Garden Walk showcases eight designs in Oak Park and River Forest

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Brett and Sarah Williams' home on 200 block of Harvey was one of the featured gardens on the 18th annual Garden Walk of Oak Park and River Forest. Brett Williams' sculptures are displayed in the yard.| Tamara Bell~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: October 28, 2011 12:57PM

Eight avid gardners showed off their creations during the 18th Annual Oak Park and River Forest Garden Walk on Saturday.

Master gardener Peggy Coon, who lives in the 300 block of South Humphrey Avenue in Oak Park, said she concentrates on texture and shapes of leaves for her garden.

For Coon, it’s all about the “right plant, right place, right time.”

“I’m a busy gardener but also a lazy gardener,” she said. “I will only do so much for my plants and they have to take care of the rest. So if you put the right plant in the right place, it will be happy and you don’t have to spend a lot of time coddling it.”

Guests who visited Coon’s garden were impressed.

“It’s so graceful and inviting with the curved paths,” said Oak Parker Jeriann Walsh who toured the garden during the walk. “She’s got a really good assortment of shade plants and the colors – this is just an expert design.”

Walsh’s friend Christina Irwin agreed.

“And just the placement of one plant against another, and even just the shapes and size of them – myself, I like all the lilies.”

Andrea Green, Garden Walk Committee member, said a lot of effort is put in to executing the event sponsored by the Garden Club of Oak Park and River Forest and Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory.

“Usually they (gardeners) go to enormous efforts during the year or so after they’ve been selected to improve and revise and the gardens so they are in peak condition for today,” she said.

Green said she’s noticed the definition of what makes a beautiful garden have changed.

“Sometimes a garden may have no flowers at all but be a beautiful combination of foliage, form and texture,” she said. “We also have seen a greater proportion of gardens have been designed and installed by professionals with the homeowners.”

What remains the same, she said, is that they love their gardens and want to share it with others.

Gardens are selected for the walk through the personal recommendations from families and friends. Garden Walk Committee members also visit different residences to recruit participants.

Peggy and Dennis Michel’s garden on the 100 block of Wesley in Oak Park incorporated an unusual but creative element to their garden.

“Peggy had bowling balls lying on the side so we decided to use them and make them into a recurring theme,” Roberts said. “What’s nice is it’s a reusable element that can sit there and create structure and color all summer and winter long.”

The Michels worked with Anne Roberts to design and install the garden. Architect Gary Lehman worked on the hardscape.

This year’s garden walk featured a special exhibit of iron garden sculptures created by local artist Brett Williams. He donated one of his pieces to be raffled off.

Deepak Kapoor was charmed by Williams’ sculptures and garden.

“I liked the front one the most,” he said referring to one of Williams’ sculptures which resembles a tree. “The garden is very well-designed, it’s very creative.”

Kapoor’s wife, Febe, added it was “peaceful, almost very zenlike, especially by the waterfall.”

River Forest resident Carol Gerson enjoyed Williams’ work, too.

“It’s fabulous that the sculptures have incorporated the plants — and I want that trellace!” she said, pointing to one of Williams’ pieces. “It’s whimsical and very large.”

Her friend Cathy Taylor was also a fan of the garden. “It looks so natural and it blends with what he’s planted around the sculptures.”

Local business owner Jim Gilchrist and his family shared their Scottish heritage in their “secret garden” on the Garden Walk. Jim’s daughter, Colleen Gilchrist Hintz, designed and put together the garden to pay tribute to her grandfather.

Jim says his late father, John, started a flower garden in the 1950s and added a vegetable garden in the 1970s. Jim shared an interesting tale about his family’s garden history. “He bought it in 1952 and couldn’t get cleared title because he had back taxes for four years,” he said. “For two years, it was a cornfield in the ’50s. A good Scotsman never wastes anything completely so he planted corn.”

Mary Herlehy’s garden on 400 block of Scoville Ave. is inspired by the forest.

“I love the woods and I used to walk in the woods at least once a week,” she said. “I don’t have the time anymore to do that so I brought the woods to my yard.”

Her garden offers seclusion and it attracts birds and butterflies.

Herlehy, who has been gardening for 25 years, compares the hobby to writing.

“I like to tell short stories so I’ve created small pockets of stories in the garden.”