Category: How-To

Learn step-by-step how to take on gardening projects at home. Garden staff often teach classes through the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden on these topics and others.

Seed Starting Tips from Windy City Harvest

Blayne Greiner, Instructor for the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest urban agriculture program, gives us some tips from his recent class on seed starting. A lot of information was covered in this 3-hour workshop, so if this video still leaves you with questions, consider taking these courses. Visit chicagobotanic.org/windycityharvest/courses to sign up for the next one.

View the video on YouTube here.

In case you missed it, here’s the recipe for blocking mix: 30 quarts brown peat, 20 quarts compost, ½ cup lime, 20 quarts coarse sand or perlite, 10 quarts soil, 3 cups organic fertilizer mix (blood meal, colloidal phosphate and greensand mixed together in equal parts).

Planning a Vegetable Garden This Year?

Windy City Harvest participant Joan Hopkins gives you a taste of what you’ll learn in the Windy City Harvest short courses. These classes are designed to teach you about how to grow vegetables in an urban setting and they take place at the Arturo Velasquez Institute at 2800 S. Western Avenue in Chicago.

View the video on YouTube here.

Visit chicagobotanic.org/windycityharvest/courses to register for the next short course and grow a better garden this year.

A Way to Brighten Your Birch Trees

As you walk near McGinley Pavilion this winter, you may notice that the white stems of the birch trees are especially clean and bright. That’s thanks to six Chicago Botanic Garden volunteers who rolled up their sleeves and gently scrubbed the lower limbs of 30 whitespire birch trees to reveal their brilliant stems. While it’s not necessary for the health of the trees, the task does make the trees more beautiful — and luckily, it is very easy to do at home. Read more here and watch a video on how to do clean your trees.

How to Create Lily Hybrids At Home

The Chicago Botanic Garden’s plant breeder, Jim Ault, shows you how he hybridizes lilies in his backyard. You can learn more about lilies at the Wisconsin-Illinois Lily Society Show on July 10 and 11 at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Visit chicagobotanic.org/plantshows for more information.