Garden #1 - The Sport of Gardening

As you enter the field of play, you'll find a garden representing each of Chicago's major sports teams, with a targeted design, appropriate plants (guess which team gets ivy?) and actual sports memorabilia. Whether you root for the Cubs, the White Sox, the Bears, the Bulls or the Blackhawks, this garden will get you warmed up and in the mood to cheer.

Sponsor Harry Caray's Tavern Navy Pier www.harrycaraystavern.com Collaborators Statements in Stone www.statementsinstone.net

Garden #2 - The Starting Line

On a summer's day, strollers in Chicago's green lakefront parks can watch sailboats race on blue Lake Michigan. Feel the lake breeze in this garden devoted to outdoor recreation, taking you from the wide shore to the quiet pleasure of a stroll by a lagoon or the sanctuary of the city's glorious conservatories. And look for an artistic pop of bright color where you might not expect it. Find inspiration for ways to reuse and recycle materials and ideas from the great outdoors to your yard and your home.

In a layer at least 2 inches deep, stylish tumbled recycled glass mulch helps deter weeds. Cluster drought-tolerant plants in garden spots where it's difficult to water. Shade-loving tropical plants such as elephant ears can do double duty as houseplants in winter.

Designer & Builder Chicago Park District www.chicagoparkdistrict.com

Garden #3 - Play Ball!

The competitive gardener is no shrinking violet. Proud plant owners square off in the horizontal competition with cacti, orchids, gesneriads, window boxes and other entries, in teams and solo. Yet it's a sport that anyone, even beginners, can join. Look for the "Sis" Daley Award, named after Mayor Richard M. Daley's mother, Eleanor "Sis" Daley, for a single plant that is truly exceptional.

Consider your own houseplants. Could one be an entry in next year's competition? When transporting a tropical houseplant (to a competition or anywhere), carefully protect it from Chicago's cold. If you enter next year, depend on the expertise of friendly volunteers to help you identify your plant and groom it to show at its best.

Collaborator Chicago Botanic Garden www.chicagobotanic.org

Garden #4 - Training Camp

The first colorful blooms of the year start here with popular Potting Parties. The first colorful blooms of the year start here with popular Potting Parties. Sign up to create a container of blooming plants to take home. Your $20 donation goes to charity (a different one each day). For a little garden coaching, head to the nearby information booth to get your gardening questions answered by Chicago Botanic Garden staff and volunteers and representatives of plant societies, such as those dedicated to African Violets, orchids and bonsai. And check out the witch hazel, hellebores and primroses in the containers defining the Potting Party space.

Container gardens are a great way to sample gardening. See what you like and change your mind a lot. Ask any question at the plant information booth. Or learn about classes to dig deeper. The stems of plants such as redtwig dogwood and some willows have bright bark that makes a statement in a container or vase.

Collaborator Chicago Botanic Garden www.chicagobotanic.org

Garden #5 - The Games We Play

These neighboring Chicago back yards are full of games. The gardeners-- probably moms--are expressing their sports loyalties in the most colorful way, with pansies, azaleas and tulips, along with elephant ears and other plants in containers. The dads are going grill-to-grill. And the kids play wiffle ball, beanbag, bocce, whatever they can find space for among the evergreens. The students who designed this garden drew on their own childhoods and worked to raise many of the plants.

If your space is too tight for a tree in the ground, consider planting a small specimen in a large pot with plenty of insulation to protect its roots in winter. Express your individuality by making concrete stepping stones (you can use crushed concrete from an old sidewalk as aggregate). In a small yard, consider containers that can be moved to clear space for play. But make sure kids have some place to run around.

Designer Students from the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences www.chicagoagr.org

Collaborators Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences www.chicagoagr.org Unilock www.unilock.com

Ted's Greenhouse www.tedsgreenhouse.com Peerless Fence www.peerlessfence.com

Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery www.richsfoxwillowpines.com

Garden #6 - Trees That Feed

A tree that grows bread? Not exactly, but the breadfruit tree does grow food, a nutritious crop. In this garden, you'll see real breadfruit trees (Artocarpus altilis), the plant that Capt. Bligh was seeking in Tahiti on the notorious voyage of the Bounty in 1788. And learn how the Winnetkabased nonprofit Trees That Feed Foundation is working to plant trees as food crops in places such as Jamaica and Bangladesh to help slow climate change by preserving trees to absorb carbon dioxide.

