HG &L April 2020
IN THE ILLINOIS VALLEY
Inside
• Porch makeovers 2 • Bee-friendly yards 7 • Raised-bed gardens 9 est. 1851
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNETTE BARR
On the cover Jane Snell and her dog Clara sit on her front porch in Ottawa.
Make your front porch stand out Be bold and have fun with your redesign By Annette Barr
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Home, Garden & Life 426 Second Street La Salle, Illinois 61301 (815) 223-3200 (800) 892-6452 www.newstrib.com Publisher Dan Goetz Editor Tammie Sloup Advertising Director Jeanette Smith
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Writers Annette Barr Craig Sterrett Photographers Annette Barr Designer Liz Klein Published by: est. 1851
alking up to Jane Snell’s home on Ottawa’s east side, her cozy front porch with a small cafe table and pair of chairs is welcoming to visitors. The furniture placement is an unspoken invitation to sit down and chat. “I’ve had a couple of people in the neighborhood comment what a nice addition it was,” Snell said of her front porch. “It was much more than I really expected. It came out really nice.” When Snell moved into her home about five years ago, the front entrance was an uncovered concrete stoop with a metal handrail. Snell knew she wanted to enhance the look of her house while also providing some shelter from the weather when coming and going. The update recently included painting her front door a teal blue. Andrew Kreofsky, who works in sales and marketing at Maze Lumber in La Salle, said paint is a great way to update an entrance with typically less than three hours of work. “The number one and easiest way to update your front entrance without spending a lot of money is repainting or re-staining your primary entry door. Outside of that if you want a little bit more of a refreshed look, replacing the door is a fantastic option to get you into some more exotic opSee Porch page 5
PHOTO COURTESY OF PRO REMODELING IN PERU
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Before (inset) Jane Snell wanted to enhance the look of her East Side Ottawa home’s porch when she moved in five years ago. PHOTO SUBMITTED
After Jane Snell of Ottawa, shown with her dog, Clara, enlisted the help of Kerry Petersen of Pro Remodeling in Peru to help design her new porch, which included painting her front door a teal blue. Petersen said he’s noticed more clients requesting maintenance-free materials such as composite decking, aluminum railings and porcelain tile, but the best place to start and have the most impact is the door. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNETTE BARR
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF PRO REMODELING IN PERU
FROM PAGE 2
tions that aren’t going to match your neighbors so it will make you stand out a little bit more,” Kreofsky said. Kerry Petersen of Pro Remodeling in Peru worked with Snell on the design of her porch, taking her ideas and adding his own expertise and suggestion of materials to bring it to life. Petersen said he’s noticing clients are requesting maintenance-free materials such as composite decking, aluminum railings and porcelain tile. He agrees that the best place to start and have the most impact is with the door. “We just did a job here in Peru where the owner was fixing the house up to resell and the front porch was very old, the lock set was shot and it was just falling apart. We put a new door in and
in their house with LED but they often forget their porch. You notice when you drive around at night, you see that old, yellow-hued bulb,” he said. “Replacing your front porch lights, whether you’re replacing the fixtures or just updating your bulbs to a nice bright LED, is another great way to grab attention at night. And it allows you to see further basically when you are staring out the front window trying to figure out, ‘Hey, what’s that car doing parked at the end of my driveway?’” When choosing a new porch look, Kreofsky suggests not worrying about trends or copying other homes in the neighborhood. “In general what we find, especially when you are sprucing up an existing porch, is have fun with it and don’t go with the trends. Do a bold color that you enjoy that you think is going to contrast with your house and make your house stand out. Don’t do what your neighbor does. Have something fun. Have something bold and make a statement with it,” he said.
