Category — History Of The Urban Garden

A little bit of history of the urban garden and this blog. Back in 2004 the hospital had decided that it would sell off part of it’s property for a residential community development. It was a rather sad time for me as well as the grounds crew. We had worked hard to build a beautiful oasis in the middle of an urban jungle.

As I got more used to the idea the more I realized that My time as steward of this beautiful park like piece of property was coming to a close and that it was time for some one else to take over and transform it into a new garden where hundreds of people would live and could enjoy it.

The Building Where Our Shop Use To Be

This was the final realization that the project would move ahead when the building that housed the grounds department was taken down.

To be continued…

Well all gardens change and redesign themselves and such will it be with my Garden.

Shortly within the next several months fully half of my garden will undergo a giant transformation.

What is now home to 10,000 perennials a couple hundred trees and many memories will be transformed.

Temporary eviction notices will be given to several dozen squirrels a couple rabbits lots of birds and a few homeless felines, As the Park Like Lawns and Large flower beds are beset upon by machines of construction.

The Hospitals East Campus will be changed into home sites for hundreds of people to enjoy the great near down town location over the next couple of years as a developer builds some Town homes, Condominiums, and A 12 Story Assisted Living Tower for the regeneration of the garden.

Looking over the plans the current inhabitants will have a Great new Garden to move back into with the heavy landscaping which will go into this project. Truly this will be an Urban Garden with a very desirable address when it is all completed.

Many of the staff and visitors have expressed sorrow over the loss of the landscape as it currently is. Believe me the thought of the thousands of hours I have spent working on it has crossed my mind more than once. I have tried to reassure them that as this garden undergoes it’s transformation that it is just a part of the changes that will make it what it will be for those who visit 50 or 100 years from now.

Well back to reality here. As I was standing on the front lawn today looking at several hundreds Asiatic Hy-Bred Lilies in bloom next to the lavender and coreopses I suddenly realized that we will need to move thousands of perennials in the next several months. This is not going to be easy. And especially cause I want to save them all of coarse. A bit more on this a little latter in the article.

The Green Areas that will be left after the construction commences will be very little compared to what I manage now because of the need to relocate three employee and one visitor parking lot to the west side of the campus. So Grass well as trees and flower beds will need to become asphalt . While this is certainly against my preferences for large open land areas Thank Goodness we are in Chicago.

Chicago has a very strict landscape ordinance in regards to parking lots. So While I may not have the garden of my dreams I will have a tree every 25 feet around the perimeter as well as a 7′ planting area along the exterior and wrought iron fences. Yes that is part of the ordinance wrought iron fencing. Also the interior of the lots will have planted islands equaling at least 10% of the parking area. so all in all there will be garden area surrounding the parking lots and as part of the lots as well.

The City of Chicago is very serious about green space and has even turned the top if City hall into a rooftop garden. Yep grasses flowers the whole 9 yards take a look at this link to find out more and see the pictures.
http://www.asla.org/meetings/awards/awds02/chicagocityhall.html

So I have no doubt that while it will be a different garden it will be on that our Admin, Staff And Visitors will all be proud of and enjoy each day. And with the commitment of the administration to make our hospital the hospital of choice I am sure that the front door to our building the landscaping will reflect the same commitment to excellence as we devote to patient care and community out reach.

Now back to those perennials there are really over 10,000 and I really want to move them all but I know that it will not be possible. After I have seen the final plan I will know exactly how much room I will have and I will try to get as much of the plant material as possible incorporated into the new design. We have an excellent Landscape Architect and she is really easy to work with.

So once we have that mapped out I plan to approach the administration about allowing the interested employees to come out and dig some plants to take home with them.
It may be that I can even get them to turn it into a field day type event and it would certainly be a great way for the current garden to move out to the community and still give pleasure to those who would like to take a piece of the garden home with them.

Heck if I pitch it right I might be able to get them to pick up the tab and give the participants a Hot dog and Pop Picnic out in the garden before it’s transformation a sort of celebration of the transformation of Our Garden For The Many New Neighbors who will soon be living there.