Sunday Afternoon at Anderson Japanese Garden

I had quite a Sunday! My morning started off with a drive into Chicago to catch the Van Gogh Bedrooms exhibit at the Art Institute. We were trying to go last night but got there far too late in the day, lines were averaging 2 hours to see the exhibit. I had been planning on heading to the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford this afternoon but didn't want to miss the Van Gogh exhibit as it is set to close next week. Instead of picking between the two I made it an action packed day, and as soon as I finished at the Art Institute hopped back on I-90 and headed west to Rockford to catch the garden in full bloom.

Japanese gardens are some of the most beautiful and peaceful landscapes I've ever seen. I saw my first one in San Francisco when I was 14 and I remember being amazed at the sense of calm I got while walking through the garden. The garden seemed so clean, like every rock and leaf was exactly where it was supposed to be. The gardens use water, stone, and vegetation to create idealized aesthetic landscapes that provide a setting for meditation. Rocks and water together represent yin and yang, two opposites who balance one another. In dry rock gardens, sand and gravel represent water. Japanese gardens are heavily influenced by Chinese Daoism and Buddhism, both of which were brought to Japan almost 1500 years ago.

The Anderson Japanese Garden is something of an anomaly being in the middle of Rockford, Illinois. When I first heard about the garden I was pretty amazed that something so culturally unique was located in Rockford of all places. Not only is the garden a nice place to visit, but it has ranked as one of the greatest Japanese Gardens in the U.S. The garden covers 12 acres along Spring Creek, a tributary to the Rock River. The origins of the garden begin in 1978 when John Anderson, a businessman inspired by his visits to Japan and Portland's Japanese Garden, decided to construct a Japanese Garden on his property in Rockford. He hired a master landscape architect named Hoichu Kurisu and they transformed the property into the beautiful garden it is today. Since 1998, when it was donated by Anderson, the garden has been operated by a non-profit.

We spent the better part of an hour walking around the garden. It was a great time to be there as many of the plants were in bloom. The red Japanese Maple leaves combined with purples of the azaleas and red buds made for a beautiful walk through the garden. The garden was full of beautiful songbirds and colorful koi. I can't wait to return to see how the garden changes with the seasons. If you have some spare time to make the trek out to Rockford I would highly recommend checking out Anderson Japanese Garden.

For more info check out: http://www.andersongardens.org/

It begins... Yardfarm 2016

After 2 years of patio gardening in Arizona with little to no success (I got a few inch long poblanos and a bunch of basil) I am finally ready to have a real vegetable garden in the raised bed. During grad school I lived in a unit with a north facing covered balcony... not ideal lighting for growing anything and paired with some white fly problems and not knowing anything about desert gardening I didn't have much luck.

Gardening has been something that has been super important to me since I was a little kid. When I was in grade school my mom gave my sister and I 12-inch flower boxes where we grew marigolds, snapdragons, and petunias. I remember feeling so proud of the plants that I was responsible for and ever since spending time with my mom in the garden has been something I look forward to every summer. For a long time it was just a simple herb garden and planting/weeding flower beds. When I got to college she built a raised bed in the back yard and that's when I got my first real experience doing the seed starting, planting, soil blending, composting, and vegetable gardening. The summer after I graduated college I made my own first herb garden, which was specifically for plants I could use to make tea: chamomile, lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint, and some doomed tea plants, Camellia sinensis. The following summer I added my own tomatoes, potatoes, and cucumbers, which I started in mid January out of excitement. I would carry the plants in and out of the garage in big 5 gallon buckets on days that got above 40 degrees and bring them back in at night.

This year I'll try not to jump the gun (ok... I already planted some lavender and rosemary seeds last week) but in the mean time I've been working on planning out my garden. Since I'll be living in an apartment (east facing balcony, should still be ok!) I'll be growing a few herbs and some potted vegetables on the balcony. However, the big part of my garden project is going to be a raised bed, which I'll be building at my parent's new house. I tried to get into the local community garden near my apartment but all of the plots were reserved by the time I signed my lease. Thankfully my folks agreed to give 32 square feet  of their yard to build an 8 ft x 4 ft raised bed so I'll use that for this year.

