By Susan Messer
On Saturday, July 27, from 1 to 5 p.m., West Cook Wild Ones will host its annual native garden tour of 9 colorful, life-filled gardens in Oak Park and Berwyn, Illinois. You can find more information about the tour here.
But while you’re waiting, here are three of the native-plant-loving people who have created gardens (or shall we call them habitats?) that are on the tour: Laura Derks, Monica Cecero, and Beth Fioritto.
Laura Derks
Q: Laura, how long have you had your garden?
Rain garden
A: Maybe 11 years? One priority was to get rid of as much grass as we could. In our front yard, we have so much canopy, we couldn’t get much to grow, so we wanted to work on that. Plus we were tired of the anxiety and stress around having water in our basement during heavy rains, so we knew we had to do something about it. This meant redirecting downspouts underground, installing a rain garden, adding three rain barrels, a bioswale, and more.
I had no idea what I was doing with the plants, but I knew about West Cook Wild Ones, and I started buying things. I also became a devotee of Doug Tallamay and his idea of the homegrown national park. I knew I wanted to create my own habitat. I don’t call it a garden; I call it a habitat. Over these years, I’ve continued to put more stuff into the ground; 25% of it hasn’t survived.
Q: How do you decide what and where to plant?
A: I watch closely to see what thrives, why, where, while constantly removing things that are invasive. I’ve learned where the sun hits, and I plant sun-loving plants there. Same with shade. I also follow [West Cook Wild One’s board member] Stephanie Walquist’s idea that you need to have a source of food throughout the season for everything living in your yard. So I have some kind of forb going all the time. [ Forbs are herbaceous broadleaf plants that provide ground cover, soil stability, nutritious forage, and aesthetic pleasure.] I also like to do an occasional bioblitz.
Native Illinois rose, with bee
One thing I’ve noticed: everything is earlier this year. I’m always watching, adapting. And I think of this work as intersectional. By this I mean that if I can personally improve habitat for living things that are struggling, I’m giving something back to the earth. If it can also be beautiful, that’s a gift to me and the people around me. And if in addition, I help with some of our local flooding issues, it’s a win-win-win. Now I’m seeing that I can also help educate; I’m a coach for Oak Park Climate Action Network. And doing this, I can show others the benefits of biodiversity and flooding remediation.
One more thing about educating: People in Oak Park are up in arms about leaf bagging, but this is only one of 5 suburbs that was still allowing people to rake leaves into street. The village wanted to continue to help with leaf removal but in a different way. I see this as an opportunity. We need leaf litter so insects, pollinators, ecosystems can thrive. We need to work together as a community to do this.
Q: Do you have a favorite plant or area of your garden? What makes it a favorite?
Planting an Oak tree
A: I’m super excited that my Illinois roses bloomed for the first time. It’s so fun to see the bees go after them. And I love my elderberry bush. I’m truly awed by the growth. I’ve already cut it back three times this season. And it draws so many pollinators. It’s almost like its own mini-forest. And I love my swamp white oak. My 89-year-old dad helped me plant it in my yard four years ago. Now it’s about 10 feet tall. I was inspired to plant this tree by Tallamy when I learned that it’s a keystone species—that it supports so much life. It’s wrapped for cicadas now because I didn’t want to risk it.
Q: How do you feel about being on the garden walk, showing your garden?
A: This is the second time I’ve done this, and I feel a bit heartened because last time, I didn’t have anything native in my front yard, but now I’ve got another story to tell. We put in maybe 100 plants at the end of April.
People on this walk are very curious. They want to know what everything is, so I have to get out there and label everything.
Monica Cecero
Q: Monica, How long have you had your garden, and how did you get interested in natives?
A: We moved into this house in 2022. I really liked the house when we first looked at it, but the landscaping was sterile—a few bushes up next to the house and grass on a very big front yard. It made me doubtful about the house, but my husband said, “Look at it with open eyes, with what the yard could be.” So we bought it.
As soon as we moved in, my wheels started turning. I started researching, and came across the words “native plants.” I’d never heard of them before, but as soon as I looked into it, I knew this was the direction I wanted to go. I went to the library and took out all the books they had on the subject. I learned that I could have a prairie in my yard, but that I could make it manageable so our family could enjoy the space and not have to do constant maintenance. Based on what I’d learned, I knew I wanted native plants that aren’t going to be self-seeding everywhere, plus I wanted to use the sun to have a vegetable garden and a circular gravel area for seating.
I went to the Oak Park Conservatory for their 45-minute “quick sketch.” You make an appointment, go in with a layout of your property, tell them what you’re looking for, and they help you figure things out based on extensive experience with the local soil and climate, even the flood zones.
I left with a beautiful, detailed drawing. But the estimates from landscapers to implement it were way beyond what we could afford, so I needed to piece this together in some other way. In June 2023, we hired a local person to take out a lot of the grass and install the seating area. We ordered a zillion plugs from the West Cook plant sale, and got some of the bigger things (the elderberry, the nine barks) from Christy Weber’s Farm and Garden in the city. My family and I planted everything ourselves. We got home with the plants by noon and had them in ground by sundown. This was right before the big drought in June 2023, so I was out every evening watering every plug. This year, we added more plugs, and we’re all full now. The plants are thriving.
Monica’s front yard
Q: What have some of the challenges been?
A: I want a welcoming environment for the plants, to give them a chance to get established. So I set up some intricate netting to keep the bunnies out, at least for now. It’s like I’m saying to them, “I know these plants are inviting to you, but we need to give them a chance to get established. Later, I will welcome you to nibble on the stuff that is part of your native habitat.”
