Call for Volunteers: Wicker Park's Gardens

Note: following is a message from Doug Wood of the Wicker Park Garden Club. A release form from the park district must be signed and brought with you prior to gardening. You can print the form, included here.

Hello Gardeners,

This Saturday, March 17 - We will begin gardening at the 10,000 sq. ft of Gardens in Wicker Park.

During the next few weeks we will clear off the gardens, cut back ornamental grasses and other perennials, add soil amendments, and prune summer blooming shrubs. You will work with a Veteran Wicker Park Gardeners when you volunteer in the garden. They will instruct you on what to do and how to do it – so, you can learn the horticultural techniques and then apply them at your home gardens. PLEASE ask QUESTIONS – it is a time to learn.

SIGN UP
1. PLEASE Let Me Know Which Days and Times You’d Like to Attend – You can attend the entire session (10am-2pm) or come later – like (11:30-2).
2. PLEASE SIGN the attached form and bring to the first session. This form is required for all who work in Park District Community Gardens in the Parks.
3. Please bring pruners, kneepads, a trowel, and gloves if you have them.

MARCH – Please let me know which days and times you would like to garden.
1. Saturday, March 17 – 10am – 2pm
2. Saturday, March 24 – 10am-2pm
3. Saturday, March 31 – No Gardening
TOOL SHARPENING at Private Home

APRIL – Please let me know which days and times you would like to garden.
1. Saturday, April 7 – 10am – 2pm
2. Saturday, April 14 – 10am – 2pm – Devoted to Mulching All Trees in the Park – Also Garden Tending
3. Saturday, April 21 – 10am – 2pm - EARTH DAY AND GARDENING
4. Saturday, April 28 – 10am – 2pm

MAY
PLANT SALE – SAT/SUN MAY 5 & 6 – Volunteer times
These shifts are the same times on both Saturday and Sunday.
DISCOUNT: Those who work 4 hrs get 10% discount on plants

SHIFT I - 8am-10am – Set up
SHIFT II - 10am-12noon
SHIFT III - 12-2pm
SHIFT IV - 2-4pm
SHIFT V - 4-5 – Tear Down

Doug Wood
www.WPGarden.org

Details for Saturday gardening with Wicker Park Garden Club

Please RSVP if you plan to attend any sessions.
Email dougrwood@aol.com


The garden club will be gardening this Saturday - if it is not Raining.

Schedule Below.

BRING: Trowels, Pruners, Gloves, and Knee Pads IF you have them. Park is at 1425 N. Damen-MEET OUTSIDE.

DATES CANCELED IF RAINING
Saturday, May 21 – 10am-1pm - work on urns and living walls.
Also - plant in-ground where it is not too wet

Saturday, May 28 - 10AM-1pm - WE ADDED

Saturday, June 4 – 10am-1pm - May be Canceled due to Travel - will confirm next week.

Saturday, June 11 – 10am-1pm

Saturday, June 18 – 10am-1pm
NOTE: Also, Children's Carnival 11-3pm – Regular Gardening and/or Green Information Table -Work with Children to Plant Lettuce seeds to take home - answer garden questions

Saturday, June 25 – 10am-1pm and variable hours for Guides – noon-11pm.
NOTE: Green Music Fest on Damen – Fences will surround all gardens – Regular Gardening and/or Park Guide.

Thanks,
Doug Wood
www.WPGarden.org

WICKER PARK GARDENS are a Registered Community Gardens in the Park - see for information:
http://www.cpdit01.com/resources/can.community-gardens/

Save-the-date: May 6-7, Wicker Park Garden Club Plant Sale, Workshops

WICKER PARK GARDEN CLUB PLANT SALE & WORKSHOPS

A Fundraiser
For the Park Gardens and Garden Educational Programming

Saturday & Sunday May 7 & 8 – 10am - 4pm
Flowering Annuals, Perennials, Vegetables, Herbs

LOCATION: Wicker Park 1425 N. Damen, Chicago, IL 60622
RAIN OR SHINE
West Side of Wicker Park Field House or Inside Gym if Raining

CASH OR CHECKS Accepted
No Admission Charge to Plant Sale - Workshop Fees Listed Below

WORKSHOPS - Saturday, May 7 - Registration Required - Pay at Door
10:30am - noon: Vegetable and Ornamental Container Designs Susan Fontana - $15 REGISTER: WPGarden@aol.com

1pm - 2:30 pm: Shade Garden Designs
Leslie Zimmerman & Doug Wood - $10 REGISTER: WPGarden@aol.com

PRUNER SHARPENING - Saturday & Sunday, May 7 & 8 - 11am- 2pm
Bring Your Pruners and Get them Sharpened - $5 for each pruner

