The West Chicago Garden Club

February Recap

U of I Extension speaker Peggy Doty used quotes from Aldo Leopold’s book, A Sand County Almanac, to describe how we can garden responsibly. She pointed out that we control what happens on our land. We can provide the plants that are essential to the food chain, or not. Peggy used many personal examples dappled with humor to convey her message. I dare say we all took home a truth or two that will affect how we garden.

“Whoever owns land has thus assumed, whether he knows it or not, the divine functions of creating and destroying plants.” Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist.

Thank you for completing program evaluation results. 23 surveys were returned.

• 17 “very satisfied” with numerous positive comments
• 6 “somewhat satisfied”

March program

• Note date of program is Thursday, March 31st. That’s the 5th Thursday instead of our usual 4th Thursday.
• GC member Ed Max will present a program on organic vegetable gardening
• Ed is an avid organic gardener and heirloom tomato nut. He will tell us about the best heirloom varieties and teach us how to collect, save and grow the seeds of heirloom tomatoes.
• Ed is a landscape designer, certified naturalist and arborist. His firm, Max’s Greener Places, does landscape renovations and new design.
• Ed always helps out with our annual plant sale by donating heirloom tomato plants and he can answer just about any question a customer can come up with. He’s also great at identifying mystery plants!

Ed’s friendly, informal presentation style will invite your participation and capture your interest in this fun program on growing organic vegetables! Come and learn about growing your own food.

Did you know

Of the 75 million households that garden, 44% will grow things they can eat! This trend has spawned the popular phrases “garden to table” or “locally grown”. Growing food at home is becoming part of an everyday lifestyle.

As always, contact me with program ideas, concerns, or questions.
Billie Childress, 630-862-1213, billiedc@sbcglobal.net

January Recap: the first GC educational program in January, by R. Hentschel, on trees, reminded us how to plant a tree (useful information for April 29, Arbor Day, when I hope you all plant a tree) and information on invasive trees like barberry, burning bush, and Bradford Pears. The audience raised good questions, offering an opportunity for members to learn from each other as well as our speaker. I received 25 (37 attendees) evaluation forms back. 19 were marked “very satisfied” and many very helpful comments were included.

February Program: ‘The People and Nature Perspective’ by Peggy Doty

• U of I Extension professional staff
• Extension Educator, Boone/DeKalb/Ogle Unit
• Expert in: environmental education, composting and vermicomposting, river ecology, recycling and solid waste, and wildlife management
• Peggy received her Bachelor of Science degree in zoology with a specialization in wildlife management from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She received her Master’s degree in education from Northern Illinois University. She specialized in Outdoor Teacher Education, Curriculum, and Instruction.
• Prior to her position as a Unit Educator for Boone, DeKalb and Ogle counties, she was the Natural Resources Educator for DeKalb County for 12 years.

Peggy’s talk about people and nature was reviewed in a “Wild Ones” newsletter as follows: “Her presentation was most enjoyable not only because of its content but also because of her humorous delivery. The title of her presentation was “The People and Nature Perspective.” One of her main points was about food chain restoration. She talked about the need to supply our native pollinators the native food they evolved with if we want to sustain our own food supply. She urged us to plant for more than just ourselves, i.e. plant native plants that support our native pollinators that in turn support the food chain. We are building a food chain. She says, if you plant natives, they will come, and then others will come. This was an inspiring message.”

Humorous, educational, inspiring, what more could you ask for in a talk?! Please come, I know you will enjoy it.

Added incentive: Peggy released a number of adult Monarch butterflies last year. If you come closest to identifying the correct number you will win a prize.

The plan: our GC schedule allows for 9 educational programs per year (2 meetings are social … presidents picnic in July and potluck/ auction in November). I gathered information on desired topics for programs from the 33 member surveys completed last fall. I’m focusing on providing programs that match your interest. However, there are so many aspects to each subject that we could have a whole series just to cover one topic. For example; The topic “perennials” cold be presented as a program about the most resilient, or a speaker might structure the talk on best color combinations or how to make a Perennial border. Another might focus on sun/shade perennials. The possibilities are numerous! The trick is to find the best match for our club considering what speakers/topics are available, what haven’t we covered in past years, and what is realistic in terms of cost. I will do my level best to find great programs.

Help me by giving me feedback following each presentation. The comments will be very helpful.

Program coordinator, Billie Childress, billiedc@sbcglobal.net, cell 630-862-1213 or text.

Lynn Bement spoke with us at our February club meeting about composting and had promised to share with us links to additional information about composting. The links she provided follow below.

• Hot and cold composting
• Compost methods