Swamp White Oak Alley Garden
Year: 2023-Present
Location: Chicago, IL
Status: Built
Hinterlands Team: Conor O’Shea & Sons
Contractor: Conor O’Shea & Sons
Stewardship: Conor O’Shea & Sons
Plant Nursery: Midwest Groundcovers
Situated between a 20-year old Quercus bicolor (Swamp White Oak) and a Chicago alley, this small urban garden provides nectar resources for pollinators as early as mid-April.
The evolving design and stewardship of this garden mixes nursery-bought plants with ones already present on the site, and juxtaposes tough urban plants with sensitive woodland ephemerals. Many of the plants peak early in the season, when most plant material in the region is still dormant, thus taking advantage of sunlight reaching the ground through the Quercus bicolor (Swamp White Oak) branches that have not leafed out yet.
Nursery species, including Asarum canadense (Wild Ginger), Mertensia virginica (Virginia Bluebells), and Ligularia ‘Britt-Marie Crawford’ (Leopard Plant) were interplanted amongst a healthy population of self-seeding Aquilegia canadensis (Wild Columbine) that predates the formal establishment of the garden. The Columbine is found within the garden as well as throughout the nearby alley and adjacent gangways.