Donate $15 to Trees That Feed to sponsor the planting of a breadfruit tree. See treesthatfeed.org. Plant fruit trees in your own garden to feed wildlife (or you) and absorb carbon. Learn more about how trees help offset global climate change and cherish the trees in your neighborhood.

Collaborators Trees That Feed www.treesthatfeed.org

National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kalaheo, Hawaii www.ntbg.org

Chicago Botanic Garden www.chicagobotanic.org

Garden #7 - A Curious Croquet-Ground

This croquet ground is as unusual as Alice's, though it's surely more luxurious to play with orchids (courtesy of the Illinois Orchid Society) than with hedgehogs.

In nature, orchids perch in rainforest trees. So they need a planting mix that drains extremely well and a pot that allows air to their roots. Phaleanopsis or moth orchids do well as houseplants with bright but indirect light, such as an eastor west-facing window. Moth orchids will require regular but moderate fertilizing. Or use a balanced slow-release fertilizer in the planting mix.

Collaborator Illinois Orchid Society www.iosoc.com

Garden #8 - America's Back Yard

If bloom color were an Olympic event, this garden would win the gold. White marguerite daisies, coral gerbera daisies, blue verbena, cherry-red dianthus, and two-tone snapdragons are just a few of more than 6,000 winning annual plants. A 16-foot gazebo, complete with fireplace, is cantilevered over a small lake, and a large pergola covers the patio.

Annual flowers provide all-season color, although unlike perennials, they must be replanted each year. To keep blooming and stay healthy, annuals need regular fertilizing. A screened gazebo can provide sanctuary from insects, but like any outdoor structure it needs a sound foundation such as concrete piers.

Designer Jeff Cox, Cypress Group Inc. www.cypressgroupinc.com

Collaborators Cypress Group Inc. www.cypressgroupinc.com

Leisure Woods Inc. www.leisure-woods.com

Garden #9 - Silent Poetry: The Confluence of Stone and Plants

This garden is a harmonious vision of man with nature, integrating Shona sculpture from Zimbabwe in vignettes on themes of women, birds, and spiritual forms. The sculptures nestle among conifers such as yellow spruce and weeping Atlantic cedar, along with Japanese maples, ginkgos, ornamental grasses, tropical plants and spring ephemeral flowers including Virginia bluebells and bleeding heart. The sculptures are carved from stone quarried near the artists' workshops in Zimbabwe, typically opal stone, springstone and verdite. The images emerge from the stone as the sculptors 'listen' to the stone. The Shona sculptures on display are on loan from a private collection and are available for sale. Mike (Mekias) Munyaradzi, a sculptor from Zimbabwe, will be in the garden space much of the time demonstrating how he carves new forms and images.

An evergreen not quite hardy enough for a windy suburban location might be fine in a sheltered city site. Use tropical plants such as elephant ears to fill in when spring ephemeral plants go dormant after bloom. Integrate tropical houseplants in the garden by sinking the pot right in the ground. In fall, pull it up and bring it indoors.

Designer Todd Mohr, Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery www.richsfoxwillowpines.com Collaborators Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery www.richsfoxwillowpines.com

Mike (Mekias) Munyaradzi www.friendsforeverzimbabwe.com

Paveloc Industries www.paveloc.com

Garden #10 - The Great Outdoors

Step into the great outdoors. You'll find a spectacular fishing pond fed by a natural stream. There's a perfect campsite where the family can sit around the fire, in a forest alive with spring bloom. Among the plants you'll see that can evoke such a woodland setting in your yard are serviceberries, Cornelian cherry dogwood, crab apples, river birch, pine, spruce, oaks and fragrant Korean spice viburnum, with dwarf forsythia and cotoneaster creeping along the ground.

For more interest in the garden, use a mixture of evergreen species, such as pine, spruce, hemlock and junipers, with different needles and different shades of green, rather than a single-species hedge. Seek out cultivars that suit your space, such as a dwarf forsythia that will bloom in spring but stay small. The sound of moving water in your landscape creates a relaxing atmosphere. Different water feature designs create different patterns of sound.

