Blog: Updates from Lurie Garden!
Planting a new Piet Oudolf Garden
The Oudolf Garden Detriot is the newest public Piet Oudolf project in the United States. As this site comes to life there is a renewed appreciation for the work, investment, talent, and team it takes to make these gardens. This amazing project began when the Garden...
The Challenges and Rewards of Mapping the Naturalistic Garden
Maps that are rich in detail help us communicate the complexity and evolution of our dynamic garden. Lurie Garden is intended to be an ever-changing, dynamic planting. The evolving relationships between plant groups and their role in the overall design requires...
Cutting Back on the Cut-back
The mowing down of the garden in spring used to be straightforward – a crew would ride mulching mowers around the garden to make a clean palette for the anticipated crocus and tulips. While Lurie Garden's first priority is maintaining the garden's design beauty and...
How to Maintain the Initial Vision of a Landscape in the Midst of its Evolution
The initial vision of a constructed space can be maintained as it evolves if the original creators remain involved to help steer changes. Landscapes in public spaces evolve through multiple influences. A site’s mission, funding, or management can shift this evolution....
In Need of Sanctuary—The Monarch Butterfly
Every story of migration starts with an epic journey of how beings get from one place to another. It can be an easy journey or a tough one depending on the obstacles that await them along the way. The symbolism of the monarch butterfly is personal to many because of...
Scaling a Public Garden for an Intimate Space
Can we as designers, horticulturalists and gardeners feasibly and successfully recreate park design and modern design features in our own gardens? My visit to Lurie Garden was all about looking at ideas, features and combinations and reinterpreting them to work on a...
Gardens as Art: Principles and Elements for Better Designs
We can analyze the composition of a garden's design like we study a painting. This allows us to understand how a garden is put together, and from that comes the ability to make educated design decisions in our own gardens. I recently heard a well-respected garden...
Why honeys taste different and how you can learn to appreciate them
Honey straight from a hive is full of unique flavor notes based on its location and season. With a little background information all of these delicate variations can be appreciated with the same respect and admiration as the tasting of wine. The squeezable, plastic...
Breaking Ground: The Influence of Piet Oudolf’s Perennial Gardens
When one enters Chicago's Lurie Garden or New York's High Line, it is clear these are not traditionally cultivated gardens, nor are they prairies, woodlands, or meadows, where composition is left to the whims of natural forces. Rather, they are composed and curated...
Is this a Weed? Garden Invaders, Welcome Guests and Photo-bombers
Weeds are simply plants out of place, and not all need to be removed. When deciding a weed's fate, a gardener must consider, among other factors, the weed species, its location within the garden, and the weed’s potential function for its location. We are taught a...
Exploring Elements of Garden Design : Plant Size
The element of garden design referred to as ‘plant size’ includes many facets, height being just one. Plant spread, density, and footprint are other factors of plant size that gardeners consider when selecting plants and designing their garden spaces. Giving...
Role of Public Gardens in a Changing Climate
Public gardens collaborate with scientists to study how global climate change impacts local plant growth, while also actively displaying the effects climate change. Public gardens have the opportunity to educate and engage the community and moderate an open, honest...
Successful Design is Inspired by a Site’s History and Conditions
For a landscape architect, "unique design" and "rare and unusual" are both, ideally, natural outcomes on any site – but only if a design team can successfully allow the rich history and conditions of the site to drive the design process. At the time of commissioning...
Lurie Garden Recommended Reading List
When the weather is perfect for hammock reading or less than favorable for frolicking in the garden, we grab from our ever growing list of books and articles to keep us inspired and informed. Here is Lurie Garden's recommended reading list for lazing around or green...
Pollinators May Benefit from Mixing Native and Non-Native Plants
Current research indicates that mixing some non-native plants* in a designed native landscape can increase pollinator habitat. Mixed native and non-native plants in a designed landscape (i.e., near-native landscapes) can contain a higher diversity of food resources...
It’s time to cut down the garden
Waiting until spring to cut down the garden is not conventional, but the benefits are visual and ecological. We appreciate and understand both the beauty and ecology of perennial plant landscapes, and have chosen to manage the Lurie Garden for the benefit of both...
DIY Lip Balm, Body Scrub and Skin Salve Recipes
Instead of buying expensive skin smoothers, why not make your own - and make your house smell divine in the process? Here three recipes, directions and material sources for our DIY Lip Balm, Body Scrub and Skin Salve Recipes. Lurie Garden Rooftop Honey Lip Balm Every...
Nature’s Nourishment for Everyone Throughout Fall and Winter
Seed left in the garden provides for birds, insects, and animals with nourishment throughout winter and special beauty for us. Gardeners most often associate seeds with the next generation—the “fruits” of this year’s labor and the hope for next year’s plants. We...