Here is the plan for what I'll be growing:

Herbs for cooking: Basil, Rosemary, Oregano, Dill

Herbs for tea: German Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Spearmint, Lemongrass, Ginger, Lavender

Vegetables: Tomato (Brandywine and Matina), Tomatillo, Cucumber, Pepper (Anaheim, Banana, Jalapeno, Poblano, and Tepin), Summer Squash, Lettuce (Black Seeded Simpson and Tangy), Microgreens, Garlic, Green Onions

Fruits: Strawberry, Blueberry, Pineapple (I have an 18 month old plant that I started from a recycled pineapple top in Arizona, hoping it will fruit this summer)

Flowers: Purple Coneflower, Butterfly Milkweed, Sunflower, Poppy, Lupine, Black Eyed Susan, Marigold. I wanted to do a few native plants to try to attract pollinators to my garden.

My first seedling (It's either lavender or rosemary, I mixed up the cups and forgot to label!) popped up yesterday and today it's going to hit 50 degrees so I am excited to kick off the gardening season. After I move into my apartment in mid march I will do the seed starting for the rest of my garden plants. Here's to a successful growing season.

First chamomile harvest of 2012. I got this much chamomile every 2 weeks all summer.

Seed starting tomatoes and cucumbers, February 2013

Container Garden, early spring 2013

Tomato Plant, spring 2013

Container tea garden 2013, chamomile up top with lemon balm and spearmint below

Chamomile in bloom

Raised bed 2013

A praying mantis hatchling. I experimented with them for pest control 2013

Lunch grown completely from the garden

Patio herb garden 2014 in Arizona

Moving my roots

When I was in 3rd grade the company that my dad works for offered him a big promotion and a lot of opportunity if he was willing to relocate to Las Vegas. When I first found out I was devastated at the prospect of leaving our friends and family in Illinois. My grandma still laughs to this day because when I first talked to her after finding out we might have to move my biggest concern was a little rose of sharon tree that she gave me when I was 4 years old. I asked her if we could dig it up and put it back in her yard so that she could look after it when we moved.

My dad made a big sacrifice for his family and ultimately didn't take the promotion because he was putting his family ahead of his career ambition, something I look up to him for so much especially since starting my own career. Things have worked out even better for him by staying in the office in Illinois so it wound up paying off in the long run. My tree has remained in my parents back yard since then and has grown up along with me (although it's a few feet taller than me now).

3 weeks ago my parents excitedly told me that they finally bought their dream house. After 22 years in the house that I grew up in, my parents are going to be moving out and living somewhere new. While it tugs at some nostalgia a bit, I couldn't be more excited for them and for what the future holds for our family. We have had an awesome time in the house I grew up in but with my sister and I grown up and on our way towards having our own careers and houses, my parents needed a change. The new house is beautiful and situated on an acre and a half of land. There are beautiful big maple trees (that I can't wait to tap for syrup this winter), friendly neighbors, and a huge lawn for the dogs to run around on.

While it might be the most ridiculous thing in the world to some people, the prospect of leaving my tree was right up there at the top of things I was most sad about in leaving our home. There's no way in hell I could leave it, so this weekend while I returned home to attend a wedding I put aside a few hours to transplant it. I spent Saturday morning digging the tree out of the ground and wrapping the root ball in burlap. I've never transplanted a tree by myself so I had to do a bit of research.

American Robin

When you transplant a tree you generally want to do it at a time that will be least stressful for the tree. It was a cool overcast October day so it was absolutely ideal. High temperatures and lots of sunshine can cause the tree to wilt as it is already stressed by having its roots moved. The root ball should be 10 inches to a foot in diameter for each inch of the thickness of the tree's trunk. Since my tree is only about 8 ft. tall with a 2-3 inch trunk I was able to dig it out within an hour no problem. I wrapped the tree up in burlap and watered it well before putting it back into the ground where it would stay overnight.