FILL YOUR CONTAINER - SATURDAY & SUNDAY, May 7 & 8 - 10am - 4pm
Bring Your Container
Consult with Our Gardeners on Plant Options
YOU Fill your container with Plants and Soil assisted by our Plant Sale Gardeners
Go home with a Completed Container
Price based on Container Size (soil amounts) and Individual Plant Costs

QUESTIONS: wpgarden@aol.com or (773) 278-9075 (Doug Wood)
www.WPGarden.org


The 10,000 sq. ft. of Gardens in Wicker Park are registered as part of the Chicago Park District's Community Gardens in the Parks Program - All Funding for the Gardens Must Be Provided Through Fund Raising Efforts by the Wicker Park Garden Club - an All Volunteer Organization.
http://www.cpdit01.com/resources/can.community-gardens/

We thank Our Sponsors for the 2010-2011 Educational Programming and Event Series
Support Us in 2011-12 - Contact Doug Wood - wpgarden@aol.com

Monday, April 4: Wicker Park Garden Club Design Series Lecture

Photo courtesy of the Wicker Park Garden Club

Wicker Park Garden Club Design Series

Monday, April 4 – 7-8:30 PM
Wicker Park Field House – 1425 N. Damen

SPEAKER
Julia Bachrach – Historian & Author
www.ChicagoParkDistrict.com

TOPIC
Clarence Hatzfeld – Architect
Prairie and Revival Style Designs

RESERVATIONS - $8: Wpgarden@aol.com or 773-278-9075
Cash or Check to Wicker Park Garden Club

Clarence Hatzfeld (1873–1943) was a prolific Chicago architect who has been relatively unknown, despite the fact that the city retains a large collection of his handsome Prairie and Revival style park field houses, commercial buildings, and residences. Although Chicago Park District historian Julia Bachrach had done some research on Hatzfeld over the years, strange things began to happen when she and her husband went house-hunting in the summer of 2008.

In this lecture, Julia will reveal why she thinks this architect who died more than sixty years ago is haunting her, and what she has learned about him through this ghostly experience. She will also provide an overview of Hatzfeld’s work including dozens of northwest side field houses such as those in Avondale, Kilbourn, Indian Boundary, Independence, Portage, and Athletic Field Parks and other buildings he designed in the Lincoln Park, Humboldt Park, and Lake View neighborhoods.

Julia Bachrach has written several books including: The City in a Garden: A Photographic History of Chicago's Parks (2001) and Inspired by Nature: The Garfield Park Conservatory and Chicago’s West Side (2008)–- the latter a project co-authored by Bachrach’s long term protégé and Jens Jensen “groupie”, Jo Ann Nathan.

Location Change: Bloomingdale Trail Lecture

Regarding next Monday's lecture, per Doug Wood of the Wicker Park Garden Club, there is a change in location....

The gathering will be at Wicker Park Lutheran - Corner LeMoyne and Hoyne. Enter on Hoyne and we are in the north meeting hall.
Click on Map to enlarge it.

Yesterday, The Park District decided to close all offices and parks on Monday March 7 (to save $ in budget)

RESERVATION: 2 people - $8 each at Door

Monday, March 7 – Bloomingdale Trail – Michael Wilkensen – 7-8:30pm

Wicker Park Lutheran Church - 2112 West LeMoyne Avenue

News You Can Use from Wicker Park Garden Club

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Garden Club Lecture: Mon. Feb 7, 2011

(In scrolling through email in-box, I noticed that we neglected to include Monday's Garden Club Lecture in the latest pipeline listings. All info and photos, below, submitted by Doug Wood of the Wicker Park Garden Club. If anyone would like to attend this lecture and write about it, let me know. Send your story by Tuesday at 5PM to streetsofwicker@hotmail. Unfortunately on Monday night I am sitting at the computer attempting to put together Tuesday's pipeline, thus unable to cover Monday night events).


Monday, February 7 – 7-8:30 PM - $8
Wicker Park Field House – 1425 N. Damen
WICKER PARK GARDEN CLUB
www.WPGarden.org
Reservations-Limited Seating - $8 - Pay at Door
wpgarden@aol.com or (773) 278-9075

Piet Oudolf’s Landscape Designs
His Predecessors, Colleagues, and Contemporaries

Julie Siegel
www.JSiegelDesigns.com
Former President of
Midwest Ecological Landscaping Association www.melaweb.org

View Piet Oudolf’s Work at www.oudolf.com

"All my work is related to trying to recreate spontaneous feeling of plants in nature. The idea is not to copy nature, but to give a feeling of nature," Piet Oudolf, Dutch Garden Designer.

