Play at LaPorte County Parks new Playtrail

Playgrounds aren’t just for kids any more.  Adult playgrounds with exercise equipment, also known as fitness zones, are located at Luhr County Park.  In addition, the Playtrail has a series of three separate pods that are along the park’s paved trail for all ages.

“Let’s face it, most of us dread going to the gym,” said Recreation & Education Programmer, Laura Moyer.  The point is to make physical activity fun, easy and accessible, so it’s the normal thing to do.

Three of the pods have play equipment on them.  Within each pod there are varying age components, making the pods geared toward any age group. The beauty of the project is that it builds upon the existing trail, which is paved and fully accessible to all LaPorte County residents. The new Playtrail will add a level of activities that will contribute to the wellness of families, encouraging all of us to get outdoors.”

Our seven piece equipment focus on promoting increased flexibility, cardio, core, upper & lower body, muscle strengthening and fall prevention.  The fitness area over looks our 2 acre pond and sits next to a playground where your children can play while you exercise.  “This is a win-win situation for everybody,”  says Moyer.  “You can work out while watching your kids.

With the help from a grant we were able to acquire and install all of these components.  Some of them include a dragon fly see saw, log roll, double web climber, honeycomb, and raft rider along with educational components just to name a few.  These pieces of equipment for the kids encourages multi-sensory adventure, with opportunities to  climb, crawl & play as well as strengthen balance, coordination, cardio, strength, & imagination.

Tim Morgan, Park Superintendent said, “traditionally adults take kids to the playground and sit and watch.  We are trying to reverse the sedentary lifestyle that contributes to our country’s obesity problem.”  I always see adults smiling while using the fitness zones.

Nobody is ever smiling at the gym. There’s something about being outdoors while exercising that is much more appealing.  Community Enhancement through environmental & recreation opportunities encourage the entire family to play together over a half mile of varying opportunities for physical, mental, and spiritual cooperation and interaction in the great outdoors.  A family that plays together stays together.

Times are tough.  Personal income is still clawing its way back to an upward trend, according to information released by the U.S. Commerce Department.  Among the things that people can’t afford these days are gym memberships and comprehensive home exercise equipment.

We are taking a multigenerational approach, installing new equipment designs that are intended for use by children and senior citizens alike and everywhere in
between.

Providing opportunities to take in vitamin D (well needed in our neck of the woods in Northwest Indiana), get some fresh air and improve one’s physical condition on a person’s own schedule & best yet it is FREE should be a key component.

“We believe in  bringing families closer together, encourage a healthy lifestyle, and allow everyone a chance to enjoy our precious natural resources.”  said Moyer.  While you are at Luhr visit ourNature Center, our hours are Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday & Sunday 1:00 – 4:00.

The Playtrail and our Park is open to the public from 7:00 a.m. to sunset year-round.  Families are encouraged to use the Playtrail as much as possible.  Visit us at www.laportecountyparks.org

Published: Monday, April 29, 2013 5:05 PM CDT

A chirp here, a chirp there everywhere a chirp chirp.

That’s right, this past week we received the beginnings of our new flock of Sunkissed Poultry. This past Wednesday I went into my other job at the credit union and got the call. When I say got the call I mean I got the call … that my chicks had arrived. Being as how I was at work and not at the farm, I had to wait until my lunch hour to go and retrieve my birds. Having a side job is nice, especially since it has an amazing concept of a lunch hour scheduled already into the day.

That’s something I never have when out at the farm. Who has time to stop and eat a real meal when there is always so much work to be done? I certainly don’t. Luckily I grow things that I can snack on while wandering from task to task out there.

After what seemed like the longest morning ever, I finally was able to pick up my little peepers. I have decided to stick with the plan of only ordering heritage breed poultry. Heritage breeds are varieties that have dwindled in numbers over the years and have fell out of popularity for one reason or another.

Some don’t lay quite enough eggs to be considered a commercial egg laying type breed. Others don’t plump up enough to produce a heavy enough meat carcass. I do most of my research on breeds through the American Livestock Breed Conservancy www.albc-usa.org.

