FREE GARDEN SHOES GIVEAWAY

Who doesn't love a good garden shoe or boot? These cool shoes above are from MuckandStuff
and they've agreed to give a pair away to the winner of my contest. This is a $49.50 value, not to mention a great product.

SO, tell me in a paragraph or two why you think you deserve to be the winner. I have a funny bone so try to tickle it. There are no rules, you can grovel if you wish.

The deadline for entries is Monday, December 22, 12 midnight.

Visit their website to see a complete selection of Muck Boots and Muck Shoes and their color choices .

Midori - Sweeheart of a Blogging Plant

Hoya kerri

Midori ( Mr./Ms. Green in Japanese ) a Hoya kerri or Sweetheart plant lives in a pot in a restaurant in Kamakura southwest of Tokyo. Since being hooked up to a sophisticated apparatus that measures the bioelectric currents flowing from the surface of her heart-shaped leaves, she's been writing her feelings on a computer. Of course ambient temperature, humidity and lighting seem to be major areas of interest .

Miss Midori Today posts such entries as " Today was warm , today was cold and rainy or I'm sleepy today because I had to grow a new shoot ."

You can send Miss Midori some much needed light using the widget on my sidebar. Click the area under the pot and enter your name. A light will be sent her via computer.

Perhaps her next entry may be " Today I received light from Chicago. "

ONE YEAR OF POSTS AND 100,000 VISITORS

Painting of my beloved Shih tzu Odie

Just recently I posted no. 365 . Never in my wildest imagination would I have ever dreamed of having 100,000 people visit my blog when I began it two years ago. I have Blogger's Blog of Note to thank as well as Stuart at Blotanical and Garden Voices.

It's been an incredible experience and I've met a lot of wonderful garden bloggers along the way.
I'm hoping that if Chicago gets the 2016 Olympics I'll be able to meet some of them here in the windy city.

BLOGGER OF NOTE RECOGNIZES ANOTHER GARDEN BLOGGER - MOI !

The Water Garden at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago

I was caught off guard this morning. I usually read " Blogs of Note " but was laid up with a nasty cold and skipped it . Good things always seem to happen when you least expect it .

Thanks to all my fellow garden bloggers for waking me up and letting me know that I was chosen as a " Blog of Note. "

I must say I'm thrilled to be in the company of Jodi at Bloomingwriter and My Chutney Garden as only the 3rd garden blogger, to the best of my knowledge, to be awarded this honor. Thank you Blogger !

I seldom post twice in a day but today is very special and I wanted to share it with all in the garden blogosphere.

PLEASE VISIT GARDEN BLOGGER NO. 300

How does it feel to be garden blogger no. 300 in the category of the " Most Visited Garden Blogs " this week ? Well I visited her and she was just as good, or BETTER than those ranked among the top 10.

My point is that we are all gardening-crazy bloggers that love to write about what is important to us. Let's shake up this Blotanical world and give more credit to those who don't get to be the " favorites " or " most visited " this week !

Forgive me but I am the middle child that is often ignored and therefore I tend to sympathize with the underdog. I'm hoping that the " first shall be last and the last shall be first " for a change !

Don't be conformists, y'all ! This is a revolution that calls for a change. Start at the bottom and go to the top.

SWEET HOME AND GARDEN CHICAGO IS A YEAR OLD FEB. 1

Rainy Day at Rocky Top, Tennessee

One year ago today I started my blog, SWEET HOME AND GARDEN CHICAGO. At the time, I had no idea that I would meet so many people as crazy as I am about gardening . So many different personalities in the garden blogging world and each give fresh views on blogging and gardening .

I've also written 267 blogs out of the 365 days in the year, pretty consistent , although I did take weekends off.

If blogging was my only job I'm sure I would do it much better than I have. The fact is that I have to struggle to write almost every day because I have so many other things on my plate
( yeah, just like you, I know !) .

So, to the dear bloggers that I've got to know and admire in the past year : I thank you for your encouragement and support, without which I surely wouldn't have come as far as I did.

MY FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME

" I'm Ready for my Close-Up, Mr. DeMille. "
Me with my signature piece ( left ) for the Chicago Art Open

The Home and Garden Section of the Trib is the one I always grab first each Sunday morning. Much to my surprise I got to read about myself in today's edition. in an article titled "From Winner to Designer to Blogger ( link on left ) . My fifteen minutes of fame is very exhilirating and I'm getting carpal tunnel from sending so many links out on my story.

The Chicago Tribune Home and Garden Section announced it's own garden blog , The Chicago Gardener and I want to give them a hearty Midwestern welcome to the blogosphere.

Garden writer and blogger Beth Botts was very gracious in covering my blog and made mention of my mentor Mr. Brown Thumb whom I would like to personally thank here for all his support and encouragement. I hope that Beth will do a separate post or article on Mr. Brown Thumb who is a Pioneer Chicago blogger and the soul of generosity to newbies like me. Much to my amazement he and I and perhaps one or two others comprise all of the garden bloggers in the entire Chicagoland area.

I'd also like to thank Stuart Robinson of Gardeningtips'n'ideas who gave me wonderful advice on blogging and listed me on his gardenblogdirectory. Another directory, Digindirt, has me listed as number 3 out of 117 blogs.

