July 27, 2007
Making Garden Pots
Today we got our expected Tuesday visit from the Mount Greenwood Park Special Recreation campers. This is always a fun time because the children are eager to get their hands dirty. We did a small craft using pots. They created creative designs on terracotta pots with paint and then we are going to hang the pots from the trees in their garden.
We all went outside where they played a game of "Name that Plant." The children were all given a label of a certain plant, and they were to go find that plant in the garden and place the label in the ground.
Tuesdays are my favorite days of the week because of the energy that the kids bring to the garden. They never fail to say or do something clever, cute, or down right hilarious. For example, one of the campers wanted me to imagine that there was a mud pit in between us and he grabbed my arm to play tug-o-war. Another one of the campers were overjoyed to see that the tomato plant that he had planted in the beginning of the summer is now producing tomatoes. The kids are never stingy with handshake and hugs.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 8:25 PM | Permalink |
July 27, 2007
Mayor Daley's Landscape Awards Program
Hello and welcome back to our blog. The past few days have been filled with gardening and landscape up-keep. This is because we are entering our Master Gardener/ Intern Demonstration gardens in Mayor Daley's Landscape Awards Program. The contest scores the gardens on appearance, function, and maintenance. We have to weed, plant, and deadhead to ready our grounds for the unannounced arrival of the judges. They are going to be very critical and we want to make sure everything is looking its best.
To enter into the contest I had to submit an application stating why I believe the U of I Extension gardens should be considered for the contest. I explained in a brief writing about the benefits of the garden to the community, students, and other people interested in urban gardening. I am looking forward to seeing the results of our hard work.
Since our Children's garden is well into the summer, the produce from our vegetable plants are ready to harvest. Thus far the green peppers, zucchini squash, and squash have yielded a great crop. The pumpkins, cucumbers, and tomatoes are getting close to harvest time.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 2:29 PM | Permalink |
July 19, 2007
The Bug Days
The past two days I would consider the "Bug Days." Our insect and bug exhibit was a big hit with the day camps around us. Yesterday we went to Wilson Park Recreation Center to present the critters. We interacted with the children to teach them about worms, giant millipedes, tarantulas, and the Madagascar hissing cockroaches. They were educated on the habitats needed, the amount of body segments each has, and how to handle them properly. Many of them were hesitant to touch and hold the insects, but they soon warmed up to the bug and even wanted to name them. The most surprising thing to us was their amount of knowledge before we even gave our talk. They understood that insects had an exoskeleton and even body segments such as the thorax.
Today was very similar to yesterday, but with many more kids to show our petting zoo to. There were children from the UIC Day Camp and there were about 120 of them. I love the interest that they have in what we had to say and show. Though many were frightened they were still curious about the critters, which made our experience so much more worth it.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 8:10 PM | Permalink |
July 18, 2007
Building Gardens in Chicago
This week has been extremely busy. On Monday we went to Christopher School, a school for children with disabilities to build some raised beds. The raised beds are wheelchair accessible so that the children can learn the cycle of a plant from seed to bloom.
This was a very tedious project and it began with our trip to Home Depot. We called into Home Depot the week before and asked if there were 50 landscape timbers that could be set aside for us and they said "no problem." Well, we got there and they didn't have anything set aside and there were only 50 timbers in the store and they were in terrible condition.
Building the beds was hard work, but it was very rewarding. We had to pre-drill the holes before we drove the nails into the wood, so that the wood did not split. The project turned out very appealing and the school could not say enough about our work.
Yesterday was one of the greatest experiences that I have had with the University of Illinois Extension. We went downtown to a daycare for Northwestern University. We brought peat moss, annuals, perennials, and soil to improve their landscaping. The fun part of the project was having the children help us with all the planting and work. Their ages ranged from 4 to 12 and they were a blast. I've never seen so many kids eager to help in yard work like they were. The energy from the kids made you forget that you were even working. A 6 year old girl summed up the experience perfectly with the comment that "this is both the finest day of my life and the grossest."
Posted by Ron Wolford at 11:57 PM | Permalink |
July 13, 2007
Getting Ready for the Bug Bash
The past two days have been filled with excitement. As I told you in my earlier entry we are getting prepared for the upcoming Chicago Bug Bash festivities at the Museum of Science and Industry on July 14.Yesterday we were in charge of building the habitats for the millipedes. Millipedes are very harmless except for a liquid that they excrete when they are in danger that can cause irritation if put into ones eyes or mouth.
There are a few essential things which millipedes need inside their habitats. 1. The habitat must be moist. 2. Bedding is needed for them to crawl around and escape the light when need be. 3. The holding area has to be well ventilated and be longer than the longest millipede in there. 4. Finally, they eat fruits and veggies such as cucumbers, tomatoes, bananas, and lettuce.
In addition to the millipedes' habitats I set up the habitats for the Madagascar cockroaches. Like the millipedes the cockroaches need adequate bedding and moisture. Because they don't like the sunlight I placed objects into the tank so that they can hide under. These objects might be an old clay pot or some used toilet paper rolls. For food, the roaches enjoy a few pieces of dry cat or dog food.