The mission of the ALBC is to promote and protect breeds in danger of becoming extinct. As far as poultry goes, it can fit into the following categories: Critical, in which there are fewer than 500 breeding birds in the United States; threatened, with less than 1,000 breeding pairs in the United States; watch, with fewer than 5,000 breeding pairs; recovering, which is designated for breeds that were once listed in a higher risk category but have since increased and only require monitoring; and, lastly the study category. Those that fall into the study group are breeds of interest that lack definition or genetic/ historic documentation,

This order included mottled houdans, alpen spitzhaubers, Rhode Island reds, and barred rocks. And that’s just the chickens. We also ended up with five Ancona ducks. I have to tell you there is nothing more entertaining than watching a bunch of ducklings. So over at the credit union we turned one of the back offices into a holding area for the chicks and ducklings, complete with heat lamps.

I have to admit I work with some really great people. I had a handful of poultry sitters with closer offices that kept an eye on them for me the whole afternoon. And one of our accounting girls came to the rescue with a soup bowl to serve as a makeshift pond for the ducks. It was truly wonderful. At one point four of the five ducklings were trying to swim in the bowl. The fifth one was just relaxing poolside I hear.

Finally I was able to take my new poultry home and set up their new living quarters where they will reside until they have all their true feathers. My very own munchkins Lexi and Mia were beyond thrilled with their arrival.

Now the fun part comes in – getting to play with them everyday. We try to handle our birds constantly to make them social and friendly. After all, we can pretty much figure they all will become glorified pets.

By the end of summer our new girls will be finally laying some eggs and attempting to earn their keep around here. Until then they will get to wander around the place and settle in nicely. Hopefully I can convince them that it is necessary for them to actively pursue bugs. As far as the ducks go I am sure they will continue to do their own thing and hope that they just remember to come back home at night. I can tell you, now that spring has sprung, and I have added chicken-sitting to the list of things to do, each day I can honestly come home completely exhausted each and every night. All in all I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

This week be sure to come out to Luhr Park on Wednesday for my gardening talk at 9 a.m. Just be sure to RSVP with Laura at (219) 324-5855 to save you a spot. Hope to see you there.

SACHA BURNS is an organic gardener and owner of Sunkissed Organics micro-farm in Pinola. She may be reached at sachabrittburns@yahoo.com.

Published: Monday, May 6, 2013 5:05 PM CDT.

Have you thanked your mother lately?

Moms are pretty amazing people when you look at life in it’s entirety. How many other people are going to wake up at the crack of dawn, get you ready to go and on the move? And then on top of it do countless unnoticed jobs that have to be done in order to keep things running smoothly. It’s pretty amazing how those moms do it and manage to stay pleasant even on the worst of all days.

Growing up I had a pretty wonderful mom. Who am I kidding? She was pretty great throughout my life. She always encouraged me no matter how crazy of an idea I came up with. She spent countless hours listening to me ramble on and on and on. Let’s face it we all know I am a talker. And when I had my own children she was always there to take midnight phone calls regarding whatever the current chaos was in my home. From rashes to teething — she was always there.

Moms just kind of do that. I don’t think anyone truly teaches you. It just kind of happens. And most importantly you learn as you go. Sure people can provide you with insight and tips on what worked for them. But do remember not all children are meant to be the same and you may just have to trial and error to find your own way of going about things.

Mothers are very similar to nature in that they both are always standing by. Keeping things in balance and making everything they touch beautiful. And just like the tall graceful Oaks, mothers often go unnoticed until something happens. Sometimes it’s when you finally leave the house ready to make an attempt on life on your own that it occurs to you all that your mother has done for you over the years.

Other times it’s when she passes on that you notice just how amazing she was.

This year you should be sure to tell your mother or whomever played that role in your life just how spectacular they are. Maybe even take the time to help them start a garden or a project that not only involves having a chance to spend time with you but also an amazing gift that keeps giving.

Sure a bouquet of flowers are great but wouldn’t an herb garden that could be for use in her kitchen really spice things up? I think so.

It turns out that once we grow up and have lives our own we may in turn end up having to take care of the very person that has been taking care of us so long. So stop what you are doing and make a point to cherish that person as much as you can. These days it’s so east to become wrapped up with a gazillion other projects that we just don’t make the time for those we love. I am guilty of this myself.

And if you are a mother yourself take advantage of a holiday that is simply there to honor you. But be sure to be thankful to the munchkins that got you there. I would be a completely different person if I didn’t have my daughters. Before them I truly believed that the world revolved around me. Boy was I wrong. Turns out it revolves around all of us and every single person has a job in it. I have learned so many things since becoming a mother.

