The West Chicago Garden Club

Are you interested in making your yard a place for birds yo visit, feed, nest, and raise their chicks?

Learn what birds need to make your yard their home. Inviting birds into our gardens by creating a
habitat is a joyful way to connect with nature and help support birds and pollinators.

Birds in the Garden: Creating a Bird Oasis features Pam Karlson’s photos from the Chicago bird habitat she created, illustrating how it is possible to attract over 100 bird species in your very own backyard.

Tips include landscape enhancements, practices, and plant selection, with an emphasis on native plants. Chicagoland’s location along the migratory route, bird species diversity, habitat, diet/foraging, nesting,
supplemental support and community science will also be discussed.

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 Ruth Kyme

Our April speaker will be Chicago-based gardener Jeremy Ohmes.  After acquiring a certificate in Horticultural Therapy from the Chicago Botanic Garden in 2018, Jeremy started Wild World Gardens to share his love of gardening with others and to help them transform their landscapes into beautiful and beneficial ecosystems filled with food, habitat, and connections to local wildlife. He has worked with patients at Schwab Rehabilitation Center and students at Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center to combine therapeutic horticulture with creating habitat for struggling species. And he is convinced that gardens can heal and support the whole community of life. 

Jeremy believes gardens can be meaningful spaces for healing and connection. For many years, he stretched out his green thumb with vegetables and herbs and then he discovered the need for more backyard biodiversity. He replaced his front lawn with a pollinator garden and got lots of strange looks from his neighbors. But he also received a lot of interest from friends and curious passersby. 

How do you feel when you dig in the dirt? What do you experience when you sit in a garden? There is little doubt that gardening has many therapeutic benefits and that caring for plants is wonderful for our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. But what happens when we extend that healing to other species, too? This presentation will show how our gardens can be wild and restorative sanctuaries for humans and nonhumans alike. In Jeremy’s presentation, Co-Creating Gardens for Habitat, Health and Healing, we’ll discuss  and learn how you can create home gardens with native plants and how your landscape—no matter how big or small—can support your health and wellbeing as well as the local environment around you.

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

Our March speaker will be Amanda Thomsen. Amanda is a horticulturist, garden designer, author, and speaker. She is also owner of Aster Gardens, a small plant and garden shop in Lemont. Amanda has been working as a professional horticulturist, landscape designer and project manager for the last 20+ years. Her focus is bringing rule-breaking fun, a little kitsch and a lot of humor into an industry that is often thought of as stodgy and full of rules.

In this quirky presentation, “150 Ways to Create a Fantastic Yard Totally Tailored to You,”
Amanda is sure to give you and every gardener in the audience an idea or 15 or so. From things you never thought of to things you didn’t think you were brave enough to try- you will leave this presentation INSPIRED!

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