Pat Hill's Natural Midwest Garden
Pat Hill's Blog on gardening with native plants in Northern Illinois
It was a perfect Sunday afternoon. A surprisingly large group of Elgin High School’s Class of 1959 gathered under a Shagbark Hickory tree at the edge of a savanna on the grounds of the high school. They were there to dedicate a memorial to their class sponsor and former Biology teacher, Gus Stuart. The memorial […]
Monday Melange Who Needs Chrysanthemums? Serendipity. I didn’t design this, but isn’t it a stunning combination? Heath Aster (Aster ericoides) and Butterfly Weed seedpods (Asclepias tuberosa) show off against a backdrop of the huge magnificent leaves of Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum). Prairie Dock bears yellow daisy flowers at the top of 10’ stems in July, […]
File This under Window View or Serendipity This is the view looking outside my east studio window, only about 8’ away from my neighbor’s cracked and stained concrete patio. A few self-seeded Joe Pye Weed grow next to my window, but not tall enough to hide an unattractive view. Many years ago I had a […]
More on Asters and Grasses I can’t help myself. All last week, whenever I would step outside my front door, whether to get the mail or pick up the newspaper, I would run back into the house for my camera and take more photographs of all the asters. Aromatic Aster and Prairie […]
Serendipity This is the view out my back door, between the house and the garage. Carefully arranged, except for one thing–the tall, graceful, flufffy-headed Horseweed (Erigeron canadensis) that decided on its own to seed itself within the bricks of the walk. It’s the perfect accent to the composition–a feather-duster plume at the top of a […]
Golden Leaves What causes leaves to turn color in the fall? Shorter day lengths and cooler temperatures trigger the leaves to discontinue the production of chlorophyll, allowing other pigments to shine through. Sunny days stimulate the manufacture of carbohydrates and cool (40-45° F) nights allow the carbohydrates to break down into sugars. The more […]