Friday, July 15, 2011

Cantigny Garden Ideas (two)

When Hubby and I traveled to Wheaton to enjoy the gardens at Cantigny (see yesterday's post for more pics) we had time to view the Idea Garden and the Rose Garden.  I will have to make another trip to see the woodland plants and the formal gardens.

One of the things I like about Cantigny is that they share gardening ideas and have garden programs, etc.  I actually lectured in the Idea Garden some years ago.

This time in addition to the plants I paid attention to the other things shared like Composting.


This is bin one of the three bin system

The final two bins
















This compost system uses three bins where you put items in, don't really do much turning, and let them move through decomposition to create new soil.  This is the method I use, but my bins are not as nicely made as i use just chicken wire.  then I pull the wire away when it has broken down and can be used, using the wire to create another "fresh" bin.

I like these rolling composters as you can make compost in record time and it is kind fun to roll it.

While I was there I also looked at their rain barrel.  It was liked up with a diverter board on the potting shed.  I liked this because I do not intend to have down spouts on my shade either.

I was also fascinated with trellises.  They had a premade one of metal with a tea cup vine.


And a natural one made out of branches that I thought would be perfect for growing hops.  Hops being such a fast grower would turn something like this into a shading reading nook in just a few weeks.


Always on the look out for a new way to mark my plants and create paths I latched onto these concrete ideas.  Since I recently learned how to make tuffa and concrete I was fascinated with the idea of making a weather resistant marker I could put plants around.


There was also a leaf shape marker that caught my eye too!

Then we spent some time with the roses.


My mother-in-law loves yellow roses, so I took these.

As I leave you with a final picture of the roses and the trellis that lines the garden, I think perhaps you might like a rose tea as I did when I got home.  the backyard Patch makes two wonderful rose based herb teas (Rose Blush and Rosy Bite) and two black teas with rose petals in them -- Garden Gait and Elmhurst Garden Walk.  All four are available on the website.

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