His distinctive style – a thoughtful evocation of nature that emphasizes the form, texture and natural harmony of plants as they change over time – is the result of more than three decades of observing and working with plants, especially perennials. Oudolf has designed public and private gardens in Holland and Germany, Sweden, Britain, and in the United States. His American gardens include Gardens of Remembrance in New York City, for 9/11 at Battery Park in New York City, as well as the planting design of the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago. Oudolf designed the Lurie gardens with Kathryn Gustafson and Robert Isreal.

Julie Siegel will first anchor Oudolf in respect to his predecessors and colleagues: Mien Rhys, Beth Chatto, and Henk Gerritsen. Then she will look at some of his contemporaries that practice and educate in the context raised by Oudolf’s approach: Noel Kingsbury, Scott Ogden, Lauren Springer Ogden, and Roy Diblik. She will discuss how this relates to us in our own gardens.

Fine Gardening Magazine describes Julie as having combined her background in dance, animation, architecture and writing with her love of plants to create gardens that are full of energy and speak to the larger regional aesthetics. Being raised by a photographer and a painter
guaranteed Julie’s creative sensibility.

Her decades of teaching and public speaking developed strong communication skills and independent thought. These have become essential tools for assisting clients in transforming the abstract ideas that eventually become manifest as landscapes. Julie’s involvement with various community, environmental, and social projects links her professional activity with her humanitarian beliefs.

Mon. Jan 10: Landscape Design Lecture

(Photos courtesy of Doug Wood)
Monday, January 10 – 7-8:30 P.M.
Wicker Park Field House – 1425.N. Damen
Wicker Park Garden Club Landscape Design Series
www.wpgarden.org
RSVP required; limited seating.
Email wpgarden@aol.com or (773) 278-9075 - Pay at Door

ROBERTO BURLE MARX
Gary Lehman, RLA, ASLA
www.gstudiodesign.net
Marx - Expressive Lines, Texture, Color
Exciting Designs Utilizing an Artist-Botanist Palette and Sensibility in Landscape Design

Join Gary Lehman as he discusses the work and practice of Roberto Burle Marx and his influence on landscape design. Roberto Burle Marx was inspirational figure for landscape architects as he merged interests in painting, botany, and gardening. His unique character captured expressive lines in the landscape and his understanding of the planting and ecology surrounding it.

Mr. Lehman will discuss how this organic and expressive style was applied in a variety of mediums particularly in gardens. Additional attention will show how this styling and approach is applied to other contemporary designers.

Gary Lehman introduced G Studio (www.gstudiodesign.net ) with 12 years of experience at reputable firms including Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects, Carol R. Johnson and Associates (now CRJA), HNTB Corporation, Wolff Clements and Associates (now Wolff Landscape Architecture), Thompson Dyke & Associates, and Landscapes Unlimited. This work includes all scales of work from residential to town center design and range in scope from concept design to construction administration. This experience includes coordination with architects, engineers, developers, homeowners, university institutions, municipal departments, and planning organizations. The breadth of this work is broad and brings a phenomenal level of quality, intelligence, and exposure for every project.

View: http://www.flickr.com/photos/18755648@N00/3754098333

Upcoming Wicker Park Garden Club Lectures

LANDSCAPE DESIGN FOR HISTORIC HOMES
Three of Chicago’s top landscape design firms will address creating landscapes for historic homes or restoring an historic landscapes. These landscape designers will address: working with the historic elements and aesthetics of the homes (Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, etc.), working with the clients needs and incorporating those into the landscape design, and bringing to the final designs their personal creative energies and points of view.

Monday, October 4 - Lecture - Top Photo
7-8-30 PM – Wicker Park Field House - 1425 N. Damen
Landscape Designs for Historic Homes
Brian Culliton and Toni Quinn
Culliton Quinn Landscape Architecture Workshop - Lecture Sponsor
www.CullitonQuinn.com
RESERVATIONS - $8 – wpgarden@aol.com or (773) 278-9075

Monday, November 1 - Lecture - Middle Photo
7-8-30 PM – Wicker Park Field House - 1425 N. Damen
Landscape Designs for Historic Homes
Abigale Baldwin, RLA
Hoerr-Shaudt Landscape Architect - Lecture Sponsor
www.hoerrschaudt.com
RESERVATIONS - $8 – wpgarden@aol.com or (773) 278-9075

Monday, December 6 - Lecture - Bottom Photo
7-8-30 PM – Wicker Park Field House - 1425 N. Damen
Jensen Landscape Restoration for a Private Residence
Deirdre E. Toner
DT Landscape Design - Lecture Sponsor
www.dt-landscapedesign.com
RESERVATIONS - $8 – wpgarden@aol.com or (773) 278-9075

The Wicker Park Garden Club, organized in 1984 as a not-for-profit organization, brings new and veteran garden enthusiasts together to create a forum in which the participants can address both landscape design, green technologies, and practical gardening techniques. Box office from the talks support speaker stipends and/or support to maintain the 10,000 square feet of gardens we design, fund, and maintain in our Park.

