Apartment Living in Schaumburg

We are excited to post a blog written by one of our very own RMK residents, Marcia Gage, who lives in The Churchill Apartments, located in Minneapolis.  Thanks Marcia!  We encourage all of you to follow Marcia’s lead and join the conversation.

Many of us find ourselves transitioning from single family homes to apartments due to downsizing, economic or health considerations, or just because of the many conveniences this type of living has to offer.  As long as you have a patio, balcony or some sort of outdoor space, moving doesn’t mean you have to give up your love of gardening.  In fact, if you haven’t gardened in the past, this may be the ideal time to start! Balcony gardening eliminates the drudgery of mowing, shoveling, and heavy digging and lets you discover the joy of nurturing and puttering.

Getting Started

Begin with carefully assessing your individual space to determine your gardening plan. Consider the amount of sun and wind that your space receives. If you are living on a higher floor, wind may also be an important factor in your planning. Your nursery or farmer’s market will usually have plants labeled according to the amount of sun or shade needed. Of course, there are also books and plenty of information online about the light requirements of plants.

A couple of fail-safes that grow just about anywhere are petunias and impatiens. They are long-lasting and come in a variety of colors and sizes.  If your sun coverage is limited, begonias will add beautiful color to your space.  When you are arranging window boxes or planters, be sure to consider adding vines such as vinca or sweet potato vine to give your display a little extra “trailing” aspect.

Consider Your Climate

Perennials may not survive to the next season in colder climates, so it is best to stick with annuals. Spring bulbs planted in the fall are also risky, but if you yearn for tulips and daffodils in the spring, check with your nursery about forcing bulbs early in the season.

Add Some Herbs and Vegetables

Vegetables and herbs can also be fun to grow.  Herbs provide beautiful greenery and wonderful aromas.  There is nothing quite like picking fresh basil, dill or rosemary and adding them to the meal as you cook dinner. Wafting the scent of lavender as you sip a glass of wine is pure pleasure! Make sure you harvest your herbs frequently to keep them from going to seed.  If you end up with more than you can use, gather the extras and give then away, dry them for the winter months, or use them in making vinegars etc.

The Topsy-Turvy and other such devices can be great for growing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and other vegetables.  If you live in a high-rise much above about the 10^th floor, however, it is not advisable to use an upside down growing method.  Even if your planter is secure, your little upside down seedling is no match for high winds!  Large pots with simple cages work well in that scenario.  Cherry and grape tomatoes do especially well in limited spaces.

You’ll want to use good quality potting soil and unbreakable pots with proper drainage.  Resin pots come in a variety of styles and colors and they are remarkably lightweight for their size. Make sure to water frequently, at least daily in hot and windy conditions. Add fertilizer to your water every 7 to 10 days, but no more than that.

Do Some Decorating, Too!

Don’t stop with just putting plants on your patio! Make your garden comfortable with outdoor furniture, cushions and rugs.  Make sure to include a storage container for potting, barbequing and entertaining supplies.  There are resin storage units that also provide seating.  No need to spend a fortune!  Check out garage sales. Even inexpensive furniture can be made comfortable with added cushions.

Your balcony garden can provide you with fresh herbs and veggies or just be a beautiful floral oasis. No matter how you choose to use it, don’t let that valuable space go to waste! Even though you’re living in an apartment, you can keep your green thumb and decorating talents alive! And you’ll get all the pleasures of gardening without the back-breaking work!

Houseplants give your apartment a warm, alive feeling, especially in the cold wintry months.  But sometimes people feel like it’s too much trouble to care for plants.  That might have been the case in the past, but there are so many products on the market now to help you take care of your plants easily (and inexpensively)!

A quick trip to one big box home store yielded the following products to make caring for your plants a breeze:

Watering

You used to have to water your plants several times a week, a messy and time-consuming process.  No more.

Aqua globes are hand blown, decorative glass globes with a tapered neck.  Just fill them with water, put the tapered end into the pot, and you don’t have to water for up to two weeks. When the soil gets dry, the aqua globe releases the needed amount of water.  Small sized mini aqua globes come in a 3-pack.  There are also larger sized globes which come in a 2 pack.  The cost was $9.98 for either size.

