2001 Des Plaines Ave., Forest Park, IL 60130
Call Today: (708) 771-2299
Have you given much thought to your connection to nature?
“Nature connectedness” is a concept that has been subject to research and is built on three components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral—how integrated you feel with nature, how much you care about nature, and how much you are willing to protect it.
"When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do."
~John Ruskin, 19th Century art critic
Winter has arrived earlier than usual this year, so our counsel on how to prepare your yard for the season has suddenly taken on a certain urgency.
At the same time, as you will see below, it’s important to keep in mind the flourishing springtime that is only two seasons away:
For the past decade, we have been holding a Pumpkin Party in October to celebrate autumn with a family-friendly Halloween theme. And this year, we are stepping it up with our first-ever Pumpkin-Palooza.
You are invited to our garden center between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. this Saturday, October 19th, and enjoy hayrides, painted faces, a pumpkin painting station, a spooky story time and sweet treats.
One of the joys of horticulture is nurturing growth that lasts—those long-blooming, hardy plants that thrive through the end of the season.
At first glance, you may consider mums at big-box stores as the quintessential example of this sustained beauty. However, it’s only a matter of (just a little) time before you discover that what is in bloom now is sure to wilt and become brown. The reason this occurs is that these mums were likely grown in warm greenhouses to flush leaf growth and then chilled to force blooms to set earlier than is natural.
If I had a dollar for every time someone told me they water their turf every other day for 15 minutes per zone, I’d be able to take a much-needed vacation.
A common belief among homeowners is that in order to keep your grass green and healthy, you need to water frequently, yet not much at a time, to avoid overwatering. However, more negative than positive comes from this frequent, shallow watering:
Temperatures have finally begun soaring into summer-like 90s.
It may be enough to wash away some of our recent heavy rainfall memories. But here are the facts: Chicago had the wettest May on record and the 16-plus inches of spring rain overall was the second-most since 1871.
We championed pollinators in April (“Every Day is Earth Day: Backing Our Bees”). Now, with National Pollinator Week from June 17-23, it’s not too early to return to this vital and urgent topic.
Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday, May 12th, and now that spring has (finally) arrived, it’s time to set roots with new plantings almost as beautiful as mom herself. Flowering shrubs, specimen ornamentals, a plethora of perennials and flowers, organic soils and amendments – the time is now.
And this year, when you visit our Center at 2001 Des Plaines Ave. (just a half-mile south of the Forest Park Plaza), you will find a new, refreshed look to our layout.