Pictured is Richard Tilley of the Garden Club, working in the park this past weekend.

Save-the-Date: Plant Sale & Workshops, May 1st & 2nd

WICKER PARK GARDEN CLUB & THE CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT

Fundraiser for the Park Gardens

PLANT SALE & WORKSHOPS

Saturday - Sunday - May 1 & 2 - 10am-4pm - Wicker Park - 1425 N. Damen - Chicago

Sale Held

OUTSIDE Field House - West Side or

INSIDE Field House Gym if Raining

Flowering Annuals and Perennials - Herbs – Vegetables & Heirloom Tomatoes

Come to the sale and go home with an excellent selection of plants and at the same time - assist us with raising funds to help support the 10,000 square feet of gardens that we design and maintain in Wicker Park. Come early. Also, take one or more of our workshops. Join the nation wide movement of growing some food at home - learn how - and then purchase the vegetable to create your home gardens.

Saturday, May 1 - 10am - Noon - $15

CONTAINER DESIGN WORKSHOP

Design Ornamental Flower or Attractive Herb Containers

Seasonal or Year Round Designs

Susan Fontana

Thinking Outside the Pot

Flowering Plants and Herbs Available at the Plant Sale

REGISTRATION REQIRED: WPGarden@aol.com (773) 278-9075

If you missed last year’s sold out workshop, you have another opportunity to get inspired about the elements of container design: color, foliage, texture, and height. You can even learn to create an attractive ornamental yet totally edible vegetable container composition. Susan Fontana (Thinking Outside the Pot, Inc.), will lead a lively workshop with demonstrations on the art of container design and maintenance. Susan is known best for her superb container designs and unified multi-container compositions. You can learn to design several containers to work together. She will discuss location characteristics such as sunlight and wind for a wide variety of areas including yards, rooftops and balconies. She will address container choices such as material, size, shape, color and insulation for year round plantings. Bring your questions and experiences to share. Following the workshop, you can shop at the plant sale, discuss your specific interests and design ideas with Susan, and go home with plants for your own containers that will thrive throughout the summer and fall seasons.

Saturday, May 1 - 1PM - 2:30PM - $15

GROW VEGETABLE EVERYWHERE?

Small Space Vegetable Gardening

Beth Botts

Senior Editor - Chicagoland Gardening Magazine

www.chicagolandgardening.com blog: www.growinginchicago.com

Heirloom Vegetables Available at Plant Sale

REGISTRATION REQIRED: WPGarden@aol.com (773) 278-9075

Don't miss the experience of tasting fresh flavorful vegetables that you grow yourself. Beth Botts will discuss how to grow vegetables in all types of containers, rotate them throughout the season, and how to get the best results from growing vegetables in your city gardens, on your decks, or incorporating them in your patio's designs. She will discuss soils and fertilizers and how to

grow vegetables organically if you choose to use those techniques. Beth Botts is a writer, speaker, consultant and Master Gardener who writes on gardening for the Chicago Tribune and is a senior editor at Chicagoland Gardening Magazine. Several of her stories have won awards from the Garden Writers Association. Raised by an organic gardener on the South Side, she now does her digging and weeding in Oak Park in the shade on the north side of a 4-story apartment building and grows tomatoes and salads on the 3rd-floor porch. Visit her blog: www.growinginchicago.com

Saturday, May 1 - 3PM-4:30PM - $15

DESIGNING WITH BOLD ACCENTS

Bulbs, Annuals, Vines, & Ground Covers

Add Variety at Low Cost - Try Seeds and Bulbs

Doug Wood - Wicker Park Garden Club

REGISTRATION REQIRED: WPGarden@aol.com (773) 278-9075

Most gardens can use a bit more drama and bold statements within their overall structures. Also, in new gardens there are many 'holes' during the years you are waiting for the shrubs and perennials to fill in to these spaces. Doug Wood will discuss the incorporation of seasonal bulbs, ground covers and bold-structural annuals to bring accents and drama to your garden designs. Ground covers can act as excellent backdrops to help focus color and texture of feature plants. In addition, he will discuss a variety of annual seeds that you can plant directly into your garden in May and perennial vines that will extend your gardens vertically (focus on clematis types - with pruning tips). These additions to your garden designs will assist to extend your garden's interest throughout all four seasons.