Another way to cut back on the number of times you need to water is to mix water crystals into the soil in your planters.  When you water, the crystals absorb large amounts of water.  As the soil becomes dry, the crystals release the needed water to the plant.  They were $7.97 a package.

Feeding

Feeding plants used to be a hassle, trying to figure out if you were giving them too much or too little food.  That’s all simple now, too.

If you want to water your plants by hand, you can mix in a pre-measured packet of food that’s the exact amount needed for a normal watering can.  24 packets come in a package for $6.28.  You can also just add liquid plant food to the water.  A bottle of that food cost $3.73.

But for those of you who really want to save time, there are plant food spikes.  You just stick them in the soil and they dissolve a little at a time when you water, putting just the right amount of food into the soil.  They came in a 24 pack for $1.58.

Misting

The old way of raising the humidity in the air was to mist plants several times a day with a plant mister.  An easier, faster way is to group the pots together on a tray of wet gravel. One word of caution: Put enough gravel in the tray so the pots will not sit directly in the water and cause their roots to rot.

General Care

With all these time-saving products, you’ll have time to occasionally pick up your plants and take a good look at them.  If they have dried leaves, trim them off with scissors.  Turn them periodically so that all their sides face the light.  When they start to look dusty, give them a good squirt or a shower under a slow-running kitchen faucet.

You can keep your houseplants looking fresh and healthy with very little time, money or care.  Do you have something special you do for your plants?  We’d like to know about it.  We’d all like to have beautiful houseplants AND save time and effort!

Here’s something new to try.  Most of us have gotten into the habit of recycling, but maybe we can even do more for the environment.  Manufacturers are coming up with new ways to use recycled materials.  And the best part is that now you can easily find these items at your local home goods store or on the web.

“Soda Pop” Yarn

Evolution polyester yarn is made from plastic bottles that have been washed, crushed, and woven into yarn.  This yarn is used for making placemats, napkins and tablecloths that look like just like they’re made of normal fabric, but there’s a big difference.  If you spill liquids on them, the liquids just bead up on the surface.  If you stain them, the stains just wipe off with a damp cloth!  When you want to wash them, just run them through the washer and dryer. They have an attractive waffle design and come in a wide range of colors. (If you’re really into recycling, it’s also fun to read their labels and see exactly how many plastic bottles were used for each piece!)

This yarn is also woven into shower curtains.  Because the curtain itself is waterproof, no shower curtain liner is required!  They come in the same attractive design and variety of colors as the tablecloths.  Because it’s so durable, Evolution has also been made into area rugs which are ideal for outside use or inside locations where there is heavy traffic.

You can find the tablecloths at Bed, Bath and Beyond stores and on their website.  The linens, shower curtains, and rugs can be found on Amazon.

Plastic Bottles Under Your Feet                                                                                                                                 A different kind of recycled plastic rug is available on Giaim’s web site. The Reversible All-Weather Rug feels as smooth as a woven grass mat, but it’s even softer and lasts longer.  Its vibrant colors and beautiful designs stay bright through years of wear.   If it gets dirty, you can easily clean it with water.

More Floor mats from Tires and Flip-Flops

Plastic isn’t the only material that’s being recycled. Rubber is also used by Greenworks to make doormats.  This process uses 90,000 lbs of recycled rubber daily, keeping about 215,000 tires out of the landfills every year.

Do you see flip-flops on everyone’s feet in the summer?  Now you can also find them as floor mats!    “Flip-flop mats” are handmade, one-of-a- kind creations with bright colors and bold designs and they’re made from the manufacturer’s leftover flip-flop sandal scraps.

The Greenworks mats and Flip-flop mats are available in Bed, Bath and Beyond stores.

The next time you need to replace a tablecloth, a shower curtain, or rug, try looking for one that’s made of recycled material.  You’re going to have some exciting, new choices!  Just look around at the stores in your neighborhood or check out listings on the internet.  And then let us know what new recycled treasures you found!

The Smashing Pumpkins.  Cheap Trick.  Smith Westerns.  Wilco. Plain White T’s.  Andrew Bird.  These are just a few of the bands and artists that started out playing at the amazing musical venues in the city of  Chicago.

Chicago is second to none when it comes to the scope and variety of music.  Whether you want to spend the evening at the symphony, listening to blues or sitting in at a jazz session at the world famous Green Mill, your options are endless.

