Whether you have a green thumb, or have never watered a plant you didn’t kill, this site will connect you with your inner gardener. From houseplants to perennial gardens, from composting to water gardens, the extension service provides simple, clear advice and directions on how to get started or how to make your established garden even better than it is.
On University of Illinois Extension Service website, it says that the Extension Service “…is the flagship outreach effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, offering educational programs to residents of all of Illinois’ 102 counties – and far beyond.”
The Extension Service creates learning partnerships for Illinoisans through their online information and face to face with many free education and skill-building classes. For urbanites, they offer programs about how to create a healthy society, food security and safety, sustainable and profitable food production and marketing systems, and more. If you or your community organization has considered “food deserts” and what you could locally to grow your own food, or encourage farmers to bring a Farmers’ Market to your neighborhood, you can find out how to get started at the Extension’s Cook County site.
If you are thinking hyperlocal, as in your own backyard, they have lots of short “How To” videos on almost any gardening question or idea you can think of, including annuals, perennials, insects and weeds, tomato gardening, broccoli, watermelons, and container gardens.
The combination of information and the video that let’s you see watch how to do something or compare your insect or disease problem with one’s the experts are talking, makes the information useful in ways that pamphlets or static web pages just can’t do.
For Chicagoans in their own homes, or for apartment dwellers with even a small backyard, there is a section on composting. That is something anyone can do that is environmentally valuable, easy to do, and if you want to grow your own food, what could be better than making your own compost or soil, to grow it in.
This summer you can tune in to the University of Illinois extension, and tune out the irritations of city life by creating your own “Green Acres” and you won’t have to pack up and move.
Composting for Chicagoans, now that is customized. From U of I “Hort Corner”
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