast-growing tropical appearance makes a unique addition to our sun-drench containers. Castor bean is EXTREMELY toxic and known as the poison ricin which is estimated at 12,000 times more toxic than rattlesnake venom.

Mediterranean spurge Euphorbia characias we consider a thug in our garden as it spreads wildly. It and other more attractive euphorbias can cause skin irritation, rash and if the exposed to the eyes can lead to blindness. We found this out, unfortunately, through one of our fellow gardeners who had a horrible reaction to her eyes and required an emergency room visit. Please wear gloves when handling this plant and don’t let it touch any part of your body.

Poison Ivy Toxicodendron radicans, what garden is complete without a little poison ivy supplied by birds? Interestingly poison ivy loves climate change, scientists note it grows bigger, sprout early and is more potent in response to higher CO2 exposure. Kerry Perry has taken one for the team to thoroughly irradicate our unintentional patch of poison ivy.

Please don’t let these plants ever deter you from visiting our garden or gardening.

If you care to join us gardening in the Kruse garden next year we typically garden from 9-11:30am every Wednesday and the same time on the 2nd Saturday of each month starting in spring.

Visit the garden during any daylight hours, there are still plenty of plants blooming and we have been busy fall-dividing and planting perennials-come find them! Kruse House Museum 527 Main St West Chicago, Il 60185

Tags: Kruse Garden