Hi, my name is Lillian but everyone just calls me Lil.
I’m an artist, organic gardener & plant junkie.
I live in north central Illinois in a little house on the edge of the woods with my husband and two of my four grown children. In my spare time you can find me outside playing in the garden or taking lots of pictures of my flowers or the local wildlife for my blogs~ and for eight wonderful years I had my dream job of running the garden center at Blain’s Farm and Fleet...
When did the Weather people start naming the winter storms? We had Q (literally) and now Saturn… what were the others? Did I miss the memo?
Anyway, here we are in March already and Northern Illinois woke up to more snow this morning! I know we need the moisture but I’d love to see some spring daffodils instead. I’ve got the itch to start my new garden!
And from the amount of birds I have at my feeders today, I’d say they are ready for spring too!
Took a drive through Starved Rock State Park yesterday to look for bald eagles. Only saw a few here and there along the Illinois river. Some were flying, some were perched in the bare trees over the water. This one, a juvenile, was sitting in the snow picking at what might have been a fish.
Did you know it takes five years before a bald eagle gets it’s white plumage?
I’ve been listening to all the hype about Winter Storm “Q” for about two days now and that by the time it reached my area, there would be at least 6 – 8 inches of snow.
Well it was just starting to snow when I went to bed last night, so when I woke up this morning I looked out my window to see how much we had gotten… this is what I saw.
Lily of the Valley, A wonderful ground cover for shady places. Sweet smelling flowers in early spring that turn into poisonous red berries. Plant this invasive little beauty where you can keep it under control and out of the way of curious children and pets.
I laugh when I see violets listed in garden catalogs. In my garden, it is a weed! But I love them anyway and usually let them have their way in my flowerbeds. They tend to take over where other perennials wont grow and make a nice ground cover.
A tiny beneficial wasp who’s name I’m not positive of. I did a search on the internet and came up with –Ichneumon Wasp (Ichneumonidae). She’s about as long as my pinky fingernail or 6mm ( I don’t have long fingernails). They are harmless to us but deadly to the cabbage worms and aphids that eat my perennials! To me, the insects are just as interesting as the flowers! Go here to see the opposite end of the scale for black wasps in my garden -> Giant Black Wasp
My favorite little rose. Jeanne La Joie is a nice hardy, miniature climbing rose. She blooms all summer, with at least two major flushes, first in early summer and the second late summer/early fall, with sporadic blooms in between, up until freezing weather hits. With our mild temps through most of fall and into winter, I had blooms up until early December! She is a good little climber for Zones 5a – 10b.and grows anywhere from 4 – 10 feet tall.
Lil's Garden Tour 