Designer Miguel Sotelo, Orion Land Water Snow www.orionlandscape.net Collaborators Wilson Nurseries & Landscape Supply www.wilsonnurseries.com Midwest Trading www.midwest-trading.com Encore Landscape Lighting www.encorelandscapelighting.com

Unilock www.unilock.com JF New www.jfnew.com DGS Consulting

Midwest Groundcovers www.midwestgroundcovers.com Cedar Path Nurseries www.cedarpath.net

Garden #11 - Classical Health Club

This garden imagines the ruin of an ancient Roman bath, remodeled into a koi pond and swimming pool in a splendid formal garden. All over Europe at the height of their empire, the Romans built elaborate baths connected to gymnasiums, not unlike modern health clubs. This landscape, inspired by "Capability" Brown, who designed the gardens of many English great homes in the 18th Century, incorporates the weathered, carved stone of a rediscovered Roman bath organically into the landscape, with natural boulders standing in contrast. Water lilies, iris and other aquatic plants inhabit the water's edge. Biological filtering by plants and bacteria would make it safe to swim among the fish.

Consider biological filtering by nutrient-loving plants in your own koi pond. If you don't live in rocky terrain, a formal water feature might look better in your garden than a rocky waterfall. Preserve distinctive features of an older landscape to capture a sense of history and mystery.

Chief Designer Tim Krzeminski, Laughing Waters Inc. www.laughingwatersinc.com Collaborators Laughing Waters Inc. www.laughingwatersinc.com

Gardens #12 - Off to the Races

Like the colorful silks of thoroughbred jockeys (or the overthe- top hats from Ladies' day at Royal Ascot), dozens of tulip varieties fly the flag of spring. Browse for the ones you would most like to see in your garden and make notes to guide your bulb shopping in the marketplace.

Most hybrid tulips won't rebloom after the first year in Chicago's climate; think of them as annuals. Choose early, mid- and late-season varieties for a longer season of bloom. Tulip bulb sales are a good fundraiser for clubs (better for you than candy bars).

Collaborator Doornbosch Brother www.doornboschbros.com

Garden #14 - Meditation Garden

Follow a path to peace and plenty in this garden of container plantings that creatively reuses recycled materials. Braided money trees (Pachira aquatica)--which are said, in legend, to have saved a poor Chinese farmer from poverty by repaying his care with seeds and seedlings--lead the way through a restful space full of the fragrance of hyacinths to a simple shrine and a citrus grove.

Don't let unplanted containers go to waste. Create a water feature, or flip two same-size pots beneath a board to make a bench. When a tree must be removed, make stepping stones from slices of the trunk. A few citrus plants -- Meyer lemons, kumquats and Asian limes -- can be grown here as houseplants if they get 14 hours of artificial light a day in winter and full sun outdoors in summer.

Collaborator Tu Bloom Designs www.tublooms.com

Garden #15 - Haute Hort Couture

Color, design and texture: Next year's show will be all about these fundamentals of fashion. And this garden is a taste of what's to come, from top to toe. First, the toes: the official shoe of the Chicago Flower & Garden Show, the Birki, blooms under glass. Then the decor is all cutting edge until you enter the millinery shop, where you'll find the crowning touch. "Hats: Wise Women Speak" is a visiting exhibit created by members of Women's Journeys in Fiber, a group of women artists who together explore a variety of themes in fabric, yarn and other materials. Let their works and stories inspire you to bring color and creativity to your garden.

For harmonious color combinations, choose blooms in hues that are near each other on the color wheel, such as green and blue. For punch, combine colors that are opposite each other, such as orange and blue or redviolet and lime green. For an effective design, think in masses rather than individual blooms. Use fewer different plants and more plants of each kind together. For interesting texture, combine plants with contrasting leaf shapes such as broadleafed hostas with skinny, grassy liriope and lacy ferns.

Designer Daniel Stober Collaborators Birkenstock USA birki.us

Women's Journeys in Fiber www.womensjourneysinfiber.com

Garden #16 - If You Build It ...

Water brings life to any garden, and any gardener can find a way to bring in water. Most of the water features in this display are within the reach of a do-it-yourselfer, from the charmer tucked into a city back yard to the pondless waterfall in a wooded setting to the rippling stream. Ready to take a plunge? Dream of a classic koi pond, the pride of a suburban back yard. Water lilies, irises and rushes are at home in the shallows or at the water's edge.

