Some of our favorite flowering and foliage plants, such as dahlias, elephant ears (alocasia and colocasia), caladiums and cannas, are too tender to survive in the cold soil of a Chicago winter. But you can dig up their bulbs — or tubers or corms or rhizomes — and store them over the winter. They need a place where they will get plenty of air circulation and stay cool but never freeze (about 50 degrees is ideal). Wait until the foliage dies back, usually after the first frost.
Shake the soil off and let the bulbs dry for a couple of days. The trickiest part is right here: Keeping the different kinds separate, so you can remember how to label them and then, next spring, know what each one is. Once the soil is dry, very gently brush it off the bulbs. Then store the bulbs in a bed of peat moss, wood shavings or dry leaves — or individually wrapped in newspaper — and put them in a paper or mesh bag, not an airtight container. Keep them in a cool, dark place and check them monthly to make sure they have not dried out or become moldy. You can pot them in early spring and get them started indoors. But don’t plant them in the ground until the soil warms up to 60 degrees or so — about the time you would plant tomatoes. For more details, see www.bulb.com.
Gift from on high: Those leaves drifting down from the trees are not a nuisance, they’re a treasure. Learn how to make the most of them in a workshop on composting offered by the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Oct. 18 at the conservatory, 615 Garfield St., Oak Park. Cost is $10; reservations are required. Call Jackie Paine at 708-725-2460.
Just one bin: Somebody asked me recently to recommend a compost bin. If I could only have one it would be an enclosed, covered, critter-resistant recycled plastic bin that composts continuously. It would have a hinged or locking lid with slits to admit rainwater, air holes in the sides and a door at ground level. With this kind of bin, you put plant materials from the garden and kitchen in the top and eventually you scoop finished compost out at the bottom. Anything that isn’t broken down you toss back in the top. It doesn’t work as fast as if you were turning the pile regularly, but it works, and does so in a tidy manner (suitable for cities).
You all come: We Grow Dreams Greenhouse & Garden Center, 1055 W. Washington St., West Chicago (630-293-1404 or wegrowdreams .org) is holding its Fall Open House Sunday. The center, which provides jobs for developmentally disabled people, offers plants and crafts.
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