Garden Dialogues 2014: Chicago/Lake Forest

On August 2nd and 3rd, get exclusive access to private gardens and landscapes in Lake Forest, IL and hear directly from the designers and their clients about their collaborative process.

How do clients and designers work together? What makes for a great, enduring collaboration? Garden Dialogues provides unique opportunities for small groups to visit some of today’s most beautiful gardens created by some of the most accomplished designers currently in practice.

These events are now complete.

                                                                                                    Photo by Scott Shigley

Saturday, August 2nd, 5:00 to 6:30pm | Lake Forest

Lake Forest Garden
Peter Schaudt and Jayson De Geeter, Hoerr Schaudt, with Thomas Norman Rajkovich, Architect and Jeanne Nolan, The Organic Gardener Ltd.

This charming, English country style home was designed in the early 20th century and is nestled quietly into enchanting woodland. The garden’s focal point is a placid lap pool, where a classical fountain and masonry walls establish a serene sense of enclosure. Adjoining the pool court, a foursquare cutting garden and organic vegetable garden are bordered by a tool house at the ravine’s edge. The garden’s structure dissolves into a natural wood that blends with the surrounding neighborhood. Special fundraising event with cocktails and appetizers. more photos

                                                                                                    Photo by Linda Oyama Bryan

Sunday, August 3rd, 10:00 to 11:30am | Lake Forest

The Walled Garden at Little Orchard
Craig Bergmann, Craig Bergmann Landscape Design, Inc.

On a 5.4-acre bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, landscape architect Craig Bergmann has skillfully and respectfully brought new life to Little Orchard, a garden designed by one of the profession’s great practitioners, Ellen Biddle Shipman. The site is part of the historic Howard VanDoren Shaw estate built in 1896. The estate’s owners engaged Bergmann in 1999, and the resultant garden, finished in 2000, is a nod to Shipman's elegant spatial approach. An extensive collection of woody and herbaceous plantings is featured in symmetrically configured planting beds centered on the view to Lake Michigan. The owner's passion for plants and gardens is reflected in the numerous intimate vignettes set within this expansive space. more photos