We packed up all the boxes for the Bash. We have to be at the museum on Saturday at 8 a.m. to set-up.
We also planted some plants into our demonstration garden beds at the AG School that were planted in the rain garden at the Taste of Chicago.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 12:56 AM | Permalink |
July 12, 2007
Back from the Taste
Hello and welcome back to the internship blog. The Taste of Chicago is finally over and for those of you who had a chance to make it down to the festival; I hope you had a blast. Also, thank you to those of you who were able to stop by and see the University of Illinois Extension's display. It was a real success thanks to our Master gardeners and all their hard work.
One great thing that the Extension benefits from the Taste is the new things that we get to add to our program. For example, the city gave us rain garden plants, rain barrels, earth boxes, compost bins, and best of all a green roof display. All of which we can use on our grounds to aid in educating the community on various "going green" projects and ideas.
Over the past couple of weeks we have been working on mulching the area to prevent weeds from coming up and this was a very labor intense project. We finally finished and the area looks great. The plants look more vibrant and weed control has been effective.
This past week's experience with the children from Mt. Greenwood Park's Special Recreation program was a blast. We worked with garden crafts. The kids decorated visors to protect them from the sun when working in the garden. In addition to crafts, we had them plant several earth boxes so that they can observe plants as they develop over the next few weeks.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 11:48 PM | Permalink |
July 4, 2007
Going Green at the Taste of Chicago
Hello and welcome back to the blog of Andrew and Scott Hoefler. Sorry about the time away, but we have been enjoying ourselves at the Taste of Chicago. That is one of the perks of this job.
Cook County Extension is part of the City of Chicago's Going Green display at the taste. The Going Green area gives people ideas on how to live a more environmentally sound lifestyle. Cook County Extension has a display of compost and worm bins. Extension also has twelve water conserving earthboxes planted with flowers and vegetables. There is also a Ask a Master Gardener Table manned by Cook County Master Gardeners. A number of Cook County educators will be presenting workshops at the Going Green tent. The exhibit was a big hit and was bustling with people.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 6:08 PM | Permalink |
June 27, 2007
Loading Up for the Taste of Chicago
Three trucks came from the city today to pick up some of our materials we will be using at the Taste of Chicago. We were able to fit our two compost bins and eight earthboxes into their trucks; our projects are finally on their way.
Next, we used the Gator to spread mulch in the beds around the grounds. As we were doing this a man who helped with the development of the farm about six years ago came by and we took him on a tour. We drove around on the Gator and showed him our gorgeous school, the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.
Tomorrow we will be working at the Taste of Chicago helping to set up the Going Green area.
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Posted by Ron Wolford at 11:15 PM | Permalink |
June 27, 2007
Getting Ready for the Taste of Chicago
Hello and welcome back. We are currently finishing up building a compost bin and a worm bin for the Taste of Chicago. Justin Cummings, Academic Hourly, has been helping us. It has been a new experience of its own, and we have learned a lot about craftsmanship. For example, we now know what it is like to not measure perfectly and have to go back and re-cut pieces to make them fit. Also, there are some types of wood that don't work with certain sized nails and because of this the wood cracks! Finally, always use newspaper to protect the ground when staining because stain does stain even concrete.
We were landscapers the past few days. The University of Illinois Extension has a series of demonstration gardens at the Ag School. Over the past few days we tilled the beds and layed mulch. This job is labor intensive, but there is one upside to it, we get to use the Gator. What is the Gator? It is the greatest invention known to any true landscaper. It is a combination between a dump truck and a golf cart. This vehicle made our task much less time consuming and allowed us to do an efficient job.
Tomorrow we will be having working with children from Mt. Greenwood Park's Special Recreation program. We will be teaching them how to plant in our earthboxes. They will also be planting some peppers and doing some weeding in the Mt. Greenwood Children's Garden.
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Posted by Ron Wolford at 1:44 AM | Permalink |
June 26, 2007
Gardening with Kids
Today was an eventful day with the kids from Mt. Greenwood Park's Special Recreation program. We had fun with the kids by doing a variety of gardening activities. The first thing we did was a search and discover game that consisted of the children crawling around under our cob structure, which is a large table made out of straw, mud, and manure built around a tree in search of little toys and prizes. Then we showed the children the importance of weeding and tilling before planting. Once the beds were prepared by the children, they planted a variety of plants such as: tomatoes, annuals and peppers. They finished their gardening by watering the plants that they had just planted. The children learned a lot about gardening and we discovered how rewarding it is to help children learn new gardening experiences.
In addition to our time with the kids we also had some planting and repairs that needed to be done. In the flower beds near 111th Street we planted the Petunia Tidal Wave Hedgiflora 'Hot Pink'. These are vibrant pink flowers that if planted a foot apart grow to form a mound of bright, gorgeous color. We also fixed our wooden trellises. We measured out the amount of materials needed, cut the wood, and secured them in using screws.
Tomorrow we go down to the Taste of Chicago to help set up Cook County Extension's display in the Going Green area.
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Posted by Ron Wolford at 12:05 AM | Permalink |
