Winter Pruning with Dave Cantwell

As Horticulturist Dave Cantwell demonstrates, winter is a great time to prune trees and shrubs. Follow his tips to make all the right cuts. Want to learn more? Tim Johnson, Director of Horticulture teaches “Pruning Principles” each March, before trees come out of dormancy. For more information on this and other classes, visit the Joseph Regenstein Jr. School at chicagobotanic.org/adult_education.

Garden Designer Dan Pearson Explains Spirit: Garden Inspiration

The Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden recently held a half-day symposium featuring English garden designer, Dan Pearson. Dan showed photographs from his travels and his book, Spirit: Garden Inspiration and talked about his design philosophy. We asked Dan to give us an overview of his lecture in front of a large photomural of one of his designs, Home Farm. This photomural is part of the Garden’s exhibition, In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World, currently on display in the Regenstein Center. To register for upcoming classes, visit chicagobotanic.org/school.

Make a Cement Trough Container

English trough containers are stone-like garden containers you can make at home from common materials. Here, Hannah Rohn and Heather Sherwood show us how to make a garden container from Portland cement, peat moss, perlite and water. These troughs are great for shallow-rooted hardy perennials, dwarf alpines, herbs or annuals. Examples of these versatile troughs can be seen in the English Walled Garden and Heritage Garden.

Nancy Clifton teaches trough-making and other garden workshops through the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden. Look for her classes online and in the catalogs. For registration information, visit www.chicagobotanic.org/school

Download detailed instructions on another technique for making English garden troughs here:
http://www.chicagobotanic.org/downloads/trough/cbg_trough.pdf.