West Cook Wild Ones President and Founding Member Stephanie Walquist volunteered in the Chien family garden for the 2021 Native Garden Walk.
Gardeners will discover the world of good they can do by growing native plants in their yards
By Laurie Casey
The annual West Cook Wild Ones garden walk “Birds, Bees & Butterflies: A Native Garden Walk” is back Saturday, July 23, from 1 to 5 p.m. The walk is designed to inspire and teach home gardeners about the beauty, ease and usefulness of the plants that have lived here for thousands of years, and the animals and insects that depend on them. Habitat loss is among the primary factors driving population declines of important local and migratory species. Each new native plant garden—no matter how small—can help support vital insects, birds and other wildlife.
Attendees can tour 10 lovely, color-filled gardens in Oak Park and River Forest, Illinois. Homeowners will be present to answer attendees’ questions about plant names, favorite plants, and other aspects.
The Jankowski side-yard oasis from the 2021 Native Garden Tour.
This year’s tour includes a wide range of gardens. Highlights include four native plant rain gardens, including one built by two neighbors who teamed up to solve flooding on both properties. Several gardens display creative ways to incorporate native plants with edible gardening and urban homesteading, such as chicken coops.
Some gardeners have lovingly designed every square inch of their yards themselves. Others have hired top native garden designers. There are small gardens and large gardens, manicured looks and more carefree ones, newly planted and mature, established landscapes, according to Adrian Ayres Fisher, co-chair of the garden walk.
“We love the range of sizes, the creative landscaping styles—from tidy to wild—and the fact that some gardens include chickens and food gardening,” says Fisher. “We think garden walk visitors will especially love the evident care, time, and attention the gardeners pay to stewarding their patch of earth.”
This garden walk is $10 for West Cook Wild Ones members and $15 for non-members. Kids attend for free. Ticket holders will receive a tour map two days before the event. We recommend biking or driving. To encourage social distancing, most gardens will have a separate entrance and exit.
At this tour, attendees will learn about West Cook Wild Ones’ fall native tree and shrub sale, offering high quality plants at affordable prices. Also, attendees can join the West Cook Wildlife Corridor: More than 800 gardeners in the near-west suburbs have pledged to grow native plants in support of it, to give a boost to local birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife.
This garden walk is put on by the West Cook chapter of Wild Ones, Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory, and the Interfaith Green Network.
An admirer takes notes in the Jankowski garden at the 2021 Native Garden Walk.