From how exciting it is to watch the ants meticulously build their homes to watching the first snowflake fall from the sky. Things I once took for granted are now the source of a new wonderment for me. And although my mother has since passed away, I see her nearly everywhere I turn in memories of us gardening and growing together. I have a feeling she will be with me every step of the way as I enter this very first season of doing it on my own. May your mothers day be warm and bright and may I wish you all love and light.

Burns is an organic gardener and owner of Sunkissed Organics micro-farm in Pinola. She may be reached at sachabrittburns@yahoo.com

Published: Monday, April 22, 2013 5:05 PM CDT

Get out those day planners. Mark your calendars. There’s an exciting week ahead of us. Not only is today Earth Day, this week also includes Arbor Day on Friday. Those are two huge holidays as far as outdoorsy ones go. I honestly don’t understand why people don’t have huge backyard parties in honor of them. So if you’re in the dark regarding these holidays, I would be happy to give you the following primer.

Back in the day, say 1969, there was a U.S. Senator form Wisconsin by the name of Gaylord Nelson. Sen. Nelson happened to witness the results of the massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. At the same time, there was a large student anti-war movement in progress.

He was then inspired to make use of that energy and passion that the students had and aim it toward a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media. On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate through rallies the need for a sustainable environment.

The first Earth Day led to the development of the Environmental Protection Agency as well as Endangered Species and Clean Air and Water Acts. Each year thereafter more and more people make an effort to celebrate the holiday daily. I remember as a child the slogan being something along the lines of “Let’s celebrate Earth Day every day.” Which in all reality wouldn’t be a bad idea if we all made an effort to keep the place a little cleaner.

Later this week comes Arbor Day. As some of you may know, Arbor Day pretty much goes hand in hand with planting trees.

National Arbor Day is always celebrated on the last Friday of April. You probably didn’t know that Julius Morton, the founder of Arbor Day, promoted the importance of planting trees as a way to protect the topsoil and anchor it in. Julius grew up in New York, went to school in Michigan and then made his way to Nebraska. There he bought a 160-acre tract that was nothing except prairie.

Growing up he realized the protection that the trees offered to the soil in places he had lived prior. So he began planting trees and shrubs all over his property. He also talked to neighbors about planting their own trees to be used for windbreaks and reforestation projects.

In 1872, he was a member of the Nebraska Board of Agriculture. At this time he managed to convince the other board members of the need for Arbor Day. The board approved the plan and authorized prizes for most number of trees planted on April 10, 1872. It turns out that on that date over one million trees were planted throughout Nebraska.

So with the upcoming holidays, I figured I would offer you up some of the benefits of planting trees. The biggest one that I know of is that trees clean the air by absorbing pollutants. They also filter particles out of the air by trapping them in their leaves. Just think the more trees the cleaner our air could be. Trees also provide oxygen. One acre of trees over a year span will produce enough oxygen for 18 people. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

So now you have it. You should take a moment and go out in your yard and re-evaluate if you have a need and space for more trees. If your yard is a bit too small to add in another tree just remember that shrubs are like miniature trees and provide great benefits as well. Be sure to take this week and live it greenly. Mother Nature may start being kind to us if we respect her a bit more.

Coming up soon is my annual Spring Gardening presentation over at Luhr Park. Be sure to make your way over there May 1 at 9 a.m. But be sure to call the park offices to RSVP first so Laura will know how many to expect. The number to call is (219) 324-5855. Hope to see you there.

Burns is an organic gardener and owner of Sunkissed Organics micro-farm in Pinola. She may be reached at sachabrittburns@yahoo.com

Everywhere you look it seems more and more people are being proactive about the food they are consuming these days. Years ago it seemed the only people even interested in organics and sustainability were the soccer moms and the health nuts of the world. Now you almost end up in the minority if you don’t question how your food made it to the table.

The adults have been historically the protectors of our food selections; but what about the future of our food? The children these days are skipping their way into the classroom, doing obscene amounts of homework and are left with little time for actual outdoor play. That is the next generation who will take over the production of our edibles.

If they grow up exposed to factory farms, where it’s ok for a gazillion chickens to be crammed into a single crate, how will they in turn know that it’s really better for animals to live humanely? That it’s possible for animals to still be productive at the same time as being healthy. The same goes for our crops. If children learn that it is industry standard to spray before you even have a problem, they too will follow right along.

