Resources page added…

If you left the symposium hungry for more, then you’ve come to the right place! We have added a resources page to our website chock full of  books, articles and webstites that continue the sustainability theme. Many of the books can be found in the Sterling Morton Library here at the Arboretum. Be sure to stop by the library and see these and many other books and magazines that can help you design your sustainable landscape.

Prize winners announced!

Were you wondering what ever happened with that drawing you were entered into when you filled out the Symposium Survey? In case you don’t remember, every one who filled out a survey was automatically entered into a drawing for some great gardening tools or supplies.

Here are our lucky winners:

Sue Peterson:   digging fork

Aida Bleaker:   digging spade

Mike Watts:   compost bin

Janet Barber:   watering devices

Richard Harms:    seed starter kits

Thanks to everyone who filled out our survey. Your responses will help us to make next year’s symposium even better!

New updates to the website!

Lots of new info has been added to the symposium site. Here’s the break down.

Design Challenge

Follow the navigation on the left to see plans, photos, plant lists, budgets and more!

Plants for Dry Sites plant lists

Todd Jacobson and Kunso Kim gave us lots of advice for planting these problem sites. You can get their plant lists on the Friday schedule page under their presentation listing.

Mt. Cuba plant list

Rick Lewendowski wowed us with the beauty of the Mt. Cuba woodland wildflower gardens. His extensive plant list can be found on the Saturday schedule page under his presentation listing.

Symposium photos

We would like to thank Elaine Allen for taking photos of this years symposium.  We have posted a selection of photos on Flickr. You can view them here or by clicking on the photo badge in the right column at any time from any page on the symposium site.

Coming soon…

The long awaited SURVEY!

We really did take all that waste to be composted!

Ron Picco and Karla Lynch disposing of our “waste” from the symposium at Midwest Organics. (Click on each photo to see full size)

Ron unloading the 30 bags of waste generated by the symposium	Karla in the compost turner	Ted Kreuger turning compost

More thanks…

Thank you to all of the businesses, staff members and volunteers who supported the production of the Midwest Gardening Symposium 2009.

A special thank you to those businesses who provided materials and decorations.  These include Sid’s Greenhouses (Bolingbrook and Palos Hills) for the tropical plants that graced the foyer, and BallHort (West Chicago) for the luncheon centerpieces of potted flowering plants, which were then given out at the end of each day.

A heartfelt thank you to the six design/build landscape firms that volunteered design services and did the research for the Designer’s Challenge portion of the program.  These include:

American Gardens, Inc. (Elmhurst)

Hursthouse, Inc. (Naperville)

James Martin Associates, Inc. (Vernon Hills)

Plandscape, Inc. (Elburn)

Scott Byron Landscapes, Inc. (Lake Forest)

Western DuPage Landscaping, Inc. (Naperville)

Thanks for coming!

This year’s Midwest Gardening Symposium was a great success, but the learning doesn’t end today…

Over the next few weeks we will be hard at work gathering presentations, plant lists, drawings, landscape plans and more from our speakers, and will be expanding the Design Challenge section to include all of the designers plans and specs.

Also coming is a list of resources, print and electronic, for you to continue your sustainablility education.

Be sure to bookmark this site or subscribe to it with your favorite RSS reader.

Just give us a few days to get going, and then check back in. See you soon!

Midwest Gardening Symposium: Sustainable with Style

On March 13-15, 2009, join us for this outstanding symposium providing lectures, workshops, tours, and demonstrations of environmentally friendly gardening techniques. Learn how to create an eco-gorgeous landscape garden right for you.

At the Midwest Gardening Symposium, you can:

• See how local landscape architects make eco-friendly design choices for typical houses.
• Talk to the 6 Design Challenge homeowners about their sustainable makeovers.
• Determine what type of watering system is best for your garden and how to store and use rainfall as part of your garden design.
• Create a list of plants that are perfect for those super dry areas in your garden.
• Free yourself from factory-type stores and get on board with the locally-grown food movement;  find out how and where to get fresh organic vegetables all year around.
• Learn how Mt. Cuba, a country estate in Delaware, became one of the premier gardens known for using native plants in a traditional and sophisticated way.
• Discover how to be true to yourself and your property’s ecology with Claire Sawyer’s 5-step approach to designing authentic gardens.
• Take an arm-chair tour of a fabulous and sustainable Chicago home that showcases cutting edge green technology with great savvy.
• Enjoy a green garden party with cooking demos, gardening exhibits, snacks and cash bar.

Register online now  or by phone at 630-719-2468