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Porch
it just changed the front of the house quite a bit,” Petersen said. “Just putting the new door on made the house look so much better than it did before with that old door that was on there.” Upgrading hardware is another small project that can make a big difference. Kreofsky said electronic locks are becoming more popular as they are offered in a variety of styles from modern to victorian. A benefit is providing access to your home for a babysitter, housekeeper or handyman without sharing a key. “Rather than them having the primary key to your home, you can add a temporary code for them to gain entry. Once they are done with all of their work, you can delete that code and go back to just you knowing the primary code for the home,” he said. Other porch upgrades include changing house numbers, adding potted shrubs or dwarf trees and changing light fixtures or at least the bulbs. “A lot of people replace all of the light bulbs
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NEWSTRIBUNE FILE PHOTO
How to make your property bee-friendly Lawn and bee experts share tips to prevent owners from contributing to decline By Craig Sterrett
PRINCETON — So you want a green, lush lawn. But you also don’t want to contribute in any way to the decline of honeybees. You can have both, and in fact you can have a bee-friendly property without doing harm to bees. A lot of it comes down to timing and planting things that are favored by pollinators in the right places. Rich Hornbaker, founder and part owner of Hornbaker Gardens Inc., said he personally avoids “broad use” of herbicides. Commonly used broadleaf weed killer containing 2,4-D can get rid of dandelions, but he only spot sprays it. If he was trying to get rid of dandelions, he would do it in late spring or in fall — never when a dandelion is in flower. “We also don’t use systemic insecticides and as long as you’re not using those, you’re probably keeping the bees pretty safe,” Hornbaker said. Over the years, he has stopped killing white clover in the lawn. “You don’t have to have your lawn looking like a golf course,” Hornbaker said. “If you’re killing all your broadleafs like clover, you’re killing off the food for the bees. A lot of people say just let the white clover grow
in your yard, it doesn’t grow tall and gives your lawn a white cast.” He also suggests planting gardens with flowers and plants that attract bees. A local honey company used to keep hives at Hornbaker’s during the spring and summer and early fall. “Then they would load them in the fall to pollinate the orange trees ... apparently a bear got into them down in Florida and ruined their hives. I liked having them out here,” Hornbaker said, noting they surely helped with the pollination of grapes and fruit trees. Contrary to Hornbaker, Arborist Dennis Taylor, owner of Taylor’s Way, said specific herbicides need to be used at the right time for specific purposes. “To make a long story short, before getting into a lot of chemicals, before you do anything, read the label,” he said. “Always try to avoid treatment of a plant when it’s in flowers.” He noted some people might have chemicals around that have been banned. These must not be used and must be disposed of properly and responsibly. Taylor said he often sees property owners spraying broadly over a property to try to kill Japanese beetles. He said the leaves of the trees, shrubs and vines that the beetles eat are the food factory for the tree, but trees can See Bees page 8
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Beekeeper Pete Loveland of rural Spring Valley provided this photo at end of March of his bees in a clump of pussy willows at the edge of his pond. Loveland says honeybees, which have had well-documented population declines, are attracted to different plants than some bees, such as dandelions and white clover. The pussy willows are one of the first plants the bees go to each spring. Loveland works hard to keep his property “bee friendly,” and you can too. For starters, never spray any tree, plant or flower that is in bloom.
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A sign makes it clear that local beekeeper Pete Loveland does not want anyone’s agricultural or lawn spray to drift onto his property, wildflowers and plants frequented by his honeybees. Never, ever spray a plant or weed when it’s in flower, says Dennis Taylor, arborist and operator of Taylor’s Way, Princeton.
Bees
FROM PAGE 7
survive losing some leaves to the beetles. Spraying anything that’s “in flower” might not help the tree that much and might not solve the Japanese beetle problem but certainly can harm bees and pollinators. And never spray when it’s windy. “You really don’t want off-target damage,” Taylor said. Taylor’s customers might not realize it, but his Princeton company only sprays lawns twice a year, early spring and in fall, never on blooms and they take great efforts to avoid any spray drifting and missing its target. Taylor suggests people look up some of the best plants for pollinators and plant them in garden beds. He noted lavender as one excellent choice.
