The 2024 Go Green Deerfield Sustainable Yard Tour is Here
Saturday, July 20th: 10:00am - 2:00pm
Discover how nature rebounds when buckthorn is removed. Learn innovative ways to grow food. Stroll through beautiful private pollinator gardens and verdant woodlands. See a rain garden with a dry river bed, composting techniques, and last but not least, chickens in the garden! All maintained with sustainability in mind. Take home inspiring ideas for creating or enhancing habitat in your own yard.
Each of this year’s host sites is listed below. See what each has to offer and be sure to check the site map at the bottom as you plan your tour.
Jina & Brett, 1440 Montgomery Drive, Deerfield
Stroll through a beautiful woodland oasis filled with art, songbirds and pollinators. See how to integrate wetland plants and other water friendly prairie species beautifully into a suburban landscape. Joe Pye weed, asters, cup plant, purple stemmed angelica, and Indian plantain meets big bluestem and Indian grasses. Trees like oaks, redbud, river birch, and Kentucky coffee tree are underplanted with shrubs like gray dogwood. In spring, this area comes alive with a carpet of trillium, wild ginger, mayapples, and ferns.
Across a lovely bridge, you’ll explore a restoration after removal of Buckthorn and dying ash and elm with more native plants and grasses, elderberries, and wild raspberries. Ask them about how they restored this area, how they used seeds to help in the transition, and how it has evolved since then began.
Pat, 1901 Oakwood Road, Northbrook
Head just across the Deerfield border and you will not be disappointed to see this mature perennial garden lovingly planted since 1979. Pat is an accomplished gardener in all areas: veggies, annuals, and perennials, focuses her plantings on food for birds and insects, and has greatly expanded her native plantings to about 60% natives in the last few decades. You will see many species of plants here, including Joe Pye weed, swamp milkweed, a lovely native rose archway, native woodland plants, and pussy willows. She has recently planted oak saplings which support about 500 species of caterpillars (aka bird food!) based on Dr. Doug Tallamy’s research, and created “soft landings” by planting under the trees to help developing insects. She uses low spots wisely by planting rain garden plants, and routed gutters underground with pop up drains. Ask her what regenerative soil is and how she creates that in her yard.
Amy C., 454 Margate Terrace, Deerfield
See Amy’s transition of her yard to mostly native plants, shrubs, and trees in all corners of the yard including an area on the west side which she refers to as the former “Buckthorn Grove”, now a maturing, flower filled prairie in only 3 years! Anise hyssop, purple coneflowers, bee balm, asters, stiff goldenrod, bottle gentian, and royal catchfly dominate the once invasive landscape, alongside serviceberry, witch hazel, wild plums, and oaks.
Other areas of the yard include dry, sunny gardens with coreopsis, purple poppy mallow, blazing star, wild petunia, and milkweeds, and a rain garden with many sedges, cardinal flower, blue lobelia, ironweed, Joe Pye weed, Rattlesnake master, obedient plant, and culver’s root. Water from downspouts and rain barrel overflow waters this low lying area with a winding dry river bed.
Don’t neglect the fenced back yard to meet the chickens! They will peck seeds from your hand and may even let you scratch their feathers. A vegetable and herb garden has pollinator friendly flowers, and is supplemented by both chicken poop and veggie scrap compost. Lastly, see solar panels which “fuel” electric vehicles and lawn equipment and so much more!
Joe, 216 Greenbriar Drive, Deerfield
The garden supports a mixture of plants that thrive in both a sunny front yard and a shady backyard. The native species include three varieties of milkweed, cardinal flowers, Jo Pye weed, blazing star, coneflowers, asters and goldenrod. A variety of shrubs and trees provide backdrops for the plants.
Two passive compost containers provide opportunity to use kitchen scraps, vegetation and old leaves to provide a half dozen containers of annual compost. The rain gutter drains allow water to flow into the yard to support several areas. The use of battery powered blowers, weed wacker and trimmer completer the tools that include simple lawn rakes and brooms to provide cleanups
John, 1050 Rosemary Terrace, Deerfield
Stroll through a chef’s dream garden nicely done in raised planters with fruit bushes, herbs, and many vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, kale, broccoli, zucchini, and more! Annual flowers close to veggies reel in the pollinators, and a dead tree removed in the front yard provided a new spot for sun-loving pollinator plants like blazing star.