I’ve also had to train the mail delivery person and the neighborhood kids to see this is a garden, not a place to walk or run through. I told them they need to be careful of these plants. But that’s part of the fun, too, the teaching. Neighbors came by to ask what we were doing and why. Most had no idea about native planting; we have very few native gardens in our neighborhood. None of the parkways are planted.
Q: Do you have a favorite plant or area of your garden? What makes it a favorite?
Rattlesnake master—a native plant
A: We are currently loving the rattlesnake master. It looks like a cactus or an aloe, but it’s not prickly. “I’m magic,” my son says, “because I can touch it, and it doesn’t hurt.” It’s really taking off, and we love to watch what it does.
At first, I wasn’t sure about the cup plant, but I have come to love it. It just loves life, and it has spread. I love the flowers; they’re very sunflower-ish.
Q: I thought you said you didn’t want plants that were going to be self-seeding and spreading everywhere.
Creeping bellflower—an invasive, nonnative
A: Yes, I did say that. But two areas in my garden were covered with creeping bell flower, which is non-native and invasive. It has tubers that go 3 feet down and you have to get the whole thing out to get rid of it. Which is where the cup plant comes in, because I’m thinking that the cup plant might be the only contender for the creeping bell flower. I will let the cup plant take over if it pushes out the bell flower. Because the cup plant can be easily pulled out but not the bell flower.
Q: How do you feel about being on the garden walk, showing your garden?
A: I’m really excited. It’s a fun opportunity to put my garden in front of people, to show off something that took a lot of work. I’m so honored that such a young garden can be featured. I don’t want to wait until my tiny nine barks are 6 feet tall before I show off my garden. I want people to know that you can start small and do it on a reasonable budget.
Beth Fioritto
Designer and owner of Vital Gardens
Q: Beth, describe the garden you designed for the tour—front, back, size-ish, features.
Garden shortly after installation, spring 2023
A: I started working with this homeowner in spring of 2023. When the trees started leafing out and things started coming up in the existing garden, we could see what was already there, and we finalized our plans. We began planting in mid-May, so now the garden is just over a year old.
The homeowner had heard about native plants and pollinators, and she knew this was what she wanted for her home, but she didn’t know how to do it. She wanted to add more beds, to make the existing ones bigger, to get rid of grass. So we doubled the size of the beds in the front. Her house faces east, so she was only getting morning sun, and we needed to adapt the plantings to that. Also, when I’m thinking about front yards and people who are just getting into natives, I look for plants that will grow no taller than three feet, that are well-behaved, that look a little bit neater, for the neighbors who might not be used to native gardens. Also, plants bloom at different times, of course, and I want something to be in bloom for as much of the season as possible.
Garden closeup, spring 2024
She had a native serviceberry, so I worked the plan around that. We kept her peonies because she loves them. A garden has room for lots of things. We put in many small plants because I wanted a lot of diversity, and to have things close together, to attract pollinators to the garden. The plants I put in last year were small, and I’m amazed at how much bigger they are now.
Q: As a designer, how did you get interested in natives?
A: I’ve been gardening for a while, well before deciding to do design for others. I used to live in a two-flat in Chicago, and I started there, 15 years ago. I had no hose spigot and I didn’t know much about gardening, but I knew I needed plants that could survive without constant watering, without being babied. I loved the Lurie Garden downtown, and began to learn about naturalistic gardening and the kinds of plants that could create the look I loved.
I started reading and learning about the ecological benefits of using native plants—the benefits to wildlife and ecosystems. Once I started seeing the butterflies and other living creatures that were attracted to my garden, I knew I wanted to get more. Even in the middle of the city, I was able to create this wild place. If you build it, they will come.
Now in Oak Park, my own garden is a work in progress; of course, it takes time, energy, and resources. I have replaced my front lawn with native plants. In back, I still have lawn, because my kids like to run around there. If the lawn is doing a job for you, I’m fine with that.
Q: How do you decide what and where to plant?
A: I plant things that are a little taller, say, purple coneflower, further to the back, and I plant in drifts, to look naturalistic. As things self-seed or move around, the garden will change. The plants will find where they want to be.
Q: Do you have a favorite plant or area of this particular garden? What makes it a favorite?
A: A plant I really love, that I’ve gotten to know more recently is Bradbury’s monarda. I like it because it stays about two and half feet tall, in a nice little clump. It’s, really nice in a residential area. And woodland phlox is gorgeous in springtime.
Q: Tell me about your business, Vital Gardens.
A: Well, it’s fairly new, and the garden on this tour is my first paid project. But I’ve done a lot of gardening myself, helped friends and family. More and more people are getting interested in native plants; the awareness is building, getting more mainstream, and people want help with it. Even people who don’t want to change their whole yard can try something. Even one milkweed plant. It’s so much fun to see the insects and butterflies that come to your garden, to have a garden that’s so active. I’m excited to share my work through the Wild Ones Garden Walk.
Q: What’s your view of our high rabbit population and their appetite for our gardens?
A: I protect my new plants so they have a fighting chance, but I love the rabbits. We have a built-in planter next to our house, and I’d been neglecting it, so a rabbit used it for a nest, and it was so much fun to see the baby bunnies. As far as the feasting, I still don’t get what they like and don’t like. I seeded a bunch of cone flowers, and they have hairy leaves, so I couldn’t believe the bunnies would eat them. But now I have only one left. And I’ve been battling thistles—thistles!—and the bunnies eat those too, prickles and all, so they’re helpful there.
I say that if the rabbits are eating your plants, you just need more plants!