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Garden Classes Chicago

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Learn how to grow your own vegetables and maintain a beautiful garden in the city of Chicago with classes on urban gardening, container gardening, and sustainable gardening practices.

35 classes have spots left

Fabulous Fragrant Plants

Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Road, Chicago, IL

A personal garden should engage all five senses, including your sense of smell. Discover the world of fragrant ornamental plants to add a scent experience to your home spaces. You will take a look at flowers and foliage and the many ways you can use and enjoy scented plants. A Garden walk is included, so please dress for the weather.

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

The Thorny Side of Roses: Pests and Diseases

Chicago Botanic Garden

Roses are universally loved, but pests and diseases can temper the excitement of even the most passionate rose enthusiast. Tom Soulsby will review common rose pests and diseases and share tips with you on diagnosis and control. He will also dig deeper into how prevention, proper garden maintenance, and plant selection are the best first steps toward a healthy rose garden.

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Fruit Trees for the Beginner

Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Road, Chicago, IL

What a sweet reward it is to walk outside, reach up, and pick one of your own homegrown fruits. This class will cover the basics on planting and maintaining fruit trees. Different varieties, site selection, preparation, proper planting, yearly maintenance, and integrated pest management will be discussed. This class will be taught online via Zoom. All registrations must be submitted online two days before your class starts. Registered students...

(122) Beginner 18 and older
No upcoming schedules
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Essential Perennials: Add Panache to Your Outdoor Space

Chicago Botanic Garden

This illustrated talk will focus on using perennials in various parts of the garden, however much space is available. We will talk about perennials for sun and shade, for groundcovers and along walkways, in containers and hanging baskets, and in wild, native plant, and rock gardens. We will also take a look at companion bulbs and shrubs that can really light up a garden and make it memorable. Questions of maintenance will also be addressed.

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Coping With Deer

Chicago Botanic Garden

Deer have become a serious problem for gardeners across the country. However there are ways to curtail their hungry ways, without resorting to fences, physical barriers, and routine spraying. Some plants, including tulips, daylilies, and impatiens, are top of the favorite deer food list, but a host of others are unpalatable to them and mostly left unbrowsed. While it is impossible to name a single deer-proof plant, gardeners should not despair. ...

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Small Space Food Gardens

Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Road, Chicago, IL

Bill Shores will offer an overview of techniques to produce food organically in small urban/suburban spaces. Through photos and garden planting graphics, you will gain an understanding of the process of designing a successful food garden.  Topics include efficient use of in-ground space, intensive and succession planting techniques, raised bed gardens, season extension, indoor gardens, and building and maintaining healthy soils.

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Brambles and Berries for the Beginner

Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Road, Chicago, IL

Would you love to be able to harvest fresh berries from your own backyard? If so, this class will convince you how easy it is to successfully grow berry fruits. You will learn how to choose the best varieties, select and prepare a site, and use proper planting and pruning techniques, as well as understand other maintenance requirements. Dress for the weather, as part of the class will be outside.

(122) Beginner 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Fantastic Perennials for Fall

Chicago Botanic Garden

Many perennial plants naturally bloom late in the year, so to maintain a fantastic garden through the months of fall, it is crucial to incorporate a large percentage of them. With the right mix of perennials, home gardeners can successfully produce a diverse, colorful show to end the growing season.  In this course, Jacob Burns will review the finest autumn line-up for Chicago gardens and provide lessons on how to care for each plant. Class...

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Winter Tool Prep

Chicago Botanic Garden

Before temperatures go below freezing, learn how to properly sharpen and oil your garden tools; winterize lawn mowers, small power equipment, and irrigation systems; and get snow equipment ready for the winter season.  You will have a hands-on opportunity to practice what you learn, so bring along a pair of pruners for sharpening.

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Urban Composting

Chicago Botanic Garden

Compost is a valuable soil amendment, and making it provides a great way to recycle abundant yard and food wastes. Even with limited or no yard space, you can produce surprisingly large quantities of your own high-quality compost. Join Bill Shores as he explains the composting process, how to choose and handle materials, ways to fit composting into small urban spaces, what containers you can build or purchase and how to use them effectively, harvesting...