Project supervisor

On Sunday morning I went back to the house and with the help of my dad loaded it up and drove it to it's new home at my parent's new yard. My parents have been so busy with the new house and work but still found time to help me with something that they knew was important to me. I'm beyond lucky.  Arriving at my parent's new house to plant the tree was the first time I was able to see the house in person and I was so impressed with how beautiful it was. The previous owner had several birdfeeders up so there were lots of birds around and some of the leaves were starting to change for the fall. We got my tree into the ground pretty quickly and it will be in my mom's care until I get home but so far looks like it's handled the move pretty well. I'm really glad that I get to keep something so special to me!

5 years of digging experience

My tree in it's new home

House Finch

Black Capped Chickadee

A visit home

I wanted to start a blog to document my adventures outdoors and share some of the things I am learning as I experience them. I have always loved nature, visiting the national parks, working in the garden, and being outside, but the past few years have seen these things become a bigger part of my life. Not sure if anyone will read this but it will be a fun way to post pictures, document hikes, and write about some of my favorite things to do.

My first post is going to be about my backyard and the neighborhood I grew up in. I had a very quick visit back home this weekend to attend the wedding of one of my best friends. Coming home to the midwest amidst a summer in the desert is so entertaining because it makes you appreciate everything taken for granted while you are a midwestern resident: summer rainstorms, the shade of big green trees, vegetables fresh from the garden. While the desert heat parches the Sonoran and the springtime cactus blooms fade away, the midwest is in its summer prime. I had a chance to sit out in my backyard and enjoy being surrounded by my family, dogs, and shades of green everywhere, all while being 30 degrees cooler than Arizona without the stresses of grad school. It was a great day.

One of my favorite spots in our garden is somewhere I spent a good chunk of my first afternoon home, a patch of Russian Sage along the side of the house. Russian Sage isn't a native plant, it was introduced from central Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet) but it thrives very well in the climate of the Chicago suburbs. It grows about chest high and is covered in pale purple flowers that have a strong but pleasant odor. We can always tell when the dogs have been running through the Russian Sage because they bring the smell right in with them. This plant thrives in full sun and is very adaptable to dry soils which makes it a good choice for xeriscaping. It's also resistant to deer grazing as well as many diseases making it a reliable and low maintenance choice for the garden. However, my favorite thing about Russian Sage is the fact that bees LOVE it. Everyday we see hundreds of bees dashing through the patch of Russian Sage visiting the many flowers. My sister let me borrow her camera and I spent the better part of an hour just watching (I can't wait to become a beekeeper as soon as I finish grad school!).

After letting the bees be I took a short ride down to the end of our block to a retention basin that we call "the pond". The pond has been a big part of my life since I was a little kid. We would go there to fish for bluegill and bass, catch frogs, climb trees, and feed ducks and geese. When I was little, the pond was little more than a drainage pit surround by mowed grass. However, in 2006 the Village of Algonquin transformed "the pond" into "the Lake Drive South Naturalized Stormwater Facility", which means they quit mowing the perimeter of the pond, planted native plants, and restored the area to create a more natural environment. This has made the pond an awesome place to go to see wildflowers such as Purple Coneflowers, Black Eyed Susan, Wild Bergamot, and Purple Prairie Clover. It makes me so happy to see native planting and prairie restoration becoming more and more popular, especially among municipalities and organizations with access to large chunks of land. According to the US Forest Service, of the original 21 million acres of prairie in Illinois, only 0.01% remains unaltered by farming and urban development. With no mountains or other natural barriers to development and some of the most fertile soil in the country there was not much to slow the destruction of prairies in the early 1800s when Illinois became a state. The ideas of conserving nature for the sake of conservation and recreation wouldn't begin until 50 years later with the formation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872. Can you imagine how beautiful the prairies of this state must have looked hundreds of years ago?

While my visit was short and I was only able to spend a short amount of time outside, it did make me realize how much we tend to take the environment we grow up in for granted. For me it took moving 1800 miles away to a whole new ecosystem to remind myself how beautiful the midwest is and how much I can't wait to get back to experience so many of the things I have taken for granted.