Even in a very tight space, a recirculating water feature can bring the soothing presence of flowing water. Pondless waterfalls take up much less space and are safe for kids. A bowl garden can summer on the deck or patio and go in the garage or house in winter.

Collaborators Aquascape Inc. www.aquascapeinc.com MJ Construction

Unilock www.unilock.com

Collegiate Landscape www.collegiatelandscape.com

Garden #17 - Water Wishes

The rain that falls is precious. Why let it flow away? This garden demonstrates how rainwater harvesting can keep water out of overburdened storm sewers and prevent erosion, supply a water feature, or provide water for irrigating a garden or washing a car. Learn how the Aquascape Foundation has installed rainwater harvesting systems at schools in Ghana and Columbia and make a wish for every child in the world to grow up with clean water.

Install a rain barrel as a first step toward conserving and reusing water. Make a contribution to provide clean drinking water for children where it's scarce. A re-circulating water feature can run even in winter, providing a water source for birds.

Chief Designer Brian Helfrich, Aquascape Inc. www.aquascapeinc.com Collaborators Aquascape Inc. www.aquascapeinc.com

Unilock www.unilock.com

Collegiate Landscape www.collegiatelandscape.com

Garden #18 - Conservation at Home: The Sustainable Yard

It's a sweet thing when a garden works for people, wildlife, and the land all around. And at the heart of an environmentally friendly home garden are native plants. Having evolved and developed in the local climate and soils, they thrive on their own where they are established. As you see in this garden, a cluster of the right plants, often with scents that make them a joy to be near, can welcome butterflies or bees. Deep roots of prairie species such as purple coneflower, rattlesnake master and marsh blazing star hold water for the plant but also open up the soil so rain can filter down and replenish the groundwater. In this garden, presented by The Conservation Foundation, which protects land, habitat and water in Du Page County, you'll see many ways to build conservation values into home life and the home garden, from native plants to wind turbines to recycled pavers, solar power and geothermal heating and cooling. Look for rain harvesting, composting, chickens, bees and fish farming. From time to time, there will be demonstrations at the exhibit about worm composting, chickens, beekeeping and making mead -- the ancient, intoxicating brew that starts with honey.

Create your own backyard habitat by supplying food, water and shelter for pollinating insects, birds and other wildlife. Conserve water by using native plants and installing a rain barrel or rain garden. Wean your lawn off pesticides to protect the health of people and wildlife. Focus on natural fertilizing, adding compost and low-emissions law mowing.

Designer and Coordinator Local Green Connect www.localgreenconnect.com Collaborators JF New Native Plant Nursery www.jfnew.com/Nursery Living Water Farm www.livingwaterfarms.net Advanced Geothermal www.advancedgeothermal.com Recycle Me www.recylemeorganictees.com Midwest Groundcovers www.midwestgroundcovers.com University of Chicago Master Gardener Program web.extension.illinois.edu/mg Tournesol Siteworks www.tournesolsiteworks.com Jan Smith

Brickman Group www.brickmangroup.com EZ-Clean Chicken Coops www.ezcleancoops.com AVA Wind Power www.avapower.com Weiss Builders www.weissbd.com Aquaranch Industries www.aquaranch.com Urban Worm Girl www.urbanwormgirl.com Recycled Granite www.recycledgranite.com Neuton Power www.neutonpower.com

Paveloc www.paveloc.com Wild Blossom Meadery www.wildblossomwines.com Solergy www.solergy.net Midwest Trading www.midwest-trading.com EPS Perennial Park Products www.epsplasticlumber.com The Morton Arboretum www.mortonarb.org Red Buffalo Nursery www.redbuffalonursery.com

Garden #19 - One Goal, One Garden.

At the faceoff, there's no mistaking the sport in play here. From the water feature with a surface as smooth as ice, to the cool color palette of perennial plants, to the benches in Stanley Cup-winning colors, to the outdoor widescreen TV and Chief Black Hawk himself, this is a year-round garden for the serious hockey fan. Serene green in varied textures, including hostas, liriope, sedge (Carex 'Ice Dance') and fescue (Festuca glauca 'Elijah Blue'), offsets the icelike lighting accents and eye-popping shapes and colors. Nods to hockey are everywhere, even underfoot: the flooring in part of the garden is used in the Backhawks' training rink.

