Lake Katherine Nature Center & Botanic Garden

The local University of Illinois Extension office partners with Lake Katherine to provide a variety of volunteer opportunities including maintaining the gardens and grounds and conducting tours. Another wonderful public garden in the Chicago area, Lake Katherine is an easy commute from home, and a place where I hope to devote some MG volunteer hours. Tuesday our Master Gardener class visited Lake Katherine for a tour, orientation, and a pot-luck lunch social.
The Heritage Garden at Lake Katherine is a large organic demonstration garden featuring a variety of fruits and vegetables.

This was my first visit to Lake Katherine, although I've been hearing about it for years. It's still early in the season and not much is going on there yet, but we could tell in a few weeks this place will be beautiful.

I love old rusty stuff, especially old farm equipment. This display is located near the Heritage Garden.

It was a chilly, windy day, but we dressed warmly and enjoyed our tour.

More old rusty stuff. I fell in love with the old wood stove.

One of several sculptures at Lake Katherine carved from felled trees.

The man-made waterfall aerates the water before it joins the lake, benefiting the ecosystem of the 20-acre man-made lake, including the resident beaver and swans.

Entrance to the conifer garden

Another delightful tree-trunk carving.

I'm looking forward to seeing the butterfly garden bloom.

A view of the large herb garden.

Lake Katherine

Lake Katherine offers a variety of programs for children and families, school and scouting groups. There are special events throughout the season, and the clubhouse at Lake Katherine is a popular venue for weddings and other special events. There are many lovely spots for wedding party photos. The indoor nature center is an educational spot for families and groups, with a variety of flora and fauna including snakes, rabbits, frogs, and a very cute and popular ferret who enjoys lots of naps in the hammock in his aquarium home.

I hope to spend some of my volunteer time at Lake Katherine, and will share more photos from this beautiful spot as the season progresses.

Are You Tired of Hearing About Spring Fling Yet?

Last Friday Mr.Brown Thumb, Gina from My Skinny Garden, and I met for a private tour of Macy's State Street store's Garden Show taking place now through April 19th.

Mr.Brown Thumb and I were able to spend the rest of the afternoon downtown. We thought Spring Fling participants might enjoy coming along with us on our walk to see what we saw after Gina headed back to work for the afternoon.

Steps away from Club Quarters Hotel, this might be a popular stop.

How convenient! This is kiddycorner from the hotel.


Right around the corner, a nice pottery display, and a sale.

You may have recognized the name on the hotel sign in yesterday's post - that's where some of you will be staying during SF. Here's the lounge. You can see the lobby in yesterday's post. If the hotel hadn't been fully occupied, the staff would have been happy to show us one of the rooms.

The people we talked to were exceptionally nice, and we liked the serene vibe and white-glove cleanliness of the public areas.


We also checked out several potential SF Friday night reception sites. Gina had suggested this one, and we really liked it alot. More information about the reception will be available soon.

After taking care of business, we walked to Millennium Park. You can't go there without seeing Cloud Gate, affectionately known as 'The Bean.'

And then of course, the Lurie Garden is not to be missed. I expected the Lurie to be bigger than it actually as. Believe it or not, this was the first time I'd ever been there.

This is only a small part of the garden - don't worry, it's larger than this! Plants are sprouting everywhere, and the Lurie will look much different in late May.

Only crocus,

and scilla were blooming when we were there.

I'm glad I finally made it down to the Lurie. There's really no excuse not to, since it's a very, very short walk from my train station. I'm looking forward to going back again soon. If I make it back before Spring Fling, I'll share the progress of the garden with you here.

I hope you've enjoyed your sneak peak of a few of the sights you'll see here as I report on Spring Fling, and in person if you're one of the lucky ones who gets to come to Chicago in less than two months for the second annual Garden Bloggers' Spring Fling.

A Word to the Wise (Notes to Self)

There will be lots to see in less than two months when Chicago is host to the 2nd annual Garden Blogger's Spring Fling.

Probably lots of walking involved even if there's a tour bus.

It's been a long, cold, snowy, winter.

In spite of notes to self at the end of the season last year,

I didn't keep up with my resolve to stay fit over the winter.

Did a lot of walking Friday.


Saw a lot of really cool stuff.


Climbed a few stairs.

I knew I should have taken more walks this winter, or worked out in our very convenient exercise room.

Been thinking about all this as it might pertain to Spring Fling,


how it might not be a bad idea now that the weather's warming up,


to get out there in the fresh air and sunshine,

and take some walks.

Please pass the ibuprofin. (Ouch! ;)

2009 Macy's Flower Show

If you live in the Chicago area, this clock needs no explanation. Encompassing an entire city block bounded by Washington, State, Wabash, and Randolph Streets downtown, is the beautiful, historic Marshall Field's Building, now Chicago's flagship Macy's store.

Macy's invited Chicago-area garden bloggers for a sneak preview of their annual flower show at the State Street store. Accompanied by My Skinny Garden and Mr.Brown Thumb, we were given a private tour of the show by our guides - Macy's Marisa Reeves, Media Relations Manager, and Jon Jones, Visual Director, along with Todd Pope, Branch Manager for Green View in Oswego, IL. Green View Companies, a landscape, nursery, and design group based near Peoria, IL is the floral partner for this year's show. Todd and Jon described some of the work that went on behind the scenes getting the plants ready for the show, and it was absolutely fascinating.

The 2009 show, themed Dream in Color, is free, and runs from Sunday, April 5th through Sunday, April 19th. If you live in the Chicago area, you won't want to miss it.

A large percentage of plants grown for the show will thrive in our zone 5 climate.

Most of the floral displays are located on the first floor on the State Street side of the store - down the main aisle, around the middle fountain, the bridge across from the fountain, in six of the store's windows, and in about every nook and cranny they could find a place for just one more beautiful vignette.

Pink flamingos are a recurring theme, everything from kitchy plastic flamingos in the display in the famous Walnut Room,

to these two amazing flamingos constructed out of 5,000 pink Kalanchoe flowers.

Todd and Jon described the painstaking process, which included individually removing every leaf.

Near the middle fountain, you'll find this table manned by University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners, partnering again this year with Macy's to take visitors on tours on a first-come, first-served basis every Thursday through Sunday at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m.

Now that the Chicago Garden Show is over, it's time for another flower fix, since little is blooming around here outdoors.

If you've been to Macy's State Street store before, I hope you didn't miss this late-1800's mosaic atrium dome by Louis Comfort Tiffany. If you did, go back and see it! The dome covers 6000 square feet and is the largest Tiffany mosaic in existence.

We got to peek behind the curtain! It was like visiting Oz.

Ah, springtime!

There were flowers as far as the eye could see.

I can hardly wait to plant out those hydrangea cuttings I overwintered in the basement!

We loved this colorful combination of blooms and glass.

More Flamingos! These were amazing, constructed around the beautiful columns in the main aisle.

Thank you Marisa, Todd, and Jon for taking time from your busy schedules to preview the show for us. It was truly awesome getting this behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to put on a show of this magnitude.

If you're in the Chicago area in the next couple of weeks, stop in at Macy's State Street Store, and tell 'em the garden bloggers sent you!