Garden Design

Selecting Plants

Plant Selection Guides from Red Oak Rain Garden: Brochures with plant recommendations and design plans for a variety of sites, including full sun, shade, wet, and dry conditions. Resources provide images of plants in all four seasons and information on which types of pollinators they attract.

Native Plants for Container Gardening: Learn how to grow native plants in containers - perfect if you have limited space!

Pollinator Plants for the Herb Garden: Find recommended plants to add to your herb garden to attract pollinators.

Salt-Tolerant Native Plants: Discover plants that can handle salt runoff from adjoining driveways, sidewalks, and roads.

Aggressive Native Plants: Not all native plants are recommended for new gardens, as some tend to dominate and out-compete other species. These plants are not invasive and certainly have a place in native landscapes, but require extra vigilance to curb rapid spreading.

Trees and Shrubs

Healthy Hedges: Chicago Region Tree Initiative’s recommended privacy screen replacements, following removal of invasive woody species.

Trees and Shrub Native to Northeastern Illinois: Recommended trees and shrubs for the Cook County area of Illinois, provided by Openlands based on findings from The Chicago Wilderness Region Urban Forest Vulnerability Assessment and Synthesis. 

Native Trees and Shrubs for Supporting Pollinators: Recommended trees and shrubs for the Midwest, provided by Heather Holm, pollinator conservationist.

Selecting and Planting Trees: This handbook from the Morton Arboretum will guide you through purchasing quality trees to plant, where to place them, and how to set them up for healthy growth.

Design

Simplifying Municipal Codes for Gardeners: Municipal regulations can be difficult for gardeners to untangle. This resource provides basic vocabulary and common guidelines to help make them easier to understand.