Captive Worlds

The beauty of nature and magic of science with the novelty of a ship in a bottle. Available for purchase or rental in Chicago. www.CaptiveWorlds.com

01/08/2023

I am just smitten with these "spooky mix" dianthus.

31/07/2023

A black swallowtail enjoying a zinnia on the patio

31/07/2023

A little peak at the bees that moved into the dead out hive on the roof. They're doing well! We found the queen!

29/07/2023

14 spotted ladybug. ❤️

25/07/2023

I'm caring for 24 monarchs that were all laid on my milkweed in one day.

24/07/2023

It's a rare moment when there aren't any cars parked on Grace alongside the garden.

24/07/2023

23/07/2023

Wild and crazy and fantastically resplendent.

13/07/2023

The Clark Street sidewalk farm 🙂

13/07/2023

Some harvests from the Clark Street sidewalk farm today.

11/07/2023

Somedays sun protection looks cooler than other days. 😂

06/07/2023

I discovered this wasp eating a cabbage moth caterpillar that had been eating my nasturtium leaves. The wasp will make little "meat balls" from the caterpillar and them carry them back to the nest. I love my beneficial insects.

01/07/2023

The second most prolific volunteer on the roof is coreposis flowers. I grew them in two locations last season, and they are now in every single bed and pot, even on ground level. Some of the 40 square foot beds are at least half coreopsis. They've just started blooming. There's literally 1000s of buds getting ready to pop open.

One amazing thing about these flowers is that they work amazing for a natural dye or to use when ecoprinting. I was fortunate enough to take an ecoprinting class with in the at the Harold Washington Library a little over a week ago. (My little ecoprinted sample I made there is the last image)

So many plants are magical. Actually, science just feels like magic sometimes, I guess.

25/06/2023

I was super pumped yesterday because the purple milkweed I started from seed in 2021 finally bloomed.... Then this morning, one of the butterflies we released made a beeline for the flower and hung out drinking nectar for at least 5 minutes.

Now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

24/06/2023

Half planted (late) with a smorgasbord of volunteer plants, extra seedlings, and purchased flowers.

I can't wait to watch things grow!

20/06/2023

Fly free little monarchs! Go lay A TON of eggs for the next generation.

17/06/2023

The roof has been largely ignored this season since the restaurant is closed. I've been by to harvest the perennials that are still growing, but I haven't gotten the "go ahead" to do more.

It's been weird to watch nature start to envelop the space. (And by "nature" I mostly mean dill, Johnny Jump ups, orach and coreopsis 😂)

It's actually been really sad.

Today we decided to turn on the irrigation and plant about half the beds with flowers and extra seedlings. I'm psyched.