Christmas Day! 2009

Merry Christmas! It's christmas day, it's 40+ degrees, snow all melted , and looking forward to a bountiful season ahead. Happy HOlidays and wonderful new year !

Christmas Decorations

Job before and after...

Job well finished here are pictures of project before and after...

November in the garden

A new patio, paths, and fence...

Autumn Display

Autumn Display of planters , check out our earlier posts to see the change of seasons

master craftsmen at work

pictures of the installation of paving materials ...

continuing the paving project...

the last post i had posted pictures of the excavation of this project...here are more of the process... as I am writing the fence is being created by our master craftsmen... it is turing out better than imagined and I cannot wait to take the finished photos... until then ... here we have continued creating a new walk

Last project of the season....

We have ended up this season with a great project... I had a fun time designing and working with the customer on this... we changed all the hard surfaces in this garden...starting with the replacement of the front entrance walk with blue stone paving ... and continued with replacing all other walks with a manufactured paving block creating a meandering walk and patio... in addition to the paths and patios we changed the fence to a cedar lattice fence... the project is under way as I write and soon I will have finished pictures until then ... here are some work in progress shots...

The Cusp of Autumn

It really is here ...Autumn... that time of year when the air gets crisp in the evening and there is heavy dew in the morning and we all think of bringing out our sweaters having been stored all summer... WELL that is until this year when it seemed like Autumn all summer here in Chicago... I have been searching for some good reading that will likely take up my winter down time .. if anyone can suggest. I have a few sites that I came accross that i want to share and next week when it is REALLY AUTUMN, I will put some more photos up of the gardens... Michael Pollan's book the Omnivore's Dilemma, is a good read I hear ...and have read excerpts and also follow links from his home page which has some great lead's check it out...Till then enjoy the waning days of summer!

one seed at a time

the future of our food production is so important and this is a wonderful concise talk ..please listen

http://www.ted.com/talks/cary_fowler_one_seed_at_a_time_protecting_the_future_of_food.html

Summer Gardens of Hyde Park

These gardens I have pictures of earlier this season. Check out the difference in growth and how green it all is... These taken the last week of August are usually quite dry but with a cool and wet season past we have a wonderful abundance of plants...

Summer Gardens

It is The last weekend in August. Having taken these picture this week with a summer of cool temperatures and plenty of rain we have an abundance of seasonal flowers... D.J. is standing next to some plants(mystery) that are just a bit taller than our plume poppies topping out at 10' tall this year.

Just a thought...

Well It is already August, and the last week of August at that. Many of our clients who have children in school are breathing a sigh of relief, as they have started back to school already. (I somehow think that school should not start until after Labor Day, but....) We have had an incredibly unusual summer, lots of moisture, and more coming, not much of heat and of course for us a much slower season than usual. Most of use don't think possible but our August was extremely dry as usual but this was the driest in 10 years... so many of us without sprinklers had a chore of extra watering... I think that the rain from the last two days perhaps has brought us back to where we should be in monthly rain fall ...I am very weather challenged this season , always thinking positive that it will be dry for our working days but that has not been the case I seem to choose the days to plant when it is wettest. I don't know what this fall will bring or this winter I can only hope that it will be typical with good moisture and not too cold. I have been trying to get around to take pictures of the gardens during all seasons, if you see something that perhaps I missed or maybe you have a picture of your garden send it to me and I will post it. I appreciate all the work and assistance given to me by my great coworkers, D.J. , Jessica and James this season I can only hope our fall will be as productive. And of course thank you to all my wonderful customers, with out you nothing would be.... thanks so much...

Annuals and Containers

container plantings at various sites....