Granted not all modern day farmers are in this profession to contaminate our food supply with hazardous chemicals or by pumping animals full of hormones. There are farmers that do what they do simply because it’s the right thing. And their numbers are growing daily. Some of us do it just because we enjoy growing things that others will in turn appreciate and they nourish their minds along with their bodies. Some of us continue only to prove to those that don’t believe it is possible to raise food respectfully with a conscience that it can be done.

The children of today, mine, yours, those kids down the street, they are the ones that need the proper influence from which to develop their own set of values. Tell a child that something can’t be done, and they will prove to you how it can be in an even better way. It’s amazing what children will absorb and keep just below the surface in their arsenal of adaptability. In March my oldest daughter, Lexi and I attended the Good Food Festival in Chicago, Illinois.

Lexi is at the great age of ten. At this age it seems you are discovering yourself and all that you are capable of. So Miss Lexi came along as she says, “Just for something to do.” Because truly what would a ten year old find exciting about a food conference? It turns out a great deal.

First we started in the Commons area where volunteers from the Peterson Garden Project were on hand to talk about the importance of seed preservation and how you can maintain your own seed stocks. Lexi found this interesting only in the fact that it made her mom seem a bit more normal. There are other people that spend countless hours each season drying and fermenting seeds just for the chance to grow them again the next year.

Further along the way we were nearly caught up in a mad rush of folks wanting to take in Faith’s Farm’s “Backyard Chickens” presentation by Kim Snyder. She even came complete with little chicks that anyone who wanted to could hold. There were presentations of all sorts throughout the day that aimed to educate as well as entertain. It turns out that gardeners, farmers, advocates all are interested in the same thing – helping others to learn to grow themselves. Lexi suddenly had an aha! moment.

Inside the Festival hall were hundreds of small farms, restaurants and environmental groups. There were plenty of friendly people to talk to and activities for all to participate in. Lexi practically ran to the area where you could plant your own basil to take home. A sweet woman explained how soil and water provided the essentials in order to make the basil seeds grow. She explained it in a manner that would instantly hook anyone on the idea of seed planting.

Granted we have a small farm of our own and produce a wide array of heirlooms that my children seem to have absolutely zero interest in. I try my best to make gardening fun for her and her younger sister, with no success. Sometimes they will humor me and pretend to be interested. Perhaps this is what happens when you are fully saturated in life with a mother that is borderline obsessive about how food is produced. You just consider it normal and go about your day.

Then when you think that for all those years you have been teaching them tips and tricks on nearly everything, they let you in on a little secret. They’ve been watching all along. They have been taking it all in, absorbing and forming their own opinions. I notice it when I hear my daughters talk to their school-age friends. When they think the adults aren’t listening Lexi will hold what seems to be her own little school on beneficial insects. Other days it’s on how easy it is to have pet chickens and all the neat things they do. Topics that there is no way at the cool age of 10 you would ever talk to your organic, tree-hugging mama about.

I watch as her eyes shine brightly and realize that she too will eventually follow in my footsteps in some capacity. Whether she becomes a farmer herself or just promotes what needs to be done to keep our food system healthy , she, along with every other child in the world has the potential to further the future of our food systems.

Pay attention to the little ones that cross your path. Take a moment to explain what it is you’re doing and why. They may seem uninterested at the time, but believe me they are just compiling it all together for when the time is just right. And one day when the timing is just right, that is when they will stand on their own and do the same as we are doing now – influencing the future generations about what is possible when you truly believe in something enough to make it work.

- written by Sacha Gee-Burns

Sacha Burns writes the weekly ‘Dig This’ column for the La Porte Herald Argus, is a blogger for the La Porte County Tourism and Visitors Bureau and owns her own farm, Sunkissed Organics.

Come Outside and Play

Get ready for a hands-on encounter with the natural world at our Nature Center nestled in the woods at Luhr County Park.

Then, explore with us during one of our many guided special events: a lesson on bird watching, an afternoon nature hike, or try your fun at fishing.

Want to explore on your own? There is several scenic hiking trails embark from the Nature Center. Our two Naturalists have many environmental education opportunities for you to take part in. Some of those programs are habitat, pond, bird, fishing, tree, and bug adventures. As well as sensory sensations, bug fun, food web exploration, track animals, leaf key, and insect insight.

