Gardeners do have a “green thumb.” That was obvious at the 12th annual NCJW Southland Community Garden Walk on Sunday, July 14.
Guests turned from one flower or hosta bed to another as their eyes feasted on the color and style at the seven gardens. Six of the seven were in Flossmoor as part of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) South Cook Section’s recognition of the village’s 100th anniversary.
The early morning rain had stopped and the sun broke through giving guests a chance to linger in admiration of the handiwork of these seven gardeners who have lovingly cultivated the spaces around their homes.
Flowerbeds showed off all varieties of blooms. Bursts of color were everywhere thanks to the gerbera and Shasta daisies, black-eyed Susans, phlox, beebalm, Indian blankets, columbine, corabells, globe thistle, milkweed, Russian sage and impatiens. Then there were the vegetable gardens and the flowering trees about to bear fruit. For the shade spots, guests admired all variety of hostas.
“The gardens are just gorgeous. The flowers are just beautifully arranged, and some unusual ones,” said Ann Shuart of Richton Park. Jane Baffes of Flossmoor, a gardener whose house was on a previous walk, said “the beauty of the gardens these owners create is just wonderful. And it gives you ideas. It’s definitely a fun event.”
“What I’ve been most impressed by is just how big the variety of flowers is everywhere, and the commitment of the gardeners for pollinators and the ecological importance,” said Grace Kuiknas from Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood who is organizing a garden walk in her neighborhood.
Sue and Mike McCarthy moved to their home in 1988 with young children. After raising them, she decided she wanted to put in a garden. She joined the master gardeners “to learn some stuff, and I immediately started ripping out grass.” The McCarthys have a perennial garden “so any week you come here it will look different,” Sue said.
Terry Gillespie’s garden in Flossmoor is filled with mostly native plants. “Most of what’s in our garden were gifts from people, or things we found along the roadside,” she said. Peonies from a neighbor, day lilies and irises from a friend who was moving. She’s into composting for grass clippings, potato peels, etc. for good soil.
Gillespie decided to take a chance when she bought five little potted plants that were on the discount table. She didn’t know what they’d turn out to be. Today the plants are a type of grass standing about 18 inches tall lining part of her walk. And she has cactus! It thrives because it’s in a dry, warm spot and makes it through the winter.
Ann Mitchell said 25 years ago when they moved to Flossmoor she started by planting trees. The apple tree was a starter her son brought home from school in a little cup. Today that tree stands an estimated 20 feet tall.
“I like a lot of color and I like almost any plant there is, and so I just buy what I like. Sometimes I have to move them around. It’s trial and error. I just like playing around and eventually you find things that work together,” Mitchell said.
Bessie Pruitt’s garden was full of white rock when she moved into her Homewood home in 1998. She thinks she removed about 450 bags of stone and started planting. Her garden offers a full variety for the seasons – lots of color now, and yellows and reds in the fall. What’s not in the ground Pruitt has in flowerpots, like her hibiscus, Elephant ear and kanna. She moves them to her garage for winter.
The window boxes are the first thing you notice walking up to Beth Larocca’s Flossmoor home. “I do the same thing every year with the coleus,” she said. They require her to water from the inside.
Larocca’s backyard garden was laid out in stages. She first laid a flagstone walk from her house to a pond. A horseshoe loop of color and greenery has taken her 18 years to develop. Recently, she dug out daylilies that weren’t blooming because of the shade. Bringing life to that shady area is her current project. She has lots of whimsy in her garden– an old push mower, an old refrigerator, lots of old tools. Her sister has helped find most of those, she said.
Jim Lewis’ mid-century modern house sits on a three-quarter acre lot. A vegetable garden, a rose garden, hostas, Japanese garden, and every variety of flower are spread out around the house, patio and lot lines. Lewis said one of the first things he did was build a berm in front of his house on Brassie Avenue. It’s a narrow street and trucks would drive on the grass and leave ruts. Lewis built a berm and planted a variety of colorful flowers.
When Lewis and his wife, Lori, moved from a wooded area in Wisconsin, he brought as many hosta plants as he could fit on the back of a U-Haul. Today they line his western border. Lewis had a couple of Japanese maples on the property and then he “hauled in yards and yards of compost and mulch.” He assessed where the sunny and shady areas were and started planting.
Lewis said this spring cicadas damaged a crabapple tree, but he’s sure it will come back next spring. “There were thousands of them. They were just everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
Jeff Stevenson said he really enjoys the shade. The big old trees are the emphasis in his yard, so in his plantings he “looks for texture differences in the green leaves. That’s the way to get variety.”
When he moved to Flossmoor 20 years ago, he dug up a portion of the front lawn for a perennial garden. He went for symmetry with the bushes but mostly the flowerbed is “wild with volunteers that come back every year.”
