Autumn Garden

By: Kathy Gemperle

As summer ends and the mums bloom it is time to plant again. Since we are heavily committed to perennials in the backyard of the museum, this is the best time to acquire them and plant them. The City of Chicago, along with the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, Openlands Project and Green Corps Chicago, sponsor each fall the Great Perennial Divide at the North Park Village Nature Center.

This year it was on Saturday, September 25. Non-Profit organizations are invited to attend and bring their vans for hauling the plants that will be given away.

Sandee Remis and Elisabeth Wilcox-Szegho organized the Edgewater Historical Society’s participation in this event. Elisabeth and Sandee went first to get registered and wait in line. Once again we borrowed St. Gregory’s van. My sister, Mary Duskey Fort, visiting from Florida and avoiding the hurricanes, came along for the fun.

Everything went smoothly and we returned to the museum with a number of interesting perennials along with a Weigela bush, hostas, day lilies, phlox and asters. Of course they needed to be planted right away. The second group of volunteers arrived in the afternoon to do the planting. Thanks to Marissa Michels, Carm Esposito and Betty Redmond for all the time and energy they put into this project.

Now it is later in the fall and a chill is in the air. Sandee and Elisabeth have participated in a seminar at the Garfield Park Conservatory to learn how to cut back plants and prepare them for the winter. They were busy at the museum the first weekend of November. What a team!