BLUDEAU/LAVELLE YARD
243 Stanley Ave
We have lived in Park Ridge for over 27 years. Previously there was a large tree on the Northwest corner of our lot. When the tree had to be removed, our son suggested replacing it with a garden of native plants designed by Prairie Moon Nursery in Minnesota to attract pollinators. We really enjoyed the large numbers of butterflies that visited this site every August. We decided to rebuild our house four years ago. This will be our third summer living in this home. The new home has a swale on the west side for drainage. I (Dan) got the idea for a swale when I worked across the street from a beautiful swale on the westside of the UIC campus filled with native plants that has won many awards for landscape design.
We thought it might be possible to recreate something like this on a smaller scale in our swale that would both beautify our home and attract pollinators. Betsy Seff of Redstem Native Landscapes designed and installed a swale garden that changes in waves of color throughout the season while providing butterflies, birds, and bees with larval host plants, shelter, nectar, and pollen. The swale garden was planted only last summer and is filling in well. Among the plants in the swale are marsh marigold, rose milkweed, ditch stonecrop, golden alexander, northern blue flag, and joe pye weed, northern switchgrass, and northern blue flag. The plant arrangement around the house was suggested by Thom Kenly of Lurvey’s and we did the planting. You will find allium, sweet william, wild geranium, hydrangea, sweet black eyed susan, and Ring of Fire sunflowers that should grow 6 feet tall. In the backyard we have another native plant garden planted with plugs from Prairie Moon containing lance leaf coreopsis, hairy beardtongue, pale purple coneflowers, butterfly weed, and little bluestem. We also have a vegetable garden with corn, beans, squash, green peppers, basil, tomatoes, and three types of raspberries. In the back we have a rain barrel and along the garage are flowers we were able to save from our original native plant garden.
We are excited and happy to see everything growing so well this year.
Joan & Don
We have lived in Park Ridge for over 27 years. Previously there was a large tree on the Northwest corner of our lot. When the tree had to be removed, our son suggested replacing it with a garden of native plants designed by Prairie Moon Nursery in Minnesota to attract pollinators. We really enjoyed the large numbers of butterflies that visited this site every August. We decided to rebuild our house four years ago. This will be our third summer living in this home. The new home has a swale on the west side for drainage. I (Dan) got the idea for a swale when I worked across the street from a beautiful swale on the westside of the UIC campus filled with native plants that has won many awards for landscape design.
We thought it might be possible to recreate something like this on a smaller scale in our swale that would both beautify our home and attract pollinators. Betsy Seff of Redstem Native Landscapes designed and installed a swale garden that changes in waves of color throughout the season while providing butterflies, birds, and bees with larval host plants, shelter, nectar, and pollen. The swale garden was planted only last summer and is filling in well. Among the plants in the swale are marsh marigold, rose milkweed, ditch stonecrop, golden alexander, northern blue flag, and joe pye weed, northern switchgrass, and northern blue flag. The plant arrangement around the house was suggested by Thom Kenly of Lurvey’s and we did the planting. You will find allium, sweet william, wild geranium, hydrangea, sweet black eyed susan, and Ring of Fire sunflowers that should grow 6 feet tall. In the backyard we have another native plant garden planted with plugs from Prairie Moon containing lance leaf coreopsis, hairy beardtongue, pale purple coneflowers, butterfly weed, and little bluestem. We also have a vegetable garden with corn, beans, squash, green peppers, basil, tomatoes, and three types of raspberries. In the back we have a rain barrel and along the garage are flowers we were able to save from our original native plant garden.
We are excited and happy to see everything growing so well this year.
Joan & Don