We invite you to re-discover the simple pleasures of playing in the outdoors at any of our LaPorte County Parks which offers 654 acres of wildlife, history, and outdoor recreation opportunities, wrapped by 16.2 miles of trail pleasure. Our trails are open year-round – so, come and experience the changing season! You can pick up a map and trail descriptions, at any welcome center. It’s all here, come explore our recreation opportunities.

Remember playing outside when you were a kid? You ran…and you jumped…and you yelled…and when the sun went down your mother called, “time to come home.” And you came inside with rosy cheeks, smelling of the wind…and the earth…and of all that was good.

Recreation

There’s so much to do at our LaPorte County Parks, it’s no wonder we’re called the heartland’s outdoor playground! Hiking, mountain biking, and horseback trails thread through our backwoods and along quiet nature and wildlife. How about trying your luck at some fishing at one of our four locations. LaPorte County Parks offers acre’s of fishing. We have all sort’s of fish to catch, crappie, large mouth bass, channel catfish, and bluegill just to name a few. Watch for native wildlife as you wonder through the woods for native wildlife as you hike on peaceful trails, or enjoy a family picnic in the cool shad of one of our many picnic areas.

Play a round of disc golf at Creek Ridge County Park. Treat yourself to a treasure hunt and try your hand at Geocaching and Letterboxing. Stroll the boardwalk to the observation tower overlooking our wetlands at Luhr County Park to view the wildlife that lives there. We offer four significant ecosystems; upland forest, prairie, wetlands, and pond. It’s all here, come explore our recreation opportunities.

Native wildlife inhabit our woods, fields, and waterways. Our trail system is extensive offering a variety of excursion possibilities. Take a short afternoon walk, or ride your bike on any of our trails all while seeking for wildflowers, bird watching, fishing, and playing in nature’s natural beauty. Trails are open year-round – so, come and experience the changing season! You can pick up a map and trail descriptions, at any welcome center at each park.

So don’t just sit there… Come Outside and Play. Make LaPorte County parks your “Staycation”

So don’t just sit there… Come Outside and Play.

Gardening is much like life. It’s ever-changing nearly every single day. It requires meticulous planning. That, as a gardener, you will spend hour upon hours on. Over time you will have realized that you have in fact spent years planning only for one single event to turn all those great plans into a pile of useless paper. Only for you to wait until the following season, raise your head high and begin to plan again.

It’s a wonder why we do it. Year after year, working so hard in hopes of everything working out. People who have never gardened will never quite understand it. They will look at you, and all the hard work you have put in and most likely shake their head at what you choose to do in your spare time. Those that have gardened will sympathize with every drop of sweat you have produced.

Gardens are a lot like children. They start out as a small seed, full of great expectations. You take the time and give them all the necessities they need to grow. Food, water, vitamins and such.

You nurture them and encourage them to spread their roots. You spend hours, more hours and as much time as it takes to help them grow in the right direction. Some days you look out at them and realize that this may indeed have become a full time job.

Then much to your surprise you wake up one day and out there they stand. So tall and strong, more beautiful then you could have ever imagined.

And in that moment it occurs to you: All those wet springs, heat stroke-inducing summers and overly windy falls were truly worth it. The things you will experience in a garden will make you take a second and notice all the little things around you that you take for granted. Whether it’s the bees as they seem to hop from blossom to blossom or the ants that are trying their best to build that home of theirs before the rain comes in.

The quietness of it will strike you as so peaceful you may never want to leave. From the blades of grass rustling in the wind to the sound of the first rain drops falling onto the trees. It’s an entirely different world that is almost therapeutic if you let it be. We all need those moments where we can take a break and not be so overwhelmed by our day to day tasks. Life is busy, sometimes it feels so heavy that you feel like you may not be able to move forward.

Life goes on, just as the garden. If you take the time to nurture it and give it what it needs, one day in turn it will reward you. It may take years before you feel like you might be finally beginning to figure it all out. Only to realize that you never quite will. But it’s the hope that you hold inside that will keep bringing you back year after year. And at that point you will hold your head high and begin to plan again.

Burns is an organic gardener and owner of Sunkissed Organics micro-farm in Pinola. She may be reached at sachabrittburns@yahoo.com

Bumper to bumper traffic on a county highway. It’s possible my friends.

Farmers are on the move this spring prepping their fields, plowing and applying nutrients. However their big ole tractors, as I call them, and other equipment have a way of holding up traffic. The max speed quite possibly is the in-town speed limit. Farmers are people too, even the ones who hold up traffic. So please try your best not to shout things at them and be patient and wait to pass until it truly is safe to do so.

