Gardening Sat May 15 2010

May Garden Walks

Editor's Note: This story was submitted by Patrick Boylan, editor of Welles Park Bulldog.

A pleasure of summer is the garden walks. The garden walk calendar starts early this year with a bustling marketplace in Hyde Park and continues to consider the Laurie Garden, part of Millennium Park.

A new entry this year, and a welcome start to the work day too, is a Thursday morning guided tour of Millennium Park sponsored by the Nature Conservancy.

We finish this first listing with an early June highlight, the Old Town Art Fair and Garden Walk. The alleys and quiet solitude of this first neighborhood garden walk is set upon the canvas of two wonderful art fairs, the Old Town Art Fair and the Wells Street Art Fair. In addition, Old St. Michael's Church, in the same neighborhood, offers distractions and entertainment.

Hyde Park Garden Fair
May 14, from 9am to 6pm & May 15, from 9am to 4pm
Hyde Park/ Kenwood Community Conference
55th Street and South Lake Park
FREE

The 51st Annual Hyde Park Garden Fair includes 10 plant departments. In early spring, members of the Garden Fair visit area nurseries to hand-pick over 50,000 plants, based on years of gardening experience and emphasizing varieties suitable for city garden — for example, those that are shade-tolerant or fit into smaller spaces. You will find hundreds of flats of annuals in every color and form, thousands of pots of perennials, large numbers and varieties of beautiful hanging baskets and geraniums, unique vines, trees, and shrubs.

Lurie Garden Guided Walks
10am to 1:30pm Sundays all summer, starting May 16 (excluding July 4)
Lurie Garden in Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue at Monroe Street
Sundays all summer 10am to 1:30pm except July 4
FREE

A 20 minute guided tour of the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park
Evening strolls offered at 6pm May 18, June 22, July 13, Aug. 24 and Sept. 21; meet at the south end of the garden on the wooden walkway overlooking Monroe Street.

Nature Conservancy Nature Walk
May 20, 7:30am
Millennium Park at Cloud Gate
FREE; Registration required.

Join Jo Seagren, Conservancy member and amateur naturalist, as she guides a group through Millennium Park on an informal bird and plant appreciation walk.

Old Town Garden Walk
June 12-13, 10am to 6pm
Lincoln Avenue & Wisconsin Street
$7

The Garden Walk takes place in association with the Old Town Art Fair, one of the best art fairs in the city. The tour offers glimpses of about 50 private gardens. There is also a separate neighborhood fair associated with St. Michael's parish and a third fair, the Wells Street Art Fair, which is another great art fair, on Wells between North and Division. That's three events, with great food and entertainment, within a very short walk of each other. Any gate to the Old Town Art Fair.

We are seeking to update the calendar with city and near suburban garden walks. If you'd like to include your garden walk in future updates, please write Patrick Boylan at patrick@wellesparkbulldog.com.