Garden Corner

Article by MJ Garnier, master gardener

Create a Butterfly garden in your yard! We here in Edgebrook live near the forest and have a great opportunity to create a habitat for butterflies in our back yard or anywhere a bit of thought has been given to our fluttery friends. Chicago has about 60 different types of butterfly from the Admirals (Viceroy) and the Emperors to the Milkweed (Monarch), and Swallowtails. To welcome them into your garden, choose a sunny location.  Grow host plants for caterpillars to eat and nectar plants for butterflies to sip. Keep the setting natural and plant a diverse array of plants in large bunches. If you feed birds, put feeding station and bird bath on the opposite side of the house. Provide evergreens for shelter from wind and rain and a wood pile for over wintering. Butterflies are sensitive to pesticides and will not land if pesticides have been used. An integrated approach allows for a well organized and harmonious way to achieve long term pest management. For more info http://www.thebutterflysite.com/gardening.shtml and http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/factsheets/ipm.htm. Enjoy the garden!

Read about lawn care in Northern Illinois at the University of Illinois extension website.

What’s Growing in Edgebrook? Gardening photos will be added every month. Send us a photo!








When you see someone weeding in one of our public spaces, chances are good it’s an ECA volunteer. Speaking of volunteers, we can always use help from anyone who wants to pitch in. And if you’ve got a green thumb, even better!

Volunteers are need for Greencorps Edgebrook Gardening Projects! Contact us at: edgebrookcommunityweb@gmail.com


Bagworm Report from 2009 - You might note that 3 trees were cut down on the south side of Devon between the railroad tracks and Central Avenue. The city did this as the trees were heavily damaged by the pests. These should be replaced in the spring. Several trees remain with bagworms in them. The department of forestry is to remove the bagworm shelters in the coming month. To read more go tohttp://gardening.about.com/od/gardenproblems/qt/Bagworm.htm.

Keeping Edgebrook clean and beautiful is important to everyone in the neighborhood, from homeowners on our tree-lined streets to shopkeepers in our bustling business district. Beginning with that magical moment when the first flower blooms to the final snowflake of winter (which last year fell on our annual Easter Egg Hunt!), Edgebrook always has the look of a well cared for community. Your ECA aims to keep it that way.

For our members, keeping Edgebrook looking its best is a concern. For the Garden Club, it sometimes borders on an obsession. The ECA was instrumental in securing a landscaping grant, which is being used to maintain downtown raised beds. The Devon-Caldwell-Lehigh Triangle and the train-station corridor are funded by ECA dues, without any financial support from the City of Chicago or METRA.

Click here to make a special landscaping donation.