Clay Pot People Are Too Cute

Meet Gloria and Gracie, the Giving Garden Girls. Sue and I made them yesterday for Willow Creek Church’s veggie garden.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – Painting Renee Style

It’s not that there isn’t color in my yard already. It’s just that most of it is green right now. Don’t get me wrong. After a long Chicago winter, green is good.

For example, these sedum are green, and that’s good. I sure wouldn’t want them to be brown at this point.

And this daffodil. . . . → Read More: Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – Painting Renee Style

13 Tips Inspired by the Chicago Flower & Garden Show

Did you miss the Chicago Flower & Garden Show? You did? I’m sorry. I can help you with your loss by providing some of my favorite take-aways from the show. I can’t recreate the fragrance of hyacinths or beauty of a rose garden, but there is always more to learn about gardening. Let’s go there.

. . . → Read More: 13 Tips Inspired by the Chicago Flower & Garden Show

Chicago Flower & Garden Show (Almost) In Bloom

If you’ve been a bit doubtful about those TV shows that do garden makeovers in a few days , know that it can be done. Yes, an Irish inspired garden with customized softscapes, hardscapes and water features. Yes, a Monarch Sanctuary. Yes, a Garden of Weeping Wonder with spruce, fir, beech, pine, ginkgo and Alaskan . . . → Read More: Chicago Flower & Garden Show (Almost) In Bloom

Was Michelangelo Really Any More Creative Than You Are?

You’ve seen this mosaic at the top of my blog. It’s my trademark, my brand, and yes, my kitchen wall. It was also a 3 year project, often ignored for quite a while until inspiration struck.

Sometimes it wasn’t inspiration as much as persistence. Michelangelo, the artist who painted the Sistine Chapel, is quoted . . . → Read More: Was Michelangelo Really Any More Creative Than You Are?

Morton Arboretum Illuminations – So Much More Than You Would Expect

Morton Arboretum’s Illuminations isn’t your typical Christmas light show. No ho ho ho Santa. No Candy Cane Lane. No lighted dancing elves, plastic snowmen, Snoopy decked out for the holiday, or toy soldiers.

No reason to go then? Not so! Illuminations is a sensory treat you don’t want to miss.

It’s this…

And this…

. . . → Read More: Morton Arboretum Illuminations – So Much More Than You Would Expect

You Call It Goldenrod, I Call It ‘Gone’

Invasive only begins to describe goldenrod. An accurate description would need some adjectives; highly invasive, completely invasive, utterly invasive. Think of the kind of invasive that Attila the Hun was. That is the kind of invasive that Goldenrod is. Drive by a local forest preserve and you’ll know what I mean. Goldenrod will not share . . . → Read More: You Call It Goldenrod, I Call It ‘Gone’

Teaching Your Plants To Read Pays Off

We’ve all heard that plants appreciate being talked to. You may not believe it, but you’ve heard it. Now I’m taking that to a new level. After a huge time investment I have been successful in teaching one of my plants to read. You don’t believe that either? Well, read on…

This poor rose was . . . → Read More: Teaching Your Plants To Read Pays Off

Garlic Is Fun

Garlic is fun. Who would have guessed? Its fun because its curly. Yes, curly. Perhaps curly isn’t the first word that comes to mind when you think of garlic. I think that’s because the curliness is a well kept secret. So well kept that its rare when someone even guesses that my garlic is, well, . . . → Read More: Garlic Is Fun

What In The World is Phi? And Why Do I Care?

I don’t travel in circles where we use words like Phi in a conversation. If you asked me a week ago what Phi was, the closest I could guess is:

Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman, Be he live, or be he dead I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.

And that . . . → Read More: What In The World is Phi? And Why Do I Care?