While your garden is waking up from winter, or while it is in transition throughout the year, the quickest way to adorn your property with a boost of color is with seasonal annuals! Fill your empty beds with rivers of colorful begonias, and dazzle your entryway with urns spilling over with petunias and vines. Whether [...]
Is there an area in your yard that lacks interest? Is there an area in your yard that just won’t grow healthy grass? Is your parkway uninspiring? This spring, instead of spending another year dissatisfied with it, consider filling this space with grass alternatives. By using lesser known groundcovers and ornamental grasses, these spaces can be [...]
There is no time like the present to visit local garden gems. Large and small, these gardens offer beautiful backdrops for portrait taking, personal enjoyment and respite from life’s hustle and bustle. Please enjoy this list of our favorite local gardens to visit, all within a day’s drive of Chicagoland. We highlight gardens that are [...]
IRMCO® Advanced Lubricant Technologies is a manufacturer of oil-free metal forming and tube bending lubricants. The company, founded in 1914 and based in Evanston since 1919, is considered an industry innovator, a steward for the environment and an exemplary neighbor in the West End Industrial District. CEO Jeff Jeffery, the great-grandson of founder William Oats Jeffery, contacted Nature's Perspective [...]
This time of year, big box nurseries often offer a lot of what’s most popular: lilacs, forsythias, azaleas. Why not "think outside the box" and use Deutzia, a small, carefree shrub that bears pretty spring flowers on arching stems, settles to a neat, rounded appearance in summer and ends the season with lovely burgundy [...]
Spring is an ideal time to plan and install herbaceous perennial plants. Many 1-gallon size perennials will provide a great flower display in the first year. Perennials provide a source of nectar and habitat for pollinators after spring flowers on trees and shrubs have passed. News of our wild pollinators dropping in number in recent [...]
The ability to find joy in the midst of great loss is a character trait that is not just hard to grasp, but one to be admired. The inspiration behind this project, located in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, was to honor the memory of a wife who was taken from this world too soon, and to [...]
A traditional gift for Valentine’s Day is a bouquet of roses. Cut flowers are beautiful but not very long lasting. If you love roses and want to enjoy them all summer long, plant hardy landscape roses in your garden. These plants are low maintenance and easy to grow. The following are the tried and true [...]
As we head into fall, and bulb planting season nears, here are some helpful tips for a picture-perfect floral display when spring arrives. We've made them easier to remember by giving them movie titles! ONE HIT WONDER Tulips are available in an astounding variety of shapes, sizes and colors, but need replenishing every year or two [...]
Late August-early September is a challenging time in the garden between the Hydrangeas of summer and the Asters of fall. For some areas of the country, it can mark the beginning of the transition into the dormant season. There are, however, certain plants that do peak during this time in the Chicago area. Many of these [...]