Using Evergreens in Landscaping

For Mother's Day, we went on a little field trip to Oak Park for the Frank Lloyd Wright Studio & Home Tour. We loved it and I recommend it to anyone who admires his work or Prairie Style architecture and design.

That's me and my Mom in front of the studio.

Afterwards, we went for a walk around the historic district in Oak Park where the museum resides.



The landscaping on this home stuck out for me for it's use of a variety of evergreens in the border.

Here in Chicago, we have a short growing season and in winter alot of yards look pretty drab. Having evergreens provides year round greenery and also shelter for birds and other wildlife. Yes, we have wildlife in the city too.

I really like the way they used different colors and textures and even sizes of evergreens in this border. Mark my words, we will have more evergreens in our yard in time.

And for kicks, here are a few shots for the house voyeurs out there. These homes were all located in the historic district near the museum.


This house is the first project Wright took on after leaving Adler & Sullivan as an independant. He was fired for doing side jobs.


I think you can see the influence of Sullivan in these details. Beautiful home!

A Starting Point

Ah yes, the yard in March is not such a pretty place. All plants are dead except for our lone Picea Orientalis, which is hanging in there. We are pretty sure an application of Wilt Pruf and the drought from a few years back were what injured it. (Free advice: Skip the Wilt Pruf spray)




As the Treekeepers told us, "It is possible to love a tree to death." Steve's job is to take care of the trees and he is what I would call extra-conscientious. He waters the trees religiously and even sought out an anti-desiccant spray called Wilt-Pruf to help keep the tree from drying out in winter. Fortunately, it looks like it may recover.

Last weekend I spent a few hours raking and clearing the front and back yard. So, I'm ready for spring, but it's supposed to snow tomorrow-perhaps up to 6 inches!

We have quite a few yard projects we are planning for this summer including some concrete work, so if that interests you, stay tuned.

Our yard needs some TLC

Last year was a pretty rough one for the backyard. Between the roof tear off, pretty much constant workers traipsing across the lawn, Steve and I refinishing woodwork on it, and digging a trench for the electrical wire, it really took a beating.

I have never liked our yard in the winter because almost everything in it is dead. We need more evergreens and hopefully by fall we can add some.

We are planning to add a row of a variety of upright evergreens on the right side of the yard along the fence that you can't really see in this photo.

I am happy that the picea orientalis pine tree has recovered somewhat from the drought in 2005. The lawn is SAD though.



Probably the first project we are going to tackle this Spring, is replacing our falling apart door to the garage. The frame needs to be rebuilt and we want to get a door with a small window so we can see if the garage is open.


In this photo from July 2005, you can see the fence where we will plant the row of evergreens. You can also see that the yard looked a bit better then before the construction chaos.