When I first began gardening after moving to Evanston from New York City, it was what I would call industrial-style gardening, based on the products I found in the supermarket.
Old roses for an old house garden
When I moved from Manhattan to green, leafy Evanston in 1992, I resolved to have a garden. As a former New York city apartment dweller, I'd shown a thoroughly black thumb with house plants. Nothing I tried to grow thrived.
Lindens in Evanston
Evanston's parkways and yards are ornamented with many diverse Lindens. These are lovely largish trees with heart-shaped leaves and small pendant panicles of creamy white flowers whose strong fragrance fills the surrounding air in early summer.
Characters in Evanston residential history: Julius White
The names of some of Evanston's subdivisions and roadways hark back to some of our past heroes and also to some characters who don't quite fit that label. The White Subdivision that I live in was named for one of the characters, Julius White.
The Catalpas on Lake Shore Blvd between Hamilton and Burnham Place
Catalpas are large, beautiful flowering trees from a mostly tropical family, the Bignoniaceae (Catalpa speciosa, p. 198, The Plant Book, James Mill-Hicks, publisher, 2003). The abundant flowers are large panicles of small, frilly orchid-like cream flowers with maroon-mottled throats. The