< Back To List
Moving Your Garden Forward
Jan 16, 2010 07:00 AM
A Sure Way to Warm Up Your Winter
When the festivities are over and all the decorations are tucked away for the year, a bit of a post-holiday letdown can overtake you. It’s cold. It’s gloomy outside. Any kind of outdoor gardening seems light years ahead. Yes, garden catalogs are some comfort, but you want something you can sink your teeth into—you want some inspiration. Perhaps you’re hoping to move your garden into a new direction in 2010….
Consider pursuing those thoughts at Moving Your Garden Forward, a new symposium by the Cantigny Horticulture Department and Chicagoland Gardening. Spend the day absorbing ideas and advice to help embolden you to spring into new adventures in your own landscape.
Our first keynote speaker, Craig Bergmann, of Craig Bergmann Landscape Design, will explain how traditional design ideas can be adapted to modern conditions with a distinct Midwestern twist. You might say to yourself, “Sure, I want the best landscape for me, for the site, and my budget, but how do I do that?” Bergmann will share his philosophy and process via gardens of varied scale in From Green to Reality.
After a break, you’ll choose from a selection of classes: Growing Better Roses, Bob Waterman, Director of Horticulture at Cantigny; Small Space Gardening, Carolyn Ulrich, Editor, Chicagoland Gardening; or Containers for all Seasons, Liz Omura and Jill Weiss, Horticulturists at Cantigny.
Following lunch, our second keynote speaker, Roy Diblik, author, co-founder of Northwind Perennials in Burlington, Wis., and a co-creator of Millennium Park’s Lurie Garden, will speak on The Know Maintenance Approach for small perennial gardens. Many gardeners confuse the garden term low maintenance with no maintenance. Diblik likes to call it “Hope to God gardening—toss a plant in the ground and hope to God it grows.” Diblik will suggest how to combine basic perennial plants and ornamental grasses in manageable garden spaces.
After a brief break, pick another class: Vegetables Anywhere!, Beth Botts, Senior Editor, Chicagoland Gardening; Increase the Wow! Factor in Your Garden, Jane Rogers, Senior Ornamental Horticulturist at Cantigny; or Better Than One Season: Chicagoland Trees and Shrubs, Todd Henderson, Cantigny Forester.
During breaks and lunch you’ll also have the opportunity to visit a help table staffed with Cantigny volunteers. Other tables will offer tips and information on floral design, rainbarrels, beekeeping, birdwatching and more.
Speaking of birds, symposium attendees are invited to join Jeff Reiter, Cantigny’s resident birder, for an early walk around the grounds to observe winter residents and maybe a surprise or two.
So gather a group of like-minded souls, craving some garden cheer—we’re right in your neighborhood. The symposium is guaranteed to jumpstart your batteries and set your new garden resolutions off on the right foot!
Moving Your Garden Forward is limited to 100 guests. The Symposium fee is $75 and includes lunch. Check-in on January 16 begins at 8:30 at the Cantigny Visitors Center; programs begin at 9:30 and run through 3:30 pm. The optional bird walk starts at 7:30 am.
The symposium meets in the Visitors Center, please enter at Winfield Road.
Registration for this class is required. Participation fee for this class is $75.
The symposium has sold out! We will not be taking any further registrations--thank you!
Questions? Please call 630 260 8162.