Craig Arbet of Peru said some of his family’s plants, such as Russian sage and native coneflowers, don’t attract many honeybees, but they attract a lot of bumblebees and native bees and flies, which also pollinate plants. Arbet suggests one of the best ways to help bees is to not use chemicals at all. He said people try to kill every wasp and mud dauber nest they see, but the wasps pollinate squash and other desirable produce. He personally doesn’t mind dandelions, as the nonnative weed is favored by honeybees (also nonnative), but his father digs out every dandelion he sees. The leaves and roots can go right into the compost pile, he said. Beekeeper Pete Loveland of rural Spring Valley says he has more worries about insecticides and a tiny pest called the varroa mite than herbicides. “Habitat is a key. Be very careful about what insecticides you use, if any. Mowing grass unneces-
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sarily is probably not the best thing,” he said, noting that “dandelions are one of the first things bees forage on in spring.” Loveland avoids killing white clover and avoids mowing it in the daytime when bees are foraging on it. In the late evening, he can mow it and the clover will bloom again. Loveland noted that honeybees often avoid some of the native flowers. So if you wanted honeybees but did not want dandelions or clover, you could plant a “pollinator mix” of flowers, plant dahlias, cosmos, crocus and borage (from the forget-me-not family). On his property next to a pond, Loveland also has a clump of pussywillows, and that’s one of the first plants the bees go to in early spring. “Pretty much anything that kills anything is going to kill bees.” Craig Sterrett is news editor at the NewsTribune.
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Elevate your Gardening Raised beds provide more control, better drainage, easier access
T
ired of bending to pull weeds or pick vegetables and then feeling the pain when you stand back up? An elevated garden bed might be just the ticket for your gardens. But they’re not the best for certain types of plants and gardens, according to local garden club members and a master gardener. Mendota Garden Club President Steve Lauer has built off-the-ground raised beds up to about waist level or higher for people, and he also has built slightly elevated gardens with borders between 8 and 12 inches for his vegetables and certain types of flowers. “I used to build raised gardens for customers.
By Craig Sterrett
I’m a carpenter by trade and anymore you can buy a nice cedar one online, with shipping, for cheaper than I can build one,” he said. “So I’ve been going that route for customers.” “Most of them seem to be countertop height. Some of them are 36 inches … some are 42 so you don’t have to bend over at all,” he said of off-theground garden beds. “That’s the goal, for older people or for herbs, things you are going to go out and pick every night. You don’t have to bend over, they’re easier to water and maintain, easier to weed, too.” Whether he’s setting up a raised bed or large flowerpot for herbs near his house or a slightly elevated garden on his property, he can have nearly
complete control of the soil makeup of the garden. He can add the type of topsoil or garden soil that’s best for certain plants and he can easily stir in peat and composted leaves, coffee grounds and other organic fertilizer. “You can plant anything in a bed as long as the bed is deep enough to support their root system,” he said. However, that doesn’t mean everything will come back the next year if planted in an off-theground bed or even a slightly elevated bed. “One other negative that we found is, say you wanted to do tulips or something, even if it’s only See Beds page 11
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Utica Garden Club member Craig Arbet of Peru shows the raised-bed gardens his family plants in a grid pattern. Arbet said raised beds allow gardeners to control the soil makeup, they’re easy to plant and cultivate, and they drain well. (Sometimes too well during dry spells).
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University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Kathy Bishop created raised gardens when she lived near Wenona to deal with puddles and saturation in a low spot.
4-by-4-foot planter boxes at the Arbet family household in Peru.
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Kathy Bishop says raised beds, elevated about 2 feet off the ground, are great for gardeners who have to use a wheelchair, and elevated beds at waist height are great for seniors or cooks who want to tend a garden without bending over or want to easily pick herbs every day.
