Garden pros ready to share bumper crop of advice

Horticulturalist Katie Prochaska will lead a walking tour of the fruit and vegetable garden during the Daily Herald's Giving Garden Day at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

There's much to learn from shared experiences, especially when it comes to gardening.

And if there's anything gardeners love to do, it's share -- their produce, advice and stories.

The Daily Herald's Giving Garden Day is a sharing extravaganza. The event at the Chicago Botanic Garden on Sunday, Sept. 9, brings together experts on vegetable gardening from across the area to help residents' plots thrive.

This year we're reinforcing the troops with foot soldiers who have tried-and-true experience.

Tana Hamm and her crew at St. Andrews Lutheran Church in Mundelein took an empty lot next to their building last year and transformed it into a 2,400-square-foot vegetable factory.

In just one week this summer, the second of their project, they cranked out 75 pounds of tomatoes.

And this all with a team of volunteers who are guarding and nurturing 16 individual plots.

There were no worries about whether the crews were ready for a second round this summer, she said.

"People were wanting to know when the garden would be ready to plant and if they could have the same plant," Hamm said, chuckling,

They'll share advice they've gained over the past two years launching a church garden with anyone who arrives with questions between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. That's when Giving Garden Day rolls out the red carpet for budding gardeners, or experienced ones looking to hone their skills.

Want to find a way to get children involved in gardening?

Woodland Elementary West School in Gages Lake already did that and volunteers are ready to share their experiences to help others get started.

Parents and volunteers at the school -- along with some 400 students -- toil over a garden from spring to fall that produces more than 400 pounds of food for Warren Township Food Pantry.

They're already more than a quarter of their way to reaching this year's goal.

The rest of the lineup at the Regenstein Fruit and Vegetable Garden in Glencoe includes:

• Noon. "Veggie Planting 101." Jennifer Brennan and Scott Thalmann of Chalet Nursery in Wilmette focus on the basics of getting a vegetable garden started each season.

• 12:30 p.m. "Organic Gardening." Mike Bollinger takes a look at how nonchemical methods benefit the garden. Bollinger manages the Chicago Botanic Garden's Green Youth Farm, a program that helps teenagers learn about and work on an organic farming operation.

• 1 p.m. "Extending your garden season." This walking tour of the fruit and vegetable garden led by the botanic garden's Katie Prochaska helps address ways to grow food for more than just a few months each summer.

•1:30 and 2:30 p.m. Mary Ellen Diaz of First Slice Café is the Garden Chef speaker. Her cafe is an innovative program delivering restaurant-quality meals to home subscribers, while maintaining a community-supported kitchen for people in need.

• 2 p.m. "Designing a kitchen Garden." Why dine out when you can eat in with the proceeds from your very own kitchen garden. Connie Bailey from The Growing Place in Naperville will show you how to choose your plants wisely.

• Noon, 1 and 2 p.m. "Fall Frolics" is a Native American storytelling program on ecology presented by Dennis "Swiftdeer" Page and Chicago Parent magazine.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., gardening experts will be ready to answer your questions on a wide range of subjects. The "Ask the Pros" segment this year includes all of the seminar presenters plus:

• Sam Darin, the Chicago Botanic Garden "Tool Guy."

• Russel Higgins, a bug specialist with the University of Illinois Extension Service.

• Carolyn Ulrich, editor of Chicagoland Gardening magazine.

• Northern Illinois Food Bank.

• Greater Chicago Food Depository.

• Chicago Botanic Garden staff member Nancy Clifton will have a booth presenting a display on compost between 1 and 5 p.m.