Spring in West Ridge

Window Box meeting on March 5th

Join the Northtown Garden Society for their next meeting on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 7:00 PM. Neighbors Ann Glapa and Jo Stavig will give a slide presentation called "Beautiful Window Boxes All Year Long". Please note that the meeting will take place at the Northtown Public Library 6435 N. California. There is plenty of street parking.

And, check out Jo's website, Urban Prairie Planters with window boxes cleverly named after our local streets. That's one of her custom container styles (the Washtenaw, I believe) in the photo above.

West Ridge Bungalow Worms

Last Thursday we had a full house at the North Town Library to listen to our garden panel speak. (Thanks again to David, John, Chris and Kim -- you all rocked our landscaping worlds, and Kim, I will never forget your "parsley around the roast" description of the typical Chicago front yard evergreens!)

There was a lively discussion of all things green, but when John mentioned worm composting I didn't hear much of a response.

At the risk of never having anyone accept a dinner invitation to our house again, allow me to introduce you to the smallest and hardest working members of our household -- the worms.

I first learned of worm composting via this great online booklet offered by the Shedd Aquarium.
Later, I met up with Master Composter Ruth Melulis who set me up with my first little colony of Red Wigglers. They've been living happily in our pantry even since.

See that grey plastic bin? That's it, right next to the rest of our recycling containers. That's where they live. They're not messy or smelly, and in the winter it's definitely more convenient to slip food scraps to the worms than walking them out to the compost bin.

Come on neighbors, if New Yorkers can do it, so can you.