JULY / AUGUST 2005

The days of our journalistic lives, ever since William Aldrich started Chicagoland Gardening 10 years ago, have been fraught with enough peril and passion to generate plot lines for a soap opera. There was the time, for example, the magazine still in its infancy, when a computer glitch led to the September-October 1996 issue leaving the printer with some address labels saying little more than “Carolyn Ulrich, Chicago, Illinois.” (If you’re still wondering why you never received that one...now you know.)

Then there was the day during the always frantic last week of production when a truck backed into the electrical box on the wall of our building and knocked out all the lights. After we learned that it would be at least a week before electricity was restored, Art Director Terri Wymore packed her computer into her van and dashed home to set up the trusty Mac in her basement. She got the issue to the printer more or less on time. And if you’re wondering why your July-August 2004  magazine really did arrive late, well, that’s because Terri had to breeze by the hospital for a little brain surgery in between issues, and she had to at least wait for the anesthesia to wear off before she could return to work. (Not to worry—she’s fine.) After such tribulations and triumphs, all the more reason, then, to mark our 10th-year anniversary with an official celebration—a garden walk, of course. And so, on July 24, you are all invited to visit 10 gardens in the area that have appeared on the pages of Chicagoland Gardening. In the western suburbs we include Trudi Temple’s glorious perennial garden in Hinsdale, John Rottersman’s large water garden in Naperville, Ron and Vicki Nowicki’s organic vegetable garden in Downers Grove, and the eclectic extravaganza put together by Tim and Joanne Olichwier in Villa Park. Move north to Arlington Heights and there’s Doris Zielinski’s impeccable mix of trees and flowers, and, in northwest Evanston, the garden of Linda Gartz, which was recently given a makeover by Craig Bergmann. The city properties are small, but mighty in horticultural finesse. Here our walk will feature the Rogers Park garden of Dennis Paul, (the city’s Gardener of the Year in 2001), the Lincoln Park townhouse garden of Master Gardener Lauri Lewis, Wes Gilbert’s ever-changing tropical showcase on the city’s northwest side, and finally the garden of yours truly, best described as a cottage garden kept more or less in control by a woman who never met a self-sown seedling she didn’t like. Garden owners and University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners will be on hand to greet you and answer questions, along with a representative from the magazine, who will sell the $8 ticket. Chicagoland Gardening will donate a portion of the ticket price to the University of Illinois Extension.

And if they ever do get around to making a soap opera about us, we think it should be called “All My Deadlines.”