Use annuals such as coleus to create a different seasonal display every year, on a wall or in a bed. Sedges (carex) are a grasslike option for shady conditions. Plan to keep the soil moist. If you have a strong, bright shape in artwork, maximize the drama by providing a simple but textured green background of evergreens.

Designer Tony Butterworth, Christy Webber Landscapes www.christywebber.com Collaborators Unilock www.unilock.com Lightscape Inc. www.lsilighting.net Advanced Geothermal www.advancedgeothermal.com Chicago Backhawks www.blackhawks.nhl.com Midwest Groundcovers www.midwestgroundcovers.com

Laughing Waters Inc. www.laughingwatersinc.com Rocket Hockey Montale Gardens www.montalegardens.com Twixwood Nursery www.twixwood.com Neuton Power www.neutonpower.com

Prestigious Metals & Designs www.prestigiousmetalsanddesign.com AMD Inc. www.amdgrating.com Grand Street Gardens www.grandstreetgardens.com Clesen Wholesale www.clesen.com

Garden #20 - Wild Whitewater Wonderland

Imagine yourself pulling your kayak up for a break after running the rapids in a rushing stream full of fish. You're surrounded by tall spruces, hemlocks, serviceberry and river birch, while sedges carpet the forest floor and irises flirt with the water's edge. It may evoke the North Woods or the Smokey Mountains, but this waterfall was crafted of local stone deposited by the glaciers and surrounded by locally grown native plants.

Well-chosen native plants are undemanding, once established, because they evolved for local soils and climate. Local stone has a reduced carbon footprint because it does not need to be transported hundreds or thousands of heavy miles. For a natural look, tuck perennials here and there beneath trees and in between rocks, rather than in rigid groupings.

Designer Larry Carnes, Reflections Water Light Stone Inc. www.reflectionswaterlightstone.com

Collaborators Aquatic Ecosystems Management www.h2oeco.com DGS Consulting Spruce Trees Direct www.sprucetreesdirect.com Northwest Metalcraft Casual & Outdoor Furniture www.nwmetalcraft.com

JF New www.jfnew.com Wilson Nurseries & Landscape Supply www.wilsonnurseries.com Moss Acres www.mossacres.com

Encore Landscape Lighting www.encorelandscapelighting.com Keystone Hatcheries www.keystonehatcheries.com Midwest Construction Products www.midwestconstruct.com

Garden #21 - Grow Vertical

This labyrinth is a place of the imagination: It's imaginatively constructed out of recycled materials. And the vertical surfaces are cleverly used to grow crops--including lettuces, baby Swiss chard and kale, pea shoots and wheat sprouts and herbs. Using vertical surfaces for crops is key for Growing Power, a nonprofit that teaches and encourages farming in the city--not just on several community gardens and an elaborate potager in Grant Park, but in whatever small spaces city dwellers can find around their homes. Worm composting is a key component, to bring maximum fertility and life to limited soil space. Growing Power, which is based in Milwaukee but has an thriving Chicago offshoot, seeks to bring beauty as well as utility to urban vegetable farming, so you will also find hyacinths, hydrangeas and other ornamentals.

Look around your space, wherever it is, and see if there is a vertical space in full sun where you could grow vegetables in a container, or niche or on a support. Use space intensively by "intercropping," or planting compatible plants together in the space pot or space. Lettuce is easy to grow and tolerates cool weather, so you can sow a crop in early spring and another in the fall.

Chief Designer Erika Allen, Growing Power, Inc. www.growingpower.org

Garden #22 - Openlands

Looking at this shady spring garden, you'd never know it's all about capturing rainfall on the site. The goal of the design is to use a variety of creative and interactive means to hold rainwater in an artful and enjoyable landscape of native plants, art, and a space to relax and gather your harvest. You'll enter under a green roof planted with native sedges and an arbor that opens to the interior landscape. Take a seat and enjoy the student-made art panels on the wall or gaze out on a rain garden that features foxglove beardtongue, golden Alexander and pale purple coneflower. The woodland plant palette includes a ground layer of sedges and spring bulbs, a middle layer of vernal witch hazel and a canopy of swamp white oak, reflecting Openlands' land conservation and restoration efforts. The garden's water conservation techniques flow from the nonprofit's goal of building awareness of treating rainwater as an asset and finding ways to keep it here. But above all, the garden is about appreciating and enjoying the landscape and plants of our region. Learn more at openlands.org/flowershow.

