Gary is showing proof of new day for city

Gary/Chicago International Airport is spending about $26.5 million to rebuild a rail line from north of the airport to this sugar plant. It will also build a new rail connection and spur to the plant.

Impatient? Tips for a quicker vegetable harvest

Vegetable gardening is an exercise in patience. Sweet potatoes can take more than 100 days to ripen; some tomato and watermelon varieties require five months.

Please prune the shrubs, deer

Although unconcerned with promoting plant health or aesthetics, in at least one situation deer can actually help us prune well.

Impatient? Tips for a quicker vegetable harvest

Vegetable gardening is an exercise in patience. Sweet potatoes can take more than 100 days to ripen; some tomato and watermelon varieties require five months.

Please prune the shrubs, deer

Although unconcerned with promoting plant health or aesthetics, in at least one situation deer can actually help us prune well.

Grafted veggies are next season's celebrity seeds

In many of the seed catalogs arriving soon in mailboxes, the headliners will be grafted vegetables, in which one or more different varieties grow from a single rootstock. Tomatoes seem to be the grafted transplants most frequently offered, providing greater disease tolerance, bigger harvests…

New rail line to sugar plant

This rail line crossing Virginia Street will be replaced by a new spur and rehabilitated rail line that travels from north of Gary/Chicago Airport to the Indiana Sugars plant seen in the background. The airport will pay $26.5 million for the rail project as part of its $166 million expansion plan.

New flower varieties excel at overwintering

"Overwintering" plants usually means deadheading, dividing, pruning, mulching or bringing them indoors to protect them from the cold. Increasingly, though, varieties are being introduced that flower into winter and rebound in spring. They need no special care and deliver more blooms for the buck.

Minor bulbs should get more attention

Fall planting is in full swing. As you nestle tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and crocuses into the soil, don't neglect to also plant some minor bulbs — "minor" only because they aren't well known, not because they lack quality.

Quinn extends Enterprise Zone program

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn speaks to Ford plant workers after signing a bill Tuesday advancing job creation and business investment in Illinois.

Quinn extends Enterprise Zone program

Using 20 pens, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signs a bill advancing job creation and business investment Tuesday. He signed the bill at the Chicago Ford plant in Hegewisch.

"Little Shop of Horrors" Stage Musical at Theatre at the Center in Munster

Theatre at the Center in Munster is presenting a new production of Broadway hit "Little Shop of Horrors" now through Aug. 19.

Theatre at the Center in full bloom with new production of 'Little Shop of Horrors'

Director and choreographer Stacey Flaster says there's a reason the hit musical "Little Shop of Horrors" isn't produced and offered to audiences as often as other works.

"Little Shop of Horrors" Stage Musical at Theatre at the Center in Munster

Theatre at the Center in Munster is presenting a new production of "Little Shop of Horrors" July 12 to Aug. 19.

Spring Awakening

.

South Haven students learn nutrition from the ground up

Master gardener Vince Fischer talks Wednesday about the plants in the new teaching garden at South Haven Elementary School.

South Haven students learn nutrition from the ground up

American Heart Association Youth Market Director Carrie Bruce speaks to students Wednesday at South Haven Elementary School as they begin work on their new teaching garden.

South Haven students learn nutrition from the ground up

Master gardener Vince Fischer shows South Haven Elementary School students how to plant vegetables Wednesday in the school's new teaching garden. Fischer is one of two Teaching Gardens champions who will be working with the students this spring and next fall on their garden.

South Haven students learn nutrition from the ground up

South Haven Elementary School kindergartener Owen Ruder holds up lettuce watered by master gardener Vince Fischer on Wednesday during the opening of the school's new teaching garden.

South Haven students learn nutrition from the ground up

South Haven Elementary School kindergartener John Shaw plants lettuce Wednesday in the school's new teaching garden beds. The garden was funded through a grant from ArcelorMittal and is part of the American Heart Association's Teaching Gardens program.