Mind Space Company

This is a big project in a small space. The front yard of a condo building on UofC campus is dominated by a massive Linden smack in the center of the space; it’s located on a corner busy with foot traffic, lots of shade from the property’s tree, a large building to the south and mature parkway trees on the narrow street. The yard needs irrigation because this is a condo association with lots of good intentions but no dedicated watering team. Our task was to balance a few divergent ideas about how to handle the design like how densely to plant, lean more ornamental or functional like the previous planting, and how to protect the space from cross cutting foot traffic. Fence, raised edge, hedge? Finally, the tree roots had changed the grade of the yard, lifting the soil and creating a ridge that sloped back toward the building’s foundation.
The plant palette is shade tolerant with just a few sun species along the south sidewalk and the north property line. As so many did last summer, the customer had a few problems with getting the watering right. We installed a soaker hose system (piped irrigation would have meant churning through too many tree roots), keeping it away from the tree in an effort to slow down its production of new feeder roots to give the new plants a head start. A gravel gutter handles any water at the foundation and the stone edge (hopefully) discourages the dogs and the corner-cutters.

Time for a project post. This one is a late season project, finished in November (climate change, still mostly a curse, less often a string of mild late fall days works out), due to waiting on the final piece of a substantial building renovation, a 2-level deck, to be installed. The project is located on the far NW side of Chicago in a brick bungalow belt neighborhood on a standard Chicago lot with a property line on the alley. Front lawns in the neighborhood are small and unfenced, well tended and respected by dog walkers, bike & scooter riders and pedestrians. There is very little lawn edge damage along the sidewalks so kudos to the humans who respect the property of the other humans they live among and understand the role of sidewalks. My customers weren’t interested in breaking the ‘lawn code’ by replacing it with an alternative groundcover or removing it altogether and fully planting the yard but they did want to jazz it up a bit and I obliged with wider mixed shrub borders. The rear yard was a different matter and the owners were ready for an “adult yard” to go with the big reno. The deck got carried away with itself and encroached on my plan but we readjusted and carried on. The yard is small enough to be intimate but spacious enough to accommodate multiple uses: a generous winding path featuring gravel joints and stone banding, raised vegetable beds, wire structures for flowering vines, a small grilling area, string lights, native plants to host pollinators and bird life, and a strong trellis for mom’s honeysuckle vine (which was as tangled as my hair can get). Whew! Sounds crowded but it works. A challenging area was the narrow strip of soil between the tall wood fence along the alley and the deck. I had to make assumptions about the light exposure in the summer but I think I have the plant mix right. We’ll see in a few months. Their steel containers will provide enclosure and color on the expansive deck which was built pretty close to that alley fence. Doing a project that late in the season makes sourcing plants a treasure hunt. Still OK to plant, soil wise (we put the lawns in out of sequence because they are more weather sensitive than other plant materials) and I know they’re available but it requires a lot of traveling to assemble the right plants because nobody’s fully stocked and every plant seems to be in a different place. But I like the challenge and Fabian LOVES to be in the truck with me for long periods of time ( I offer a hot lunch when necessary) so we drive all over Chicagoland and load up. I found a lovely little Acer griseum (my personal fav small tree) perfectly sized for the front yard that I’m eager to see leafed out. I hope you enjoy the photos. The last picture shows the weather the day after we finished up.

Just realized that I never posted the big reveal of our South Shore Drive project so I’m going to get that done THIS year with a few hours to spare. That fabric got covered with degenerated (AKA rotted) red granite and those empty spaces planted with native plants and native cultivars (including those Prickly Pear cactus). Here’s how the final gravel garden project turned out.
With this footnote: the squirrels tried every which way to dig up the cactus and eat the paddles. I went back and replanted the tiny uprooted plants after about 10 days. We went back again mid December and laid down cut evergreen boughs over the perennials and the Diervilla (Bush honeysuckle) shrubs, which also showed evidence of animal damage, likely rabbit chewing. Hope that does the trick over winter.

Midweek holidays always confuse me and I lose track of the days but wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year. It’s been our pleasure to help you realize your garden visions and it makes me feel purposeful to have created more beneficial green spaces in a city that’s in a world that’s way too hot (yep, 2024 is the new ‘hottest-year-on-record”). I appreciate you allowing me to design your spaces so that they please your eye, and serve the earth and its creatures. Have a wonderful winter and be well. We’ll see you in the spring. Don’t forget to feed the birds!

Pictures of the Hyde Park project before and in progress. We started demo the week before Thanksgiving, started building & planting 1st week of December.