A magical visit to the Chicago Botanic Gardens!

Oh yes!! I have found the most amazing vegetable garden at the Chicago Botanic gardens. I was so lucky to have been invited to the gardens to see the preview of a flower show. On my way in I noticed that the gardens had a vegetable garden, I could not resist to visit it before going home and I was not disappointed.

The Regenstein garden has all the vegetables that you can dream off arranged in such beautiful harmony. A walk through the rows of vegetables and fruit trees reveals lots of great facts and ideas that you can replicate in your own home garden. I am full with projects that I want to do, like a wall garden. I just now need to find the time.

The entry to the gardens is through a nice bridge over the main pond. As soon as you step on the bridge, you can see a couple of designed beds that adorned the entrance. These beds contained cabbages, leeks, corn, basil amongst other things.

Once in the gardens I headed directly to my right where some raised beds were in full show. I love the way they were combined and the wonderful ideas to plant cucumbers. I also loved the many handwritten signs with tips and ideas for the gardeners. Here you have some of the best ones of this section.

 At the end of this section they were some cold frames holding several variety of onions as well as some beds with herbs. Check out the recipe for Herbs de Provence!! awesome signs!

Continuing to my right I found myself in front of a wall garden. I truly liked this idea and would love to make one in my house.

The next session resembled more of a field. They have a nice lot with garlic, tomatoes and at the back some sunflowers.

There were a couple of interesting climbers at the end of the field. Some were Hops, I loved to see that they were a bine not a vine. I did not know about this distinction.

In the middle of the garden there is a open kitchen in where they hold cooking shows. Just outside, there is a typical kitchen garden - similar to what I have outside my house in the front of my house.

The rest of the beds contain perennials and some varieties of asparagus, onions, and some other plants. These beds are rotation beds in where they rotate the crops every 4 years.

The garden also contains some tree crops and some composting ideas as well as some sustainable options for planting different crops together so they can benefit from each other.

The end has a lovely path with grapes and vines all over the place and one of my favorite walks. I hope you get the chance to visit this magical place one day. I certainly want to go again during the season to see how it changes.