July 15, 2017 – 49 Years and Counting

July 14, 2017July 18, 2017 Mike Nowak Chiicago Excellence in Gardening Awards, environment, flooded gardens, gardening, Laury Lewis, Master Gardeners, native plants, Sheffield Music Festival and Garden Walk, The Mike Nowak Show

It has become kind of tradition on The Mike Nowak Show to bring Master Gardener and former Chicago Gardener of the Year Laury Lewis into the studio just before the annual Sheffield Garden Walk. Except that it’s not actually called the Sheffield Garden Walk. Its official title is the 49th Annual Sheffield Music Festival & Garden Walk. Except that last year was the 48th Annual and next year will be the 50th Annual. I think you get the picture.

Laury is one of the honchos at the Sheffield Neighborhood Association (SNA), a non-profit community organization that sponsors the event. In the words of the SNA, “Proceeds from this festival provide continued support for neighborhood schools, local institutions, and community projects. In addition, proceeds are allocated to SNA’s Award-Winning Beautification Program, a plan to maintain Sheffield as the Garden District of Chicago.”

It is often called “The Summer’s Best Festival,” though there are plenty of events that would take issue with that moniker. On the other hand, it does has something for pretty much everyone: from gardens to bands to a Kid’s Corner to architectural tours to food and drinks, over the course of two days–this year, July 22 & July 23, noon to 10:00 p.m., at Sheffield and Webster.

From what I can gather, Laury wears a lot of hats when it comes to this endeavor. Obviously, he has a lot to do with putting the garden walk portion of the event together. He has his own garden design business and his own displays have won awards over the years. And I know that he scans the weather reports very carefully in the days leading up to the festival, mainly because it’s not a lot of fun to stand and listen to music in the rain. Well, maybe it is for some people but, again, I think you get the picture.

Anyway, all of the details are on their website, above. If today’s show runs true to form, Laury (and Peggy) and I will sit around for a little bit, talk about the year in gardening, answer a few questions, talk a little bit about how out of touch I am with popular music, and generally have a good time.

I hope you join us.