Luckily with my farm being smaller, the need for large equipment is not necessary. Rarely is there something larger than a Kobota near my fields. We freshened up our fields the other day with a light tilling, courtesy of our family friends Merv and Deb.

It’s important to make sure the conditions are right before you go out and till anything up. If the ground is too dry, you risk the topsoil holding all your nutrients, blowing away as soon as a wind comes through. If it’s too wet, the soil will clump and be awful to work with at any date past the present. Usually in that case you will need to go back over it and till again before the soil is truly workable.

It’s pretty exciting once we have temperatures that let us go out and work without the risk of frostbite. But try holding off from going out and purchasing your vegetable transplants for at least another few weeks. Our temperatures are still unstable enough that they will either stunt your plants growth or kill it all together. Instead if you just can’t wait to get out there and plant, there are some things you can safely plant.

Prepping a few rows or a patch for your spring peas would be a good start. Just remember not to plant your peas too deeply. One of my favorite planting tips is to eye up the size of the seed you are working with and then plant it twice as deep as the actual seed. If you plant too deep your plants will use valuable energy just trying to break ground. Some seeds won’t even break dormancy if they are too deep.

Planting too shallow is also tricky. If you just scatter your seed on top of the ground the roots may not be able to stabilize themselves. Then as soon as you get some actual growth the plants will topple over and be a mess to work with. Not to mention some plants really don’t enjoy you touching near their roots once they start growing. So it’s not like you could go and just throw some extra dirt on top to raise the surface level without the risk of upsetting your plants.

Also, potato planting season is upon us.

I thoroughly enjoy growing potatoes even though my friends will tell you how I complain about them as much as I do about picking green beans. I find it somewhat exciting that planting a single spud could result in a handful or more of tasty potatoes.

And harvesting them is the best part. You never know how many potatoes could be down there. Some years it’s just a few; others I have pulled seven or eight from each plant.

The key to planting potatoes is making sure you have at least a few “eyes,” which are sprouts on each potato cutting that you plant. My minimum is at least three. I sometimes expose my potato seed to the sun for a little bit to encourage the eyes to develop. Then after I make my cuttings I break off all the sprouts so that new stronger ones can develop. Each potato eye will produce a stem. So the more eyes you leave on each potato the bushier of a potato plant you will have. Which in turn will lead to more potatoes to harvest.

So start picking up your planting supplies and getting them ready. Prep your ground when the weather permits. Exercise a little extra patience when driving amongst the farmers and maybe, just maybe, you could even wave to them.

They are growing your food and all. Outside of that, be sure to mark your calendars for my upcoming “Learn about Gardening” presentation over at the La Porte Library – Coolspring branch on April 20 at 10 a.m. Contact the library or yours truly for more information. This will be a free, family friendly event so come on out and let me teach you how we can grow together.

Burns is an organic gardener and owner of Sunkissed Organics micro-farm in Pinola. She may be reached at sachabrittburns@yahoo.com

Did you know there is a wildlife viewing area inside the Nature Center?  Yep that’s right, come sit in our viewing area and look through our oversized one way glass to watch nature at its finest.  Just this month we have had lots of visitor’s like; red-tailed hawk, white-breasted nuthatch, cardinals, goldfinch, downy woodpecker, tufted titmouse, chipmunks, squirrels, black capped chickadee just to name a few.

Birds are not only beautiful to watch but attracting birds that eat bugs is definitely a positive for pest control; let me explain. 

Most backyard birds eat a combination of seeds, berries and insects. But in late spring and early summer, birds are busy filling the mouths of their hatchlings, and baby birds like nothing better than freshly caught bugs.

That’s good news for those that have gardens in their yards, because garden pests are usually at their prime in late spring and early summer. Our bird friends can save us lots of headaches by combing our gardens for cabbage worms, whiteflies, earwigs, grasshoppers, cucumber beetles and grubs!

To the left is a Rose-breasted grosbeak and it eats caterpillars and beetles.