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Gardens in Winter

Chicago Botanic Garden

Winter is the forgotten season in the garden, but it doesn’t have to be. With a little planning, our winter gardens can be beautiful. Proper plant selection can make the garden a wonderful place even in the coldest season. Find out which plants can provide winter interest.

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Garden in Miniature Container Workshop

Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Road, Chicago, IL

Shrink your perspective and see just how rewarding creating miniature gardens in containers can be. Inspired by the work in the Gardening in Miniature books by Janit Calvo, this special workshop includes all of the instruction and materials needed to create a living, miniature garden in an outdoor container. With proper care and placement, your container should live outside for several years. Learn how to apply standard design practices to create...

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Growing Salads Indoors

Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Road, Chicago, IL

Learn to grow organic salad greens at home, whether you have garden space or not! Professional gardener Bill Shores, who has grown specialty greens for more than a decade and currently manages chef Rick Bayless’s market garden, will treat participants to a visual feast of microgreens. Then he will demonstrate how to plant the seeds in growing trays, and discuss maintenance and harvesting techniques.

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Backstage Pass: The Orchid Show

Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Road, Chicago, IL

For one cold winter month only, the Regenstein Center and the Garden’s Greenhouses are filled with more than 10,000 orchids for our annual Orchid Show. Join Wade Wheatley to learn about the various varieties of orchids, watering and growing techniques, and a behind-the-scenes perspective on how the Orchid Show was created.  A short tour of the Orchid Show is included in the fee.

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Leave the Seeds

Chicago Botanic Garden

Not only do the seedpods of perennials feed birds and wildlife throughout winter, they add a rich textural element to the dormant garden. Explore seeds, pods, and stems that bring interesting shapes and structure to the garden.

(122) Advanced 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Tool Prep and Tool Sharpening Workshop

Chicago Botanic Garden @ 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, IL

Before temperatures drop below freezing, learn how to properly sharpen and oil your garden tools; winterize lawn mowers, small power equipment, and irrigation systems; and get snow equipment ready for winter.  You will have an opportunity to practice what you learn, so bring a pair of pruners or other small tools for sharpening.

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

From Design to Reality

Chicago Botanic Garden

Join Craig Bergmann as he shares how to manage aesthetic expectations alongside the reality of garden maintenance and budget. Determining viable plants for our region, how to select plants and partners for different site conditions, and aesthetic results will be discussed. Profiles of finished projects will be shown to represent their evolution from paper to planting. The School’s CEUs=1.5 hours GDC elective This class will be taught online...

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Gardens of the 1920s

Chicago Botanic Garden

Home gardens in the 1920s celebrated and welcomed nature. Birdhouses, birdbaths, fish ponds, and rock gardens were the rage. Cottage-garden perennials, such as Canterbury bells, irises, foxglove, phlox, pyrethrum, coreopsis, hollyhocks, roses, columbine, and poppies were just some of the flowers that adorned front and back gardens.

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Gardens for Midcentury Modern Homes

Chicago Botanic Garden

A well-designed midcentury house is a thing of beauty. Open floor plans, large window walls, exposed beams, and projecting eaves are just some of the defining architectural features. Well-defined outdoor space, floor-level patios, abstract geometric lawns, and restrained plantings are characteristic of midcentury landscapes. The overall intent is a flowing relationship between indoor and outdoor space. We’ll discuss hardscapes, feature elements,...

(122) All levels 18 and older
No upcoming schedules

Advanced Pruning Techniques

Chicago Botanic Garden

This class is ideal for those interested in pruning topiaries, espalier, and some of the more challenging plants such as arborvitae, yew, juniper, and other conifers.  A Garden walk will be included to view how best to prune some of the more interesting plants in the Garden. 

(122) Advanced 18 and older
No upcoming schedules
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