Downers Grove Garden Walk 2011

Saturday, July 9, 2011

To benefit the DGFUMC Bridge Board program

providing transitional housing and mentoring
for formerly homeless families

The 5th Annual Downers Grove Garden Walk gives you an opportunity to view some of the most beautiful gardens in the area. All proceeds benefit the DGFUMC Bridge Board in providing transitional housing and mentoring for homeless families.

Riley Garden

• A custom built arbor covered in spring and autumn clematis welcomes you to this peaceful shade garden featuring Annabelle and Dwarf Oak leaf hydrangeas, Carlissi viburnum, various geranium, thyme and lavender varieties. Note the charming potting shed fitted with salvaged windows from a local Sears home.
• A memorial garden features a dwarf conifer Picea Omorika 'Brut' as well as several varieties of monarda, echinacea, grasses, ferns and large and small leaf hostas.
• A large black walnut tree, ash trees accented with redbud, Pagoda dogwood and tri-leaf maple shade this cozy flagstone patio providing a restful view of this beautiful garden.

Pleimling Garden

• Enter this beautiful garden through a bed of Annabelle hydrangea and continue on a cedar chip path winding through a restful shaded area. Enjoy numerous flower beds of perennials and annuals. The garden is sprinkled with "jewelry" sparkling from bushes and trees while containers add important accents throughout.
• A glider under a wisteria-covered arbor provides a peaceful sanctuary for a cup of tea and a good book. Redbud, walnut, buckeye and weeping cherry trees, as well as a Cornelian Cherry Dogwood trimmed to a clump-tree form, create a restful retreat.
• A lovely Threadleaf Japanese Maple shades the modest koi pond with waterfall. Three other simple water features extend the peaceful sight and sound of water.

Aldrich Garden

• Begin your tour of this lovely garden through an arbor which bisects a white picket fence surrounding the front garden where perennials and shrubs vie for shifting light patterns. Interior bark chip paths slope along the south side past a greenhouse that contains a jade and cardboard plant (Zamia Furfuracea) that are each 20+ years old.
• A patio and several landings on the north side showcase containers grouped for watering efficiency. The back garden's many features include a prodigious fall-blooming clematis and a "trial" garden anchored by a columnar ginkgo tree and a "Black Lace" Elderberry Shrub.
• The organic vegetable garden is home to many varieties of salad greens and too many tomato plants!

Cich Garden

• Mature cedar, oak and maple trees grace this turn-of-the-century home and original barn adjacent to the Downers Grove Historical Museum. This spacious and peaceful plot contains PJM rhododendron, Happy Returns daylillies and 'gro low' fragrant sumac.
• The shade garden features well established ferns, impatiens, goats beard, elephant ears, canna lillies and a variety of hosta. A large bed of peonies surrounded with a mix of zinnias, hundreds of daylillies and three large service berry trees, attract many butterflies and humming birds.
• Notice the small vegetable garden and rain barrels behind the barn (with hay loft doors!) as you stroll to the entrance of the Wildflower Garden Walk on the museum grounds.

Johnson Garden

• Sectional sun and shade gardens surround this home featuring a wide variety of perennials, including ladies mantle, coreopsis, dianthus, verbena, "Plum Pudding" coral bells and "Patriot Watermelon" geranium. Annuals are included to provide color spring through autumn.
• A flagstone crossing between the backyard and patio is flanked by a cascading waterfall and stream filled with water plants and accented with potted plants for color.
• The vegetable and herb garden, as well as a collection of plants including butterfly bushes, coneflowers, Black-eyed Susan, Joe Pye weed, foxglove and bee balm, attract butterflies to this serene and restful garden.

Klicar Garden

• This wonderful garden begins with an eye-pleasing front yard containing a Shagbark Hickory. A path passes a unique greenhouse tucked along side the home. Three stone-edged, raised vegetable garden beds are awash with many varieties of peppers such as Paprika, Nago Jolokia (the world's hottest!), Chilean Aji Crystal, and Lemon Drop Peppers from Bolivia.
• Defined beds of native woodland wild flowers and prairie plants feature Celandine Poppies, Jack-in-the- pulpit and Shiso, a Japanese mint. Note that the borders in this garden are edible!
• A 7-foot tall Miscanthus Sinensis Condensatos and other islands of ornamental grasses in this charming back patio create privacy and a place of soothing quiet.

About the work of the Bridge Board

The Bridge Board of First United Methodist Church is a program partner with Bridge Communities effecting change for formerly homeless families — leading them to a better future. The Board provides housing, mentoring, direction, encouragement and a stable environment so that families may become self-sufficient and sustain their independence.