To capture and hold rainwater until it soaks in, a rain garden can be naturalistic or formally designed. Mulch trees with leaf litter or wood chips, but keep mulch away from the trunk to protect the bark. Make art part of your garden to provide an interesting focal point all year round.

Designer Culliton Quinn Landscape Architecture Workshop www.cullitonquinn.com Collaborators G. Fontana and Sons, Inc. Midwest Groundcovers www.midwestgroundcovers.com Possibility Place Nursery www.possibilityplace.com A-1 Contractors, Inc. www.a1contractorsinc.com

Dirsmith Construction Co., Inc. www.dirsmithconstruction.com Northwind Perennial Farm www.northwindperennialfarm.com Pouls Landscape and Nursery www.pouls.com

Lurvey Landscape Supply www.lurveys.com Rosebrook Pools www.rosebrookpools.com Horigan Urban Forest Products, Inc. www.horiganufp.com

Garden #23 - Play Where You're Planted

Whatever the size of your outdoor space, there's room for recreation -- even on a roof. This garden imagines outdoor living at ground level on a brick patio (with a handy nearby putting green) or high in the sky on a rooftop, surrounded by colorful annuals and perennials.

Plants in containers dry out much faster than plants in the ground, especially exposed to hot sun and dry wind on a rooftop. So plan for frequent watering. What's beneath a stone or brick patio is as important as what you see. The bed of gravel and sand should be at least 6 inches deep. A cedar structure such as a pergola needs to be treated yearly with a UVshielding stain or wood preservative, or it will fade to silvery gray.

Designer Thomas Elia, Thomas Landscaping Co. www.ThomasLandscaping.com Collaborator Lurvey Landscape Supply www.lurveys.com

Garden #24 - Gold Medal Garden

Be thrilled by the winners from the Excellence in Landscape Awards of the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association. From the gardens to the podium, everything about these medal winners gleams. You'll be dazzled all around: in daffodils, in spring-blooming shrubs such as forsythia and Cornelian cherry dogwood and in yellow-foliage evergreens in a display of gold that rivals the Olympics. Let the torches lead the way.

Cut branches from forsythia or other spring- blooming shrubs and force them into bloom indoors. Cornelian cherry dogwood (Cornus mas) Cornus mas is more hardy and reliable here than the southern native Cornus florida. Gold-foliage evergreens really need full sun since their gold color come from a chlorophyll shortage. In part shade, they'll be green.

Designer Grant & Power Landscaping Inc. www.grantandpower.com Collaborator Illinois Landscape Contractors Association www.ILCA.net Midwest Groundcovers www.midwestgroundcovers.com

Unilock www.unilock.com Shemin Nursery www.sheminnurseries.com

Aspen Valley Landscape Supply www.aspenvalleyls.com Rental Max www.rentalmax.com

Garden #25 - Growing in a New Direction

Transforming brick and mortar into a fountain of light and greenery: That is the vision of "Growing in a New Direction." Students and faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago have conceived how an underutilized plot of land between two high rises, deep in the shadow of the Lake Street L, could become a magical urban delight. Imagine, they say, a garden climbing the walls up into the sun. Imagine dancing lights that showcase the architecture of surrounding buildings. And imagine all the lighting and irrigation powered by a wind turbine, by solar panels and by energy captured from the roaring passage of L trains. From walls of plants to a curtain of LED lights, from fescue and cyclamen to a neon lightning bolt, this garden suggests the lively ideas that erupt when artists, designers, schools, corporations, and industry put their heads together to create sustainable solutions for urban living.

Don't be afraid to be wild in both garden design and plant choices. Make sure your structure can support the weight and wind load. Also consider sun exposure, a rain water irrigation system, supplementing plant medium with peat moss, and using edible plants in your green wall. To create a sustainable garden design, think in the context of time, place and action and the value of all life.

