August 14th, 2010
We haven’t really been working on any bungalow projects lately, mainly due to heat and humidity, so I’ll just offer you a bunch of random but somewhat related news.
I had a tough time searching through many bug and insect identification sites to determine what this large black wasp-like insect was, only to finally find out [...]
July 22nd, 2010
One minute our robin fledgling was standing on the edge of the nest, and the next s/he was gone! All that’s left is the well-constructed nest and a little poop.
On Tuesday, sometime soon after I posted about it we noticed the nest was empty and we haven’t seen the robin family since. I heard a [...]
July 20th, 2010
Not only do we have our garden growing like gangbusters, thanks or no thanks to all the rain we’ve had this summer, but we also have a baby robin who looks ready to leave the nest very soon.
We’re not sure what happened to the other two eggs, but there always seemed to only be one [...]
July 6th, 2010
I think it was the weekend before the holiday weekend, or about 12 days ago, when Pete and I noticed that a robin was busily building a nest in our sumac next to the patio. She was picking up dried grass from the neighbor’s freshly mowed lawn and also bringing some “muck” from the gutter. [...]
June 29th, 2010
I’ve never been very interested in growing vegetables beyond tomatoes, and with our community-supported agriculture (CSA) share, I get a much greater variety of vegetables than I would by growing my own. It has also introduced me to a few vegetables I probably wouldn’t have tried on my own, like fennel (not a big licorice [...]
June 14th, 2010
Yesterday, Pete and I went to the local Menards to purchase supplies for our raised garden bed. After two years we were finally going to remove the blue tarp that covered the dirt near the compost (which hopefully killed off all the weeds). More on that later.
While we were in the garden section, we noticed [...]
May 6th, 2010
Get your shopping list together Chicagoland: it’s time for the annual Native Plant Sale this weekend, May 8-9 at Lake County Forest Preserve’s Independence Grove in Libertyville!
About a 30- to 40-minute drive from Chicago, Independence Grove is located about 2-1/2 miles west of I-94 on Buckley Road (Route 137). Sale hours are 9 am to [...]
April 14th, 2010
The garden is starting to wake up and I’m looking forward to planting season next month. The plants I added to the parkway in front of the house are starting to peek through, but I think it will still be a while before they fill in.
We made an early purchase last week and added [...]
October 31st, 2009
The rain finally stopped late yesterday afternoon and the sun peeked through the clouds to let us know that it was still around.
The view from our front yard:
The neighbor’s trees have already dropped all their leaves, but ours are still trying to hold on:
I imagine we’ll be raking them up over the next couple of [...]
September 18th, 2009
This little guy (or gal) greeted us on our way out the back door this morning. From what I can gather, it appears to be a katydid.
September 10th, 2009
I don’t think I’ve posted anything about the garden since May when I planted my new purchases. I guess all the excitement of the attic renovation took precedence.
I really haven’t done much all summer in the garden because of the reno, and some of the plants have taken advantage of that. I’m going to [...]
May 13th, 2009
It’s so nice to finally start working outside again. Pete just dragged out the Adirondack chairs, so I’m ready to soak in some morning sunshine and cool breezes.
The backyard, between the house and garage, has filled in the most overall since we started planting last year. Most of the arborvitae (background) are doing well, [...]
May 7th, 2009
Attention all Chicago-area gardeners! Lake County Forest Preserve’s 12th Annual Native Plant Sale takes place this weekend, May 9-10 at Independence Grove in Libertyville.
Despite the construction on the I-94 tollway expansion project, it’s an easy drive from the city to Route 137 (Buckley Road). Drive west a few miles to the Independence Grove entrance, just [...]
September 2nd, 2008
Well, I wish I could say that we’ve been away on a fabulous vacation, but alas, no such luck. I’ve just been too busy with work to post anything. That, and we haven’t done all that much around the bungalow.
I do have some new things to report, however, so I’ll get to those as [...]
July 25th, 2008
Earlier this week I showed off our outdoor water feature, the Giant Bubbling Urn.
You may have noticed the decorative “stones” in the bowl at the top of the urn and, since the colors match the urn so well, thought that the stones came with the urn.
This was actually Pete’s brilliant idea.
These are what are known [...]
July 22nd, 2008
A couple weeks ago we went to the local garden center to spend our “Lurvey Loot”. For every $10 spent at Lurvey’s Garden Center between April and June, you receive $1 in “Lurvey Loot”, which can be used for up to 50% off your purchase between July and September. We had $116 in Lurvey Loot [...]
July 21st, 2008
As part of the Houseblogs.net “Look What I Did” Sweepstakes, it’s a perfect time to show the Before-and-After of our flagstone patio and the progress we’ve made on our yard to date. (I’m also happy for the chance to win some cold hard cash/plastic from our sponsor, True Value!)
When we moved into our bungalow, our [...]
July 9th, 2008
Currently in bloom at Bungalow Chronicles — each one native to all or most of the lower 48 states and Canada:
Kalm’s St. John’s Wort (Hypericum kalmianum)
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Prairie (or Tall) Cinquefoil (Potentilla arguta); also native to Alaska
June 30th, 2008
I mistakenly transplanted a False Sunflower from our previous house thinking it was one of the natives. The plant is nice, but it’s very invasive.
Pete was getting ready to dig it up until he discovered a bunny nest very close to it. The babies are newborns, eyes still shut and virtually hairless. We hoped [...]
June 5th, 2008
We went to the Public Works facility in Morton Grove to pick up mulch provided at no charge to residents. The PO left a kiddie pool behind, so we threw that in the back of our VW Passat Wagon to contain the mulch along with a couple of shovels. As we started to shovel our [...]