Vicki, Susie & I participated in the Garden Conservancy trip to Chicago in July and what we saw surprised all of us. I have always thought that Chicago’s long and severe winter months would yield a short growing season and therefore there would be little attention paid to creating beautiful floral gardens. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Plus they have WATER, which definitely makes a difference.
We spent the first three days in the “North Shore” suburbs of Chicago (Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Glencoe and Winnetka), home to some of the most beautiful properties in the Chicago area. The last day, we toured Millennium Park’s Lurie Garden, a private Chicago garden and a rooftop “prarie” garden. It was a rich and full experience – and we learned a lot.
GC board chairman, Ben Lenhardt and Garden Conservancy tour organizers arranged for us to see many of the most beautiful properties in the area, and they acquired access to never-before-open-to-the-public properties, so the gardens we saw were very special. Here are a few of my take-aways:
- The importance of structure and defined borders & rooms. While I knew this, Chicago’s gardens really brought this home. Significant green structure was a part of every garden we viewed, whether it was rows of trimmed Linden trees, lines of boxwood hedges or walls of arborvitae (a beautiful hedge material I was unfamiliar with that requires further exploration for my own garden). There was something about the amount of structure and the grounding it provided in these gardens that has made me reflect further about the structure I have in my own garden.
- Hedge maintenance. All of the hedges I observed had a clean, yet super soft appearance that made you want to touch them. Our Napa hedges have a hard look to them. One difference appears to be that we are using electric trimmers to trim our boxwood and privet hedge, because it’s the fastest way to trim our hedges. We don’t have the manpower to switch from electric to manual trimming…but one thing we can pay attention to is when we trim our hedges. I learned that we need to do this before the heat kicks in, so our hedges don’t ‘burn’. I also think we can increase the time between trimmings to allow for a little more softness in the look of our hedges.
- Perennials in an English border. I knew I needed to add perennials to my border, after viewing Helen’s garden in Maine and this realization was reinforced when I viewed the Chicago area gardens. The fullness of the borders I’ve seen in these gardens puts this project at the top of my garden ‘to do’ list. I have a short list of flowers that I plan to take to Gary at Van Winden’s, to see what will grow in the Napa Valley. Particular favorites from the gardens I viewed are Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum), a taller variety of feverfew that the Golden Feverfew that I currently have, Nicotiana alata ‘Lime Green’, Bee Balm, Cosmos, Moonbeam Coriopsis, Hasta, Stachys, Plumbago, Allium, Veronica (‘First Lady’ and a purple variety yet to be identified) and many varieties of Astilbe. I’m hoping that Gary will have additional ideas that I have not considered. Of course, water requirements will be a consideration.
- More Clematis! I saw beautiful various shades of purple Clematis in every garden we visited, in pots and in the ground. I currently have one beautiful, delicate white Korean Clematis that I purchased from Dan Hinkley during our May GC trip to Seattle, which is thriving. I clearly need to add more. I’m going to call friend Kaye Heafey, who owns CHC Farm in Healdsburg, to learn more.
- Having a defined color palate. Several of the gardens we saw had a similar palate – blue/purple, pink and white. My own garden is blue/purple, apricot, yellow and white and I find that having a consistent color palate contributes to the tranquil feeling when in a garden. I am going to review the color I have and see if there is a way I can enhance our color (reinforcing the palate we have chosen) and figure out a way to maintain that color (or most of it) throughout the hot summer months.
Garden Conservancy trips are fabulous for teaching you about new gardening practices and plant material, while in the company of fabulous like-minded people. I enjoyed seeing new friends from the Seattle trip, also on the Chicago trip. I can’t wait for the 2017 schedule to see where they will take us next year. Thank you to the folks at the Garden Conservancy for another fabulous experience.