But where do you go if you just want to take in a new folk artist or that next up-and-coming alternative band?  There are a number of affordable places that provide an exciting weeknight or a crazy Friday or Saturday evening.

One of the most popular venues where you can see lesser known artists for $5-15 is Schubas in Lakeview (www.schubas.com).  This is the place where you will catch that band you heard about on NPR last week or that band the will open for Wilco next month.  Schubas has a capacity of only ~100 people, but the acoustics would never lead you to believe that it’s that small.  Even though the space may be small, your experience will be big!

Another option in Lakeview is right down Lincoln Ave at Lincoln Hall (www.lincolnhallchicago.com).  Lincoln Hall picks up where Schubas leaves off.  It is easily three to five times the size of Schubas and the sound is superb.  Lincoln Hall has a wide array of artists that are starting to “make it” and that you might hear on college radio or on Pandora.  Many of the bands that played at Lollapalooza already have played or will play at Lincoln Hall this year.

Finally, you might be familiar with the Riviera Theater (www.rivieratheatre.com).  Located in Uptown, Riviera has the luxury of a large general admission area and balcony you can sit in as well. (If you are interested in sitting, be sure you arrive early as it is first come, first served.)  Many of the biggest acts that come through Chicago love to play at “the Riv,” since it seats a sizable audience, but still provides them with some intimacy.  Bob Dylan, Queens of the Stone Age and Sara Bareilles are just a few of the artists who have played there recently.

These are just three of the incredible music venues in Chicago.  Whet your appetite with these and then expand into some of the other boutique and grander locations.

Do you have a special place where you like to go hear music?  Let us know about it!

Today is Groundhog Day! You undoubtedly sat in your apartment with a cup of coffee and eagerly watched the morning news to find out how much longer winter is going to linger, right?  Well, maybe not.  Whether you believe that Punxsutawney Phil’s shadow really has any bearing on weather forecasting or not, did you ever wonder how this offbeat ceremony got started in the first place?  We did, and so we did some research into it.  Here’s what we found out:

When German settlers arrived in Pennsylvania during the 1700s, they brought a religious tradition called Candlemass Day with them.  It was celebrated on February 2, halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. According to the tradition, if it was sunny on February 2, the rest of the winter would be severe. If it was cloudy, spring was right around the corner. When they had lived in their native Germany, the settlers watched the badgers to see if they could see their shadows on February 2nd. Since there were no badgers in their new Pennsylvania home, they chose the groundhog to fill in instead.

The first time that Groundhog Day was officially celebrated in Pennsylvania was in 1886. The groundhog was given the regal sounding name of “Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of the Seers, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary.”  In similar grand manner, his hometown of Punxsutawney was proclaimed the “weather capital of the world.”

Phil’s annual appearance was just celebrated locally until 1993 when the movie Groundhog Day was released. Since then, the crowds have been growing at the event, with some years bringing as many as 30,000 people to town. Today, the ceremony is covered by most major television stations across the nation and is even featured on the JumboTron screen in Times Square.

To accommodate the new flood of visitors, a full weekend of events is planned. They can attend a chili cook-off, ice carving exhibitions, trivia contests, a Prognosticators Ball, weddings, sleigh rides, woodchuck whittling, a scavenger hunt, music, food, fun and games.  They can also visit Phil’s home, but it’s not a burrow in the ground.  He actually lives in groundhog splendor in a climate-controlled glass cage at the local library with his “wife” Phyllis, and dines daily on dog food and ice cream.  He also has two handlers and an “inner circle” of PR men to handle the arrangements for his yearly appearance.  On February 2, he’s taken to Gobbler’s Knob, placed in a heated burrow underneath a simulated tree stump on stage, and then pulled out for his grand entrance.

Considering Phil’s celebrity status, how accurate are his forecasts? Over the years, he has seen his shadow almost 100 times, not seen it 15 times, and nine years are somehow unaccounted for. So what is his success rate? A fairly disappointing 39%!

After learning about Phil’s dismal track record, maybe you didn’t bother watching him on the morning news today after all.  Despite his shortcomings, maybe we should cut him a little slack.  He might not be a great weather forecaster, but you have to admit he is a harmless, somewhat comical diversion from our seemingly endless winters. Maybe that isn’t a marvelous achievement, but it’s not such a bad legacy for a furry little guy who lives in Pennsylvania!