Designers School of the Art Institute of Chicago Design Team www.saic.edu John Manning Drea Howenstein Collaborators School of the Art Institute of Chicago www.saic.edu The Wit--A Doubletree Hotel www.thewithotel.com Hampshire Farms www.hampshirefarms.com

Odile Compagnon, Lead Exhibit Designer Laurel Bancroft Harold Washington College www.hwashington.ccc.edu URS Corporation www.urscorp.com Blachere Illumination USA www.blachere-illumination.us

Anders Nereim Lauren A. Thomas The Chicago Loop Alliance www.chicagoloopalliance.com Tournesol Siteworks www.tournesolsiteworks.com City of Chicago Public Art Program www.cityofchicago.org

Garden #26 - Time Out

Take a breather on a bench in this restful container garden. And check out the inspiring stories of several youth organizations that emphasize sports as well as community greening activities such as gardening. They include the Special Olympics (www.specialolympics.org), the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago (bgcc.org) and Girls in the Game (girlsinthegame.org).

Sponsor JULIE, Inc. www.illinois1call.com Designer Cypress Group Inc. www.cypressgroupinc.com

Garden #27 - Little League Green

Play ball! The kids' activity garden features a (mini) diamond for foamball play, along with a sandbox and swing set to work off extra energy. You'll also find hands-on activities led by volunteers from the University of Illinois Master Gardeners. Depending on the day and time, children may get to know millipedes and other denizens of the Bug Zoo. They may make biodegradable "rot pots" from newspaper and plant seeds to take home. They may learn how worms turn kitchen waste into valuable compost or they may make paper flowers or suet bird feeders

Designer Cypress Group Inc. www.cypressgroupinc.com

Garden #28 - "Grand" Stand Hurrah

In the Tablescapes exhibit, be swept away by visions of grand ballrooms or elegant midnight suppers as you stroll this wonderland of lavish floral designs and table settings conjured by some of the Chicago area's most imaginative professionals. In the "Box Seat" event, interior designers create the atmosphere for a very special dinner for two at home. And in "Upper Deck," firms that create fundraisers, parties and other events conjure the atmosphere of a spectacular gala.

Garden #29 - Dog Gone Fun

Dogs love to play, especially with their people. This garden shows how these natural athletes can be at home in the family back yard. A dog agility track, laid out on permeable synthetic turf, provides a place for homeowners and dogs to enjoy exercise together. Trained agility dogs will be showing off their skills on the course. Completing this back-yard paradise are a patio with a fire pit and pergola, vegetables and herbs in containers, a water feature and other luxuries such as a personal putting green. The garden is surrounded by trees and sturdy such as juniper, juddii viburnum and river birch, with annuals for bright seasonal color.

To avoid conflicts between dogs and gardens, allow an area for pets to romp. Synthetic turf works well in pet areas because it's easy to clean. Growing vegetables and herbs in containers is an easy way to have fresh harvest.

Designer Landscape architect Philip T. Schleifer, Advantage 1 Inc. www.uniquelandscaper.com Collaborators Belgard Pavers www.belgard.biz Easy Pro Pond Products Western Red Cedar Pergolas www.westernredcedarpergolas.com

Clover's Garden Center www.cloversgardencenter.com Northwest Metalcraft Casual & Outdoor Furniture www.nwmetalcraft.com Wilson Nurseries and Landscape Supply www.wilsonnurseries.com

DoGone Fun www.dogonefunchicago.com Synthetic Turf of Illinois www.syntheticturfofillinois.com

Garden #30 - The Taste of Victory

Watch some of Chicago's top restaurant chefs demonstrate how to turn vegetables and herbs from your garden or the farmer's market into fresh, easy, inventive recipes (and get a taste when they're done). Check out the model kitchens from IKEA and take a load off as you get some new ideas for the table.

New Varieties Garden - Rookie Season

Size up the young hopefuls in a display of newly introduced plant varieties from a number of regional and national growers.

Before you try a new variety, make sure you have a place to provide it with the sun or shade and other conditions it requires. A single plant can be the star of a container combination. But in the ground, most varieties look better in masses of at least three to five plants. Make sure each plant you buy looks healthy, with a fresh color in the leaves, no bugs and healthy white roots.

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