The West Chicago Garden Club

How To Wake Up Your Garden

Information from our March speaker in his own words:

My name is Wally Schmidtke. I come from a commercial agricultural background, working on strawberry farms and cherry orchards in Traverse City, Michigan every summer thru school. You may have read my contributions to the column “Ask a Master Gardener” or “Tremendous Tomato Tips” published in the Daily Herald. I’ve been the proud recipient University of Illinois Master Gardener teamwork award for raising an organic vegetable garden and hosting workshops for the “Plant a Row for the Hungry” program. My nickname on the Mike Nowak Radio Show was ‘Dr. Wally’. Some of my presentations include the Chicago Botanic Gardens, local colleges (Oakton Community, William Rainey Harper and Lake County), public libraries (Des Plaines, Niles and Schaumburg), and an extensive list of garden clubs. My presentations are based on organic/natural techniques teamed with 30 years in horticulture and a lifetime of gardening experience.

My lecture and Power Point presentation “Wake up Your Gardens for Spring” on March 22nd will include:

• Managing perennials and woody ornamentals for health and vigor for the upcoming season.
• Preparing veggie and herb gardens with tips on the using the latest in organic fertilizers and amendments.
• Seed starting – what you should be doing now.
• How to get the most out of Container Gardens.
• Tremendous Tomato Tips – Grow the best tasting and productive tomatoes this year, naturally.
• Question and Answer Period

This month’s article was written by Kerry Perry. To see the full article with photographs, please see the March 2018 Newsletter.

Take Note…..

The Kruse House Garden is mostly dormant now, but a few bits of green are poking through the debris. There’s not much to see, but ooohhh the sounds! Just stand and listen. Spring has arrived!!

Flocks of Sandhill cranes have been flying over, their voices are a shrill rolling, chortling sound.

Redwing black birds are already beginning to declare their territories by making their loud chek and a high slurred tee-err. Their song is liquid gurgling.

American robins are here, their song is a clear caroling, short phrases, rising and falling. Robins are always a welcome sign of spring, and
often closely tied to the appearance of the first earthworms. Earthworms appear at the surface as soon as the average temperatures
of the ground reaches about 36 degrees. At the same time, the hungry robins return from the south.

Soon our crew will be out doing the annual cleanup at the Kruse House. We encourage all to join in and enjoy the camaraderie. And once things start blooming, be proud of our efforts. 

Our speaker this month will be Cindy Anderson who will be speaking on “A Native Gardens for Four Seasons”.  She describes this program as:

Native gardens are of increasing interest to home gardeners, but often they have a reputation of being messy or weedy. However, with a little bit of self-reflection about what is important to the gardener in their garden, a natives planting can be beautiful (in the eye of the gardener) and provide a benefit for ecosystem biodiversity. In this talk, I guide participants through choosing plants for a four-season garden, some tips on sources and a primer on design principles. This presentation discusses how to think about what “native” means to the individual gardener, why using natives is important and some examples of gardens that feature native plants. The talk concludes with a collection of native plants suitable for gardens here in northern Illinois.

Please join us for our monthly meeting on February 22nd at the Faith Community Church, 910 Main Street, West Chicago.  The meeting begins at 7:00pm, but we have refreshments starting at 6:45pm.  Guests are always welcome to come check out the club at one of our meetings.