Wayne Countryside Garden Club

10/15/2026

10/15/2026

Don't make this common autumn gardening mistake. Here is how to put your hydrangeas to bed the right way. Read the full fall-to-spring care guide...

10/06/2026

Did you take advantage of the beautiful weather this past weekend and did some fall planting? Good news! KDSWCD has extended our pot collection through the end of October!

Bring empty plug cells, pints, quarts, gallons, trays - they are not recyclable and we want to keep them out of the landfill. They can be from any nursery. We have several growers who can re-use them!

Drop off anytime at our front door 2315 Dean Street, Suite 100 in St Charles.

10/02/2026

09/30/2026

09/28/2026

A deer standing in your yard at sunset looks peaceful, but that stillness is not its natural state. Watch closely and you will notice the head lift every few seconds, ears turning, eyes scanning the tree line. That habit is the reason the animal survives.

Research on white-tailed deer backs up just how costly that vigilance is. In one study tracking deer exposed to Florida panthers, animals that kept their heads up scanning 95 percent of the time were more than three times as likely to survive the year as deer that were vigilant only 75 percent of the time. Watching is not optional caution, it is the difference between living and dying. Other research on deer and coyotes found that when predation risk dropped, females spent 5 percent more time feeding and males spent over 13 percent more, time that vigilance would otherwise steal away. Every minute spent scanning is a minute not spent eating, drinking, or resting, which is exactly why a deer that settles in to graze in your yard is telling you something real about how it perceives that space.

That is what makes a moment like the one in this photo worth noticing. A deer lowering its head to eat, a bird landing at the birdbath, any wild creature settling into a backyard rather than bolting through it, is a small vote of confidence in that particular patch of ground. For an animal whose whole existence runs on a constant threat calculation, choosing to be still for even a few minutes is a decision it does not make lightly.

You do not have to do much to earn that trust. Native plants for food, a water source, some brushy cover to duck into, and a yard free of harsh chemicals go a long way toward making a space feel safe rather than exposed. The deer in your yard is not lost or careless. It has simply decided, for a little while, that your yard is not one more place it has to watch its back. 🦌🌿

09/27/2026

When adding native plants to your yard, there's one tool gardeners often forget. Their local municipal codes.

While the Homeowner's Native Landscaping Act passed in 2025 says Illinois HOAs cannot ban native plantings, city and county codes often regulate things like plant height and location, and might consider native plants to be "weeds."

• Always review your local codes and any ordinances related to landscaping. Many municipal codes are available on https://library.municode.com/il

• Comply with all safety ordinances. Do not let plants get close enough to sidewalks or streets that they become an obstruction.

• Talk with neighbors about your native plants, especially when they are in their early "unruly" growing stages. Ordinances are often only enforced when someone makes a report.

• Know your garden and avoid plants that might get out of control. Knowing every plant by name is helpful when people ask, and it shows the garden was planned. Avoid adding plants in home landscapes, such as common milkweed, that may spread aggressively.

Explore more about planting native plants in home landscapes with the Everyday Environment team in a blog and podcast conversation with Extension outreach associate Brodie Dunn at https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/everyday-environment.

09/26/2026

04/12/2026