Wicker Park Garden Club Fundraiser Now Through Saturday the 5th

Sat. November 28 - Saturday, December 5

Fundraiser for the Gardens & Educational Programming in Wicker Park 
at Grand Street Gardens - 2200 W. Grand Ave.
HOURS - M-F 9 AM-7PM  - Sat & Sun 9 AM-6PM        www.grandstreetgardens.com 

HOW  IT WORKS?
WHEN You Purchase Merchandise for Your Home -The WPGardens Benefits From Your Purchase!
WHAT YOU DO?
1. PRINT attached Pdf         
2. VISIT Grand Street Gardens - 2200 W. Grand Ave.
3. SHOP for Your Holiday Trees, Greens, Ornaments, Wreathes, Garlands, Gifts, ETC  
4. SHOW the Cashier The Flyer - Or - Let Them Know You are a Friend of Wicker Park
Grand Street Gardens will Donate 15% of Your Purchase Price - Before Tax
To The Wicker Park Garden Club 
To Help Maintain the Park's Gardens and To Enhance Educational Programming for Adults and Children.
WICKER PARK'S GARDENS are a Registered Chicago Park District Community Gardens in the Parks

http://www.cpdit01.com/resources/community_gardens/index.html 

www.wpgarden.org

Upcoming Garden Club Lectures

WORKSHOP
Saturday, October 3 - 10am-12 noon - $15
Wicker Park Field House - 1425 N. Damen, Chicago
Reservations: wpgarden@aol.com (773) 278-9075

Container Design for Fall and Winter
Susan Fontana
Thinking Outside the Pot
With the arrival of fall and the variable weather that comes with it - it is often difficult to keep your containers looking great at all times. In this workshop, Susan will give you ideas how to choose plants, dried grasses and flowers, and other materials that will work together to keep your containers looking colorful, exciting and healthy through the season. Please bring with you questions that will help you design the containers that you have at home - think what shape, size and color they are in determining the final design for your containers.


LECTURE
Monday, October 5 - 7-8:30 PM -Free - Donations Accepted
Wicker Park Field House - 1425 N. Damen, Chicago
Reservations: wpgarden@aol.com (773) 278-9075 (Pay at Door)

Native Landscapes - Created - Conserved - Evolved
An Historic & Philosophic Overview of Selected Designers
Wicker Park 2009-10 Lecture Series Introduction
Doug Wood
www.wpgarden.org

From the research he did in designing this series, Doug Wood will give a survey of the landscape designers who created either 'natural' or 'native' landscapes, their philosophies, and what may have influenced them to choose the 'natural' or 'native' approach to design. He will then focus on early 'natural landscape' designers: Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, Gertrude Jekyll, William Robinson. Critiques of the native designer's work and philosophies will be reviewed including a discussion of the publications by Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn. He will give an overview of the speakers for the series and pose the questions that we are attempting to answer together in this series. What can we bring from a study of these designers to our current landscape designs that are influenced by our knowledge of global warming and the need to conserve natural resources and yet - create what we consider to be a sustainable, functional and 'beautiful ' landscape.

Sunday in Wicker Park

Though people say you learn something new everyday, I am not sure I do. Today, however, was different. Susan and Denise from the Wicker Park Garden Club (they were the dirty ones wearing knee pads, and pushing wheel barrows around the park while I sat on a bench like everyone else) assured me that Wandering Jews can be used in outdoor planters, and will survive - maybe even thrive, gasp!- in bright light.

For some reason I thought wandering jews were indoor plants only, and preferred indirect light. Maybe that's just me, as a Jew that stays indoors too much. I have also done no research on wandering jews, either, it's just what I thought, though I was pleased to see the velvety, purplish leaves of the WJ in the planters along with Purple Fountain Grass ("We call it Mayor Daley's grass," Denise said), whirlwind white fan flowers, limelight, aka licorice plant, and dark red Empress. And, no, I did not know all the names, they gave me handy sticks so I can learn more.

On the way back from the park, Cipollina was hosting a free gelato tasting, featuring Back Dog gelato. Ironically it was a black dog, pictured here, keeping me from trying the black dog gelato, as I did not want to tie her up to a meter in order to get in line to try the black dog gelato. Oh well, I like this black dog better than any gelato.

Also on the way back we encountered another plant- an Obama Chia pet. I had blogged about the Chia Pet on the Windy Citizen (http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/politics/2009/03/30/obama-as-chia-pet), and thought they were all removed from shelves, but I guess this one made it out-- and into a local shop's window.