Bug Eaters (Below is a list of common backyard birds and some of the insect pests they eat. )

Bluebirds: grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, larvae, moths
Cardinals: beetles, grasshoppers, leafhoppers, stinkbugs, snails
Chickadees: whitefly, caterpillars, ants, earwigs
Grosbeaks: larvae, caterpillars, beetles
Nuthatches: tree and shrub insects such as borers, caterpillars, ants and earwigs
Oriole: caterpillars, larvae, beetles, grasshoppers
Sparrows: beetles, caterpillars, cutworms
Swallows: moths, beetles, grasshoppers
Titmice: leafhoppers, caterpillars, beetles
Warblers: caterpillars, whitefly
Woodpeckers: larvae, beetles, weevils, borers

The wide array of eye pleasing sites and smells are as great as ever at this years’ Chicago Flower and Garden Show, but now children are getting more involved in learning and even giving pointers to adults already with a green thumb.

I brought my daughter Lexi for the first time and quickly she opened my already creative mind to new possibilities.

The theme this year for the Chicago Flower and Garden show was the “Art of gardening.” There were a number of beautiful landscape displays as always expected but this year was different for me.

I have been attending the Chicago Flower and Garden show for as long as I can remember. Each year it is strikingly perfect in everyway. The flowers look as though they are fresh as can be, even though they have now been on display for a full week. I imagine at night that a crew must go through the place and pop out and plug in any flowers that need a bit more attention. It seriously is the Disneyworld of gardening.

This year is the first year that I brought one of my daughters along for the experience. Miss Lexi at the spry age of 10 introduced me to an entirely different perspective on gardening. It was quite an experience I must say.

I have been gardening for quite some time now and over the years I always find myself in conversation with mostly older folks when it comes to talking plants, flowers and all that good stuff. Sure there are people my age that are planting gardens and have an interest in the newly released perennials and shrubs for the year. But having two children under the age of ten has opened my eyes to what’s lacking these days.

My daughters have been submerged in gardening and all that it entails since … well the day they each came home from the hospital. Yet it’s not really something they would choose to do if they have a moment of free time. In our case I believe it is mostly from them both being conditioned to proper pruning techniques and perennial division tactics at such an early age. But perhaps it’s not.

When I garden for my own yard I choose plants that are compatible, that need the same amount of sunshine, similar moisture needs and so on. It truly turns into a science of which plants can truly handle and grow near one another. This is a good gardening practice to make a habit of but something was missing. While walking the floor at the garden show this year I did something different. I let Lexi take the lead. I followed her and listened to which things she was interested in and then she even told me why.

First off, I learned quickly that a water feature is definitely something that belongs in every garden. Especially if you can tame your Koi fish to greet you when you check in on them. Lexi explained to me that the addition of a pond alone would make for the greatest garden ever. Second it wasn’t the bright vivid colors of the flowers that got her attention. It was the amazing scents that seemed to draw her in. Scents that I realized I have been overlooking. One of the gardens we walked into was planted heavily in Hyacinths. The moment you set foot into the display you had no choice but to be captivated by the delicious aroma of these beauties.

It was great seeing Lexi so enthusiastic about gardening. This year at the show there were also plenty of hands on activities for the younger generation that definitely seemed to grab not only my daughters attention but every child that was present. From learning about worm composting and how they break down all our leftovers only to turn it into a delightful fertilizer to being able to touch a millipede which plays an important role in the gardening world as well.

And let’s not forget the vendors that were present handing out biodegradable brochures that hold seeds that will grow when you plant their marketing material.

Being able to see a garden is a thing of beauty. What I encountered is that by using all of your senses it can be something amazingly more. This year I am going to try to incorporate all of my five senses into my landscape. I am going to plant a palette of flowering colors for everyone to see.

I am going to take a moment to listen to all the sounds that call my garden home. Such as the birds that are singing, the wind chimes playing a song of their own and the wind rustling my ornamental grass. And of course that new water feature that it looks like we will be adding. I’m going to touch the unfurling fuzzy fronds of my ferns, the silky petals of my roses and try my best not to squeeze the inflated blooms of the balloon flowers.

I’m going to smell the lilacs when they first begin to open. And last but not least I am going to taste everything that is edible in my landscape this year.

I want to experience everything that a garden can truly offer. Who would have figured you spend your entire lifetime gardening, learning everything there is to learn.

Every new technique, every variety, just to finally realize that you really don’t know the beginning of what gardening is all about. Leave it to a modest 10-year-old to take a moment of her free time and let you in on a little secret that will in turn change your concept of gardening forever.

Burns is an organic gardener and owner of H&H Flowers/Sunkissed Organics micro-farm in Pinola. She may be reached at sachabrittburns@yahoo.com

Originally published in the LaPorte Herald-Argus.