Wonderful Ideas and Take Aways from the Vegetable and Fruit Gardens at the Chicago Botanical Gardens

The Chicago Botanical Gardens are obviously testing the best way to stake tomatoes. This plot is demonstrating three different methods: no stake, square caging (I think using pea fence) and tying to staked wires. The varieties in this plot are all heirloom varieties.


This 6" by 6" slant cut and routered cedar posting with eye hooks and wires is an elegant trellising system for growing grapes. We have not yet put up the trellising for the 'Reliance' grapes in the family berry and fruits area. I might have to copy this idea.


Cabbages grown in beautifully compost enriched soils at the CBG. My cabbage look almost this good. We are two weeks behind the CBG veggie plot, but our soil looks no where near this nice.



The family garden has been difficult this year simply because of the weather and mechanical difficulties with the Mantis tiller. We are seeing lots of greens from the garden so far. We have allowed the 'Honeoye' strawberries to put out the fruit, although we probably should have picked off the flower buds as they formed. The picking of strawberries into tiny buckets has been too much fun for my two-year old twin nephews. They already have the eat two pick one method down pat!


Three Sisters planting method: hilled corn interplanted with beans and squash. This is an idea I am also using in the family garden. The legume I chose was edible soybeans, edamame. I soaked them for a half an hour. I have since read this is a no-no. The germination was not was I had hoped. Hopefully we will have enough to get a taste and decide whether we would like to perfect our growing methods.

I loved these plots. Obviously, the gardeners who work and volunteer here do, too. Their tender care shows.

Order Among Chaos

Living in Wisconsin amid all the heated debate and protests over budgets and union issues, it is easy to see the world as possibly spinning out of control. Libya, Iraq, Bahrain, all seem distant. Their woes, though, seem capable of directly influencing lives here on a very local level. When I see the price of gas at the pump spike 16 cents in two days, I have to wonder where this is all going.

The answer is control what you can. So, plant a garden, or plant several!

Planting a garden to ensure a source of those perennial fruits and berries that might become expensively dear in the coming months and years just seems to make good sense. Good gardens all start with a plan. Start first with your goals for your garden. Make a list of those foods you really enjoy. Get real and include only those that grow well in your zone. Consider those that grow well for you and could make up a large part of your diet. Consider how many people you intend to feed.

Good gardens also include a plan. There are excellent planning tools available at www.Jungseed.com.

I already have included several perennial edibles into my yard landscaping. I have a Honeycrisp apple, a Moorpark apricot, a Seckl pear, blackberry canes, rhubarb, and blueberries. I have chives growing everywhere, and a number of other herbs including lavender as well. I bedded our two types of garlic last fall. I picked 20 quarts of strawberries off a 5' x 8' bed growing around my grape fencing which yielded approximately 20 pounds of grapes last fall.

This year, I am starting a co-op garden with my brother and sister-in-law. I think we all have the same goals. We want to control our food sources, what goes on those foods during the growing cycle, and possibly save some money in the process. We are dividing out the work and cost depending on what each of us can bring to the project. Having the knowledge and two 5-foot tall light racks, which I built myself, I am starting the seed for our transplants. They are supplying the garden space, because I have a tiny yard. My brother, being the "chain-saw carpenter" will, with my son's assistance, build some raised beds and enclosed garden areas to defend our labors from critters.

I have already planted seeds for many of our cool season transplants. They are up and growing. We are big on tomatoes, so they are next to be planted.

Seeing those tiny plant babies has given me a sense of some sort of control over some of the bigger issues facing our world. It starts on a very local level.

Plant a seed.