Our plant sale was quite successful this year offering house plants and perennials dug out of member gardens. The proceeds go to support our programs and community service activities.

We continued our member garden visits ths summer but, because of our extremely hot weather, we had to cancel 1 of them. 

We did visit 7 gardens including a visit to the rooftop gardens of the residents of a senior living living community in Edgewater Beach.

Above; The Garden of Ivah  Urbanski pictured above in first row.

Above: The Gardens of Brenda Dubov

Glenna Eaves from the Rogers Park / West Ridge Historical Society, spoke  about the history of the settlement along what is now Ridge Avenue. In the early 1800's, the area west of Ridge was the site of vegetable gardens serving the area to the south that would become Chicago followed,  in the late 1800's,  by greenhouses growing flowers to serve Chicago and eastern U.S. The area east of Ridge was marshy and undeveloped

Chicago River in 1880

Ship navigating the river - no longer done

Sand Mussel Propagation

Planting a new island

Installation at Bubbly Creek

Installation at River Park

Phil Nicodemus, Director of Research for the Wild Mile, returned to provide an update on the progress of the world's first floating ecopark in the Chicago River, The Wild Mile. The original park, located in the Chicago River's North Branch near Goose Island, was tthe first installation which has undergone modifications and provided a proof of concept for the development of more  ecoparks in River Park in the north branch and Bubbly Creek in the south branch.

For more information or to visit the ecoparks, click on the following:

The Wild Mile

Urban Rivers

Writer, Rene' Ostberg, spoke of her struggle to uncover the graves of her great-grandparents who were buried in Graceland Cemetery in the early 1900's. In 2014, a prairie was planted in a corner of the cemetery covering appriximately 100 graves including her great-grandparents' graves. After unsuccessful attempts to have the graves uncovered via the cemetery management  and newspaper contacts, the State of Illinois finally listened and  there are now walkways opened to visit the graves.

For the full story, visit Rene Ostberg's website here.

Above: The Koi Pond and Gardens of Tabb Lemon. Mr. Lemon (pictured above) participates in a Koi rescue service. A photo of his pond was featured in an article on Koi Rescue Services in the Wall Street Journal.

Above and right: The Garden of Eva Mannaberg

 Glenna  Eaves and Eva Mannaberg

 Above and left: The Gardens of Gillian Lindahl

Above: The Rooftop Gardens at The Breakers at Edgewater Beach; Garden of Ginny Davis on lower right

 Above and left: The Gardens of Katie Law

Jill, Josh and Ginny

Eva, Sig, Amy and Judy

Our guest speaker,Josh Engel, leads birding trips around the world and is a nature photographer. He is the owner of Red Hill Birding, a bird touring company. 

Josh discussed bird migration patterns which seems to be an activity that many birds do.  In North America, the general pattern is to winter in the southern U.S., the Caribbean or South America and fly north to the northern U.S or Canada to nest and breed.

The longest known bird migration is the Bar-tailed Gidwit who flies from Alaska to New Zealand non-stop for 7,000 miles.

In North America, the Blackpoll Warbler fles from South America to Alaska. 1700 miles in the  Fall.

Monty and Rose, the first Piping Plovers who recently nested at Montrose Point in Chicago, wintered in Texas and Florida, respectively, but managed to find each other in the Spring at Montrose Point.

Some migration facts:

• Songbirds migrate at night, a few hundred miles each night
• Birds avoid flying over water so shores are attractive to them
• Building lights attract birds which can be a cause of death of migrating birds unless precautions are taken
• The lights of Chicago may be an attraction to migrating birds which is why we have so many coming through
• 351 species of birds can be found at Montrose Point
• Oak trees are great for birds

Apps for birders:

• Birdcast - tracks migrations
• eBird - siting log
• Merlin - identifies bird songs

Web sites for opportunites to Learn in the Field:

• Red Hill Birding
• Chicago Bird Alliance
• Chicago Ornithological Society
• The Urban Birding Festival, September 13-15, 2025

Haley and Eva

Matt and Marilyn

Lucy and Eva

Our guest presenter was Matt Iglesias, Executive Director of the Chicago Bird Alliance. 

Some of the changes being observed:

• Laying eggs earlier by 1 week, some longer
• Migration is earlier
• The timiing between birds and their insect food source has been decoupled
• Changes in geographic distribution has occurred, e.g. robins are seen throughout the winter in Chicago
• Bird body sizes are changing by becoming smaller with longer wings
• 1 in 4 birds are no longer around since 1970
• If there is a 3 degree C increase in atmospheric  temperature, 1/4 of state birds would leave

Resources:

Audobon Research - Survival by Degrees 

Our guest presenter was Haley LeRand, Executive Director of Global Gardens.
Haley spoke about an urban farm located in Albany Park which supports refugees who grow organic vegetables for sale and home consumption.

Speaker and professional garden coach, Amy Powers, spoke about her mission to teach everyone to get in touch with nature and learn how to manage their own landscape. She emphasized transitioning your existing garden to a more drought tolerant ecosystem with friendly native plants.

Amy can be reached at PowersPlants for a consulltation.

We visited the Jens Jenson-designed Garfield Park Conservatory for their wonderful Spring Flower.Show followed by lunch at a local restaurant.

Our monthly programs are usually held on the 1st Thursday of the month at 7:00 PM in the Warren Park Field House, 6601 N. Western Ave. Chicago.

We usually feature a social get-together with refreshments followed by a guest speaker.

To view program and activity offerings from previous years, click here.

Dona Vitale

Native nursery plants

Root growth on a native plant

Natives in the wild

Members gathered at Warren Park to socialize, enjoy desserts and learn about the Green Room which is maintained by NGS volunteers,

Rene Ostberg and Ivah Urbanski

 Nancy and Phil

Glenna and Eva