This blogging is much like gardening - a lot of effort, but the rewards will come if you pursue it.

AMY STEWART'S GOT CHICKENS, I"VE GOT JOJO

JOJO, a true miniature black & silver Schnauzer is " the dog with a human brain . " Here she is monitoring the many dogs and their humans that pass her front garden everyday.

Garden Quote : A morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. -Walt Whitman

Discovered Garden writer Amy Stewart's blog today at DIRT by AmyStewart. She is a real hoot! Talented and hilarious and what a gardener ! Check out her wonderful blog.

I gotta ask her though, keeping chickens as pets ? You must live in the country. I mean Elvis' mom did that when they moved to Memphis and the neighbors called the law on them. I love chickens ( sorry, Amy, usually Southern fried ) but I never got attached because I knew they were going to be my dinner.

Jojo is a wonderful dog with only one fault : she was born with a woofer in her mouth. I swear she started barking at strangers when she was 3 months old and people would point at her and laugh because she was so tiny.

I can't have people laughing at my dog. Next time I think I'll get the bigger variety.

YOU GOTTA START SOMEWHERE

Dismal February View From the Front Porch

Garden quote : " A garden is essential, everything else only desirable. "

I'm on a crusade to get Chicagoans to be a vital part of their " City in a Garden. " I want to see more front gardens that say " Hey, y'all , look at me, ! " One doesn't have to be a landscape designer to create a beautiful garden, all it takes is the desire, a little sweat equity , a modest budget, the ability to read and ask for help from professionals.

I'll never forget my first visit to the local garden center. My two neighbors and I purchased 3 Azaleas and went home to eagerly plant them, thinking we were done . Well, as it turned out the three Azaleas looked mightly big at the garden center but when planted in our big back yard they looked SO tiny. Back to the garden center for more stuff, and many trips later, through trial and error, the garden slowly began to take form and through the process I learned a lot.

I didn't like gardening growing up on the farm because it was my job to tend the vegetable garden, which those of you who do this know that it is very labor intensive. And, after the vegetables are harvested, guess what ? They have to be preserved for winter which means canning up to a hundred jars of each vegetable. Whew ! So after moving to Chicago , getting married, buying a house,having children and working a full time job left little time for gardening.

But, little by little , the old green thumb that I left back in 'bama came back . Hey what can I say , I'm an earth sign - Taurus , and we are born to garden.

We are fortunate to live on one of the loveliest streets in the city , in an historic district, and it is as friendly as any small town. Neighbors know and care for each other and contribute to the welfare of the neighborhood as well.

As my children grew and I had more time on my hands I began in earnest to create a front and back garden . This is in the reach of everyone who wants to do it. I will outline how for the novice gardeners who can follow down the garden path quite easily.

EVERYONE'S A CRITIC

Garden Quote : " this is the garden : colors come and go, frail azures fluttering from night's outer wing strong silent greens serenely lingering, absolute lights like baths of golden snow. "- e.e. cummings







Can April be far off ??


True story : A thief broke into the home of a famous artist in London and stole his VCR, TV, stereo, etc. , leaving millions of dollars of abstract paintings hanging on the wall. The title of the article summed it all up : " Everyone's a Critic. " My kids call me a " garden snob " because I frequently critique others gardens. Can't help it. I'm obsessed.

After visiting the beautiful gardens of England and Ireland I was more impressed with the unpretentious ones of the humble cottages than those of the grand mansions. Without exception, every cottage had a charming garden filled with roses, poppies, daisies and other colorful flowers.

Chicago's motto " Urbs in Horto " ( City in a Garden ) is more talk than substance as far as I'm concerned. As an avid gardener and a garden designer I've visited numerous neighborhoods without spotting so much as a flower . Many front yards contain overgrown evergreens on their last lap and deciduous shrubs that are probably older than Moses.

Then there are the newly built McMansions in the trendy neighborhoods with no front yard at all, a real pet peeve of mine. The public parkway, full of huge trees with extensive root systems, is their little planting area. And they want a lush landscaped parkway. It's like a story a beautician friend of mine told me about a little old lady with one hair on her head who came into her shop and said " make me gorgeous. " With what ?

After surveying one potential client's parkway I told her that I couldn't plant the huge shrubs she wanted under the Norway Maples due to their impossible root structure. I could see she wasn't about to take no for an answer. OOOKAY, take a deep breath and remember your genteel Southern upbringing. Don't lose it now. " " Tell you what, my dear, why don't you take this ax and shovel , dig a 2 x 3 foot hole and I'll be right behind you and drop the shrub in. "

Well butter my butt and call it a biscuit but I thought she'd eaten green persimmons her mouth was so puckered. I think my public parkway planting days are over. I just can't deal with them anymore. A person's gotta draw the line somewhere.

A few of my fellow designers and I decided to go to one of Chicago's oldest and best known garden walks a few summers ago. The neighborhood was filled with beautiful old homes and Million dollar plus McMansions. Out of the more than 30 gardens we visited, all of us agreed that only one or two could be even remotely considered well done. Impatients were the most popular flowers of choice and like the critics we are we renamed the event " The Impatient
Walk . " We also were of the opinion that we were ripped off because we got nothing for the money we paid to get in .