The Illinois General Assembly has passed and sent the Garden Act, aka “Right to Garden Law,” to the governor for signing. I first wrote about this situation in 2018. Hooplah started when Nicole Virgil and her family decided to take their raised-bed organic gardening to the next level by growing as close to year-round as…
Category: Garden Blog
The Hooplah in Elmhurst
Sometimes it helps perspective to check out what other communities are doing. DeKalb’s not the only municipality with code enforcement that sometimes looks inconsistent or arbitrary. I’ve been following such a story in Elmhurst for more than a year. A documentary about the Elmhurst controversy is titled “Hooplah” and residents have adopted the same name…
Chicken Petition Gets Mixed Reception at Farmers’ Market
The Holly House Chicken Lady sat all afternoon at the DeKalb Farmers’ Market yesterday. See what happened to her there.
The Holly House
Citybarbs is pleased to add to our blogroll another local voice, The Holly House, a blog devoted to “green living on a blue collar budget.” The blog owner, a 4th Warder like me, has begun developing a proposal for amending DeKalb’s municipal code to allow residents to raise a few hens for eggs, as well…
Welcome Juliet
Juliet is sized a tad bigger than what I would expect for a grape tomato but smaller than a Roma. Last night she ended up in a salad of just-snipped shredded basil, red onion, avocado, tuna and white beans. We’re having fun with the salads this summer. Earlier this week, it was a mango slaw…
Fried Dandelions
Lots of the “weeds” found in yards have culinary and/or medicinal uses. If you visit mine, you’ll find burdock, chicory, garlic mustard and of course the ubiquitous dandelion. Now is the best time for a salad or spring tonic made of fresh, young dandelion greens that haven’t become embittered, but one of my fave uses…
Got Marigolds?
A couple of years ago I suggested that S. 4th would look better if the community could borrow an idea from Dixon and plant flowers in those narrow parkways. Dixon’s community becomes involved in planting the petunias in the parkways, they have a Petunia Festival with a parade, and there is now a petunia wine.…