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12s, about 24 by 40 (feet). We built it up because it was a low spot. It would flood and saturate and that FROM PAGE 9 was a problem. It was mediocre ground,” said Lauer. “We wanted to raise it to get the benefits of putting raised 6 or so inches off the ground, compost and whatever in, improving the tulip bulb, somehow, will not it a little bit. We have quite a few come up the next year. We’ve had gardens. We rotate crops in gardens a lot of problems with that around every year.” Mendota. I’ve seen that in a lot of University of Illinois Extension planter boxes,” he said. Lauer said people use old (or new) Master Gardener Kathy Bishop, formerly of the Wenona area, used galvanized horse-watering water to keep elevated gardens with her tanks and then puncture plenty of husband. An amputee, he could garholes in the bottom to create drainden from his wheelchair. She said for age. He prefers to put old broken seniors or people with disabilities, clay brick or broken clay pots in the elevated beds are “really nicer.” bottom because they help with the They’re easy to maintain, weed, drainage but also retain some moisture after the soil dries. Some garden- plant and harvest once established. ers dump smashed aluminum cans in They do require the purchase or acquisition of soil, compost and the garden box before filling it with organic material. Whether for a soil mixture. raised bed or for tilling into a garAt one point, he planted perenniden, she likes a mix of 60% soil, als in raised beds and they did not amended 30% with compost such come back the next year. He said as coffee grounds, eggshells, grass part of gardening requires expericlippings and leaves, and 10% vermenting, and losing perennials was miculite. an expensive experience. Gardeners (“I love leaves,” says Bishop. She usually know they’ve made an ecosaid she’s probably the only person nomical choice when they buy or split perennials, because they’ll grow who asks the city to drop off some leaves when other people are taking years after year. But planting them in a raised bed can result in a loss of them to the curbside. She covers her gardens and beds with leaves every $4, $8 or even $12 per plant. winter and lets them break down.) “I can tell you how much we’ve “The raised garden is a lot more wasted, it’s a little embarrassing labor intensive to get started,” she being in the garden club, but yeah, said. “The plus side is you have a we’ve tried a lot of different things, good soil balance as opposed to had a lot of failures,” Lauer said. in-ground soil that you’re trying to “But that’s how you learn too. “We did get a hosta to come back, amend.” Bishop said ground-level gardens but everything else has been kind of hold moisture better than raised a fail.” beds, so at certain times, that’s the Lauer, master gardener Kathy Bishop and Utica Garden Club mem- advantage of a conventional garden. Craig Arbet of Peru creates raised ber Craig Arbet of Peru all say effigarden “square-foot boxes” — a grid cient drainage is a benefit of raised beds. (Lauer, however, notes, certain of cedar boxes 4 feet by 4 feet. “They are made of cedar boards types of soils in a raised bed will with one layer of Landscape Fabric drain so quickly that the gardener for the bottom with a mixture of 1/3 has to water more, even twice a day sphagnum peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite under certain conditions.) and 1/3 compost. I top dress both “You’re not drawing any of the ground’s moisture,” he said, referring beds with homemade compost each spring before planting,” Arbet said. specifically to gardening boxes that “I like them because they drain well. are usually up to 4 feet long by 20 We’ve been growing raised-bed garinches wide and mounted on legs. dens at my folks’ place since 2006.” Elevated gardens, bordered by He said he has good luck with cedar, cypress or even 2-by-8 boards carrots, tomatoes, green beans, wax or 2x12s can help gardeners create beans and sweet potatoes in his ideal soil quality in a location with raised beds. poor soil or other undesired char“The only crop I’ve had trouble acteristics. He advises against using with in raised beds is garlic. It seems railroad ties and certain types of like it dries off quicker and starts firtreated wood, as the creosote from ing quicker,” he said. ties and chemicals from some types of treated wood leaches into your Craig Sterrett is news editor at the vegetable garden. NewsTribune. “We have a raised bed with 2 x
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