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Learn Best Gardening Options at March Symposium |
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Have old problems in the garden? Get new solutions.
Gardeners can find out what’s the best and brightest this year at the annual Midwest Gardening Symposium at The Morton Arboretum March 13-15, 2009, with presentations, a downtown flower show tour, a Green Garden Party with chef demonstrations, delicious local organic herbs and beverages and exhibitions throughout the weekend.
“Our lineup of illustrated talks and demonstrations will help you discover how to use green solutions in stylish ways; how to make an ‘eco-gorgeous’ garden,” says Karla Lynch, Arboretum Manager of Horticulture Education. “We’ll reveal how to use good design principles to create more sustainable gardens with plenty of “curb appeal” using eco-friendly techniques, plants, and products, including some that are cutting-edge!
The talk, “Waterwise Gardening” unveils a new, state-of-the-art water-capture system for homeowners that’s just coming on the market in the Chicago area this year, Lynch says. It’s a “new age” aerated cistern, with a pump that hooks directly into an existing irrigation system or water feature. The water is held in a closed tank and therefore does not attract mosquitoes. A cistern gathers rainwater like a rain barrel but is much larger (some cisterns hold more than 500 gallons of water), and some versions under development will feature solar-powered equipment.
“I think we’ll start to see this kind of irrigation system more in the future,” Lynch says.
Students will get their chance to see photos and learn about several new selections of coneflowers, asters, hydrangeas, bottlebrush buckeye, and trillium, and how to use a broad range of native plants in a sophisticated, elegant manner in the talk, “Taming the Best and the Brightest.” Rick Lewandowski, director of Mt. Cuba Center, a Delaware estate garden where native plant conservation is key, discusses the facility’s work in hybridizing native plants, bringing several to market, and how gardeners can design with them effectively.
Learn the latest trends in vegetable gardening at home in “Putting Down Healthy Roots.” The session will introduce three aspects, including a brand-new service that shows homeowners how to vegetable garden, or does the gardening for you. Additionally, students will learn about community-supported agriculture in which people buy shares in a community garden, and local farmer’s markets where food is grown organically using safer pest controls.
Break out of the traditional techniques for developing an outdoor space and create “destinations” with the keynote presentation featuring “The Authentic Garden.” Join author Claire Sawyers for a book-signing afterwards.
An exciting two-part program called “Design Challenge” will provide students interesting design ideas, straight from the pros! Design experts will show and describe the landscape design plans they created for six homeowners in Geneva, Sugar Grove, Downers Grove, Evanston, Naperville and Vernon Hills. Each plan features sustainable, eco-friendly designs and materials. The goal is to demonstrate how to move toward a greener landscape that looks great. The landscaping would keep more rainwater on the sites, use less gasoline-powered machinery and fewer chemicals to maintain, and would attract and support more native insects and birds.
In “Tough And Lovely,” Arboretum experts will reveal plants that look great and tolerate dry sites particularly well, whether in sun or shade.
In “New Designs For A New Generation,” students will learn about an incredible, futuristic, one-of-a-kind house and garden in downtown Chicago that’s the ultimate in green technology. The architect, Jonathan Boyer of Farr and Associates, also was involved in designing the Center for Green Technology in Chicago.
Costs to attend the Midwest Gardening Symposium talks range from $149 to $274 (Arboretum members get discounts) which includes continental breakfast, lunch, afternoon refreshments and all presentation handouts.
An outstanding new addition is the Green Garden Party. Exhibitors showcase their new eco-friendly landscape and garden products, while party-goers enjoy drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Come and mingle with the guest speakers, handle the new products, and get questions answered. Cash bar available. Friday, March 13 from 4 – 6 p.m. Cost is $27.
Students may also tour the Chicago Flower and Garden Show on Sunday, March 15, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for an additional $79 ($59 for Arboretum members).
Register online for the Green Garden Party, or the Flower and Garden Show tour, or call 630/719-2468.
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February 27th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Green day to you:
Anyone interested in being a “studier”? Our daughter was told not to do that by a girlfriend’s mother but is now in graduate school.
I will show any studier wanna-be’s a possible beginner’s project regarding two types of crabapple trees. One type is the Iowa crabapple and a few of them grow next to a hybrid crabapple of uncertain species and age. It might be interesting to observe and count the numbers of insect species and numbers of bird species that glean something from each type of crabapple tree. Anyone with access to a DNA testing kit could see to which degree the hybrid is native to the ecosystem and to which degree it is an alien. And perhaps someone could determine the age of the hybrid tree. Is it an evolutionary product or did some bird just carry a seed to the public land where it grows from someone’s cultivated yard?
Does a hybrid deserve to live? Does the concept of “hybrid vigor” seem important in view of changing environmental conditions? Can we really restore everything to how it was 100 years ago?
Is this species invasive? Is it suitable for a food crop? Is it suitable to shade back yards? It does not grow rapidly nor so high as to interfere with overhead wires. And the blossoms are wonderful. I have seen cedar waxwings on this hybrid and have a reference that it might be an exception to the rule that alien species do not support native ecosystems. And crabapples in my youth were “biodegradable toys”. Easy to throw!
Comments would be welcomed. Entomologists? Nurserymen? Agriculturalists? Conservationists?
Ornithologists? Landscapers? Teachers? Younger people interested in nature in the city? This public area attracts numerous friendly and some well-informed volunteers. And belongs to Cook County.And every project must first be approved by the volunteer leaders and by the landowners.
But,hey,it is conveniently located for the curious. Tree exists only “for now” so please hurry if you wish to learn more about it.
March 4th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Check out the official Midwest Gardening Symposium website for all the latest information.
http://midwestgardeningsymposium.wordpress.com/
Nancy
December 13th, 2011 at 10:56 am
Hi:
In hearing a recent talk by Douglas Tallamy in Elgin he said, (not his exact words) that native birds MUST have native plants which support native insects in order to feed their young. So, generally, birds may feed off some imported plants but they likely don’t supply enough for breeding birds. In this author’s book, Bringing Nature Home, he says the hybrid crabapple is the one exception. But that is neither here nor there for my interests.
I am interested in helping to maintain a rare savanna and tall grass prairie. The hybrid crabapples have been invading both and, though not nearly so threatening as some other invasives such as buckthorn and garlic mustard and reed canary grass, do not “fit into” those particular ecosystems. In fact, the owners of those public lands strive to keep only those many wonderful species which have been known to exist there for
MANY years.
Cedar waxwings are among my favorite birds. They have poke berries and various other plants at those sites to support them.
Entomologists count the number of different insect species on plants to determine the plant specie’s ecological value. Bless their patience and expertise! Any younger people interested? Our volunteer group includes some Entomologists. Check out savetheprairiesociety.org if you wish any further info.
And I highly recommend the book “Bringing Nature Home” for other beginners like myself. Especially if you wish to attract butterflies.
Happy holidays to all.