Cover Story
Spring Home & Garden 2026
This year’s Spring Home & Garden issue has 10 easy projects you can tackle to freshen up your home, tips on container gardening, new options to recycle paint and batteries and more. Plus, find a special calendar of upcoming home and garden events.
Music blooms in April
With this warmer than usual weather, we’re seeing early bloomers of outdoor shows ever so slightly. It won’t be long before all the patios, gardens and decks are full of live music at the appropriate venues around town. Let’s see what’s in store for this upcoming warm and maybe wet weekend. Thursdays open our scheduled…
A welcoming place
By 2024, Greg Kanter had been out as a gay, ordained rabbi for nearly three decades, a pioneer of sorts, who had been leading a congregation in Charleston, South Carolina, for about eight years. Life had been good there for him, his husband, and two adopted daughters. Then came a new presidential administration, and the…
Springfield Comic-Con returns
Comic-Con is back and this year’s event features Joey Fatone from NSync, Tara Reid from the American Pie trilogy and other films, Austin St. John from Power Rangers, Amanda Bearse from Married With Children and many other celebrities. See the Facebook page for the complete list of celebrities who will be on hand. Event includes…
Treacle Well
I lived near Oxford for a yearAnd once bicycled the nearbycountryside with a neighbor. We cycled past a country churchyard and Maggie said, “The TreacleWell is in there” so we parkedour bikes and went through thelychgate to find it. The wellwas unobtrusive. Maggie stoodby the rim and I took her picture. You can’t very wellphotograph a well.…
Letters to the editor 4/16/26
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. PROGRESS I’m glad to see that Springfield Green is being revived (“Pick of the litter, March 19). Progress rarely comes packaged as perfection, so I am hopeful that this initiative sparks more attention and effort…
Collaboration needed
Illinois Times published an article April 2 entitled “A collaborative effort for downtown,” referring to the push to create a new taxing body to expand the BOS Center and construct a new hotel. I only wish a “collaborative effort” was indeed the case. While I am not an elected official, I am a longtime advocate…
Something for nothin’
Anyone versed in the basics of economics knows that there is no such thing as a free lunch – unless you are shopping for a hotel to host your association’s next convention and you are plied with free tastings of dinner menus for your approval. The rest of us have to pay one way or…
Year-round container gardening
Container gardening offers a practical and beautiful solution for growing flowers, vegetables and herbs in central Illinois where weather extremes and limited space often challenge traditional gardening. For leafy edibles, start with herbs and salad greens, which tolerate a wide range of light conditions from windowsill to kitchen garden and actually favor a little shade…
New community garden available at Hobbs Park
The Springfield Park District is transforming former baseball fields into a community garden at Hobbs Park, located south of Bunn Park near the intersection of Fox Bridge Road and Culver Avenue. Building on the success of the Jefferson Park Community Garden, this new initiative will provide a community garden serving the east side of Springfield. …
Illinois launches paint recycling program
If you have old cans of paint stashed in your basement or garage that you don’t how to get rid of, there’s good news for you. Illinois residents can now recycle latex and oil-based architectural paint products at numerous retail hardware and paint stores, including in Springfield and surrounding communities. This is due to the…
Easy refreshes for spring
According to the daffodils and tulips popping up outdoors, we made it through another Midwest winter! Now that we are surrounded by more green plants and sunshine, many people start to feel the urge to shake off those winter blues and let the bright light in. And while the impulse to do a full-blown spring…
Recycle your household batteries
Illinois residents can now conveniently recycle household batteries. As a result of legislation that took effect Jan. 1, Illinois has a battery stewardship program. Lowe’s in Springfield and Home Depot in Jacksonville are examples of places where people can take household batteries to be recycled at no charge. The Portable and Medium Format Battery…
Home & Garden Events
ONGOING Spring Migration Bird Hikes Tuesdays, 8-9 a.m., through May 12. Matt Hales of the Illinois Audubon Society will lead hikes looking for migratory species as well as resident species. Free. Adams Wildlife Sanctuary, 2315 Clear Lake Ave., 217-544-2473. April Nature Walks Saturdays in April, 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Nature lovers can enjoy guided…
Ooey gooey goodness
Now in my third year at Champaign’s Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery, I stay busy working at Caprae, our farm-to-table restaurant, and teaching culinary classes in our new education facility. Recently, I have also begun spending my Saturday mornings assisting at the Salt Fork Food Works Food Hub back home in Springfield. A few weeks…
Lincoln as historian? A different perspective.
Central Illinois is Abraham Lincoln country. Springfield has his law office, the home he owned as an adult, his tomb and the Old State Capitol, where he legislated and spoke. Surrounding regions focus on courthouses where Lincoln prosecuted or defended numerous cases, as well as the reconstructed village of New Salem, where Lincoln lived as…
Get Free Music Series: The art of the squirrel call
Now beginning its third year, the Get Free Music Series is a local showcase for free jazz and other fully-improvised music. Presented by the University of Illinois Springfield’s music program, it provides one of the only local platforms for an exciting, though intrinsically non-commercial, form of music. Performers in the series have ranged from local…
