NATIVE & SUSTAINABLE
Join us for a FREE Native Garden Tour. Explore one garden or see them all - it's completely up to you. Start anywhere and tour at your own pace.
Sunday, August 17th, 10 AM–1 PM
Native Garden Tour- STARTING SOON
Mark your calendars!
Join us for a FREE Native Garden Tour
Stroll through 5 stunning yards filled with native plants and pollinator-friendly landscapes — learn, connect, and get inspired! Learn about composting, rain barrels use, reduction in pesticide use, shade and rain gardens. See one or see them all.
A map and details of garden locations will be shared Friday 8/15/25 before the event on both our website and social media.
Want to join a group bike ride from garden to garden?
Send us a message — we’d love to have you ride along!
Need a ride due to accessibility or transportation barriers?
Email us and we’ll do our best to match you with someone offering a carpool.
Sunday, August 17th, 10 AM–1 PM
Join the Bike Tour by meeting at 10:00 AM at South George Street and Evergreen Avenue in Mount Prospect IL
THE HOUSES
2025 FEATURED HOUSES
Native by Nature: A Living, Evolving Habitat
What began as a sterile, silent suburban front yard—dominated by turf grass and a collection of non-native species like English Yew and Burning Bush—has been transformed into a thriving native habitat. Our journey started with the removal of a dying blue spruce, from which a bur oak emerged. This oak has grown remarkably each year, becoming a vital host for countless insect species.
In the fall of 2020, after preparing the soil, we installed over 1000 native plugs, representing about 24 different broadleaf species and sedges, across a 1000 square foot area. Since then, we've overseeded annually with additional native grasses, sedges, and broadleaf species.
Our approach to this landscape is guided by the understanding that nature defies absolute control. We embrace an informal planting, allowing species to establish, spread, and even disappear or reappear as they see fit. This dynamic process is the true beauty of the space; no two years are exactly alike. While the "artist's hand" is evident in the species we initially introduced (and some that didn't persist), and even with the presence of some non-natives like hostas for challenging spots, we believe every square foot contributes meaningfully to the ecosystem. Working in restoration ecology has taught me that perfection isn't the goal—impact is.
The Living Lab: A Native Garden in Progress
Starting in 2021 with a sewage pipe replacement, Abigail saw her front yard tore up and thought - “why not make this a native pollinator garden?” Since then, she’s treated her landscape as a living lab in native home gardening- transplanting and throwing in new plants as they are acquired. The previous owners of the home were traditional gardeners with a love for hostas and the typical horticultural shrubs not favored in a native landscape such as burning bush, honeysuckle, and barberry. You will see the remnants of those plants as converting a landscape to native is a journey over time- especially as a busy working mom of 2 (with a third on the way).
The back and side yards are more of a conversion over from a traditional garden to mixing in native plants as they are shared and bought over time. This garden has examples of all kinds of light conditions and a corner of her yard for plants that prefer wet feet from a buried downspout. It’s been exciting to see this garden evolve over just 5 years as swallowtails, monarchs, gold finches, and other wildlife have found the haven she has created.
One of her favorite moments from this summer was seeing ecology happen in real time as a goldfinch used a dead seed head from the previous growing season as a perch to eat the aphids off the butterfly weed growing below that. Implementing practices such as leaving dead plant material year-round, planting a variety of native plants, and natural management of stormwater has been exciting to watch in her own backyard.
Rain Garden Refuge: Hidden Pond and Wildlife Haven
Linda’s main garden feature is a large, 14 year old rain garden in the front yard. It is watered by a pipe attached to a nearby downspout. Some of the tall native flowers are Cup Plant, Rosenweed and Prairie Dock. Shorter plants are on the berm surrounding the rain garden. Some are Royal Catchfly and Great Blue Lobelia. She has a small, “secret” pond on one side of the house that features Cardinal Flower and Arrowroot. The back yard is a mix of natives and non-natives with a drip birdbath provided for birds. She is certified by Conservation@Home, IL Audubon Society, Monarch Watch and National Wildlife Federation.
From Turf to Treasure: A Native Prairie & Spring Ephemeral Garden
I have always been interested and inquisitive about mother nature, after I retired I became a volunteer for the Cook county Forest preserve and a butterfly monitor for the Illinois butterfly monitoring network. After learning that 99% of native prairie in Illinois has been lost, I was inspired to remove turfgrass and Go Native wherever I could in my yard. We have a spring ephemeral garden includes flower like Virginia Bluebells, Bloodroot, Celandine Poppy, Trillium, Jack in the Pulpit and more! We have a prairie garden to the side of our house with a wide variety of native plants, grasses and sedges.
Mole’s End: From Chicago Park Wanderers to Wildlife Gardeners
Originally hailing from the Northside of Chicago, Robin, her son Ewan, and partner, Brian, spent many of their days and evenings exploring the beautiful native prairie of Winnemac Park in Ravenswood. With ironweed standing ten feet high, butterflies dancing on the petals of wild bergamot, and dive-bombing red winged blackbirds protecting their prized nests, the Jemskis fell in love with the beauty of such a wild landscape in their own backyard! After some fun and intense rabbit hole diving on the internet, Robin found her passion in native gardening, and their search for a yard to pursue that passion began.
The year was 2021, and Robin, Ewan, and Brian saw a charming house with an even more captivating shed and decided that it must be theirs! Thus, the creation of Mole’s End was born! With trials, errors, tears, and triumphs, after four years, Robin and fam’s garden has begun to take shape into a wildlife wonderland. Though she started with the basic garden shape that had been previously established, Robin has hand pulled almost every undesirable plant, using very limited herbicides, and replaced a mostly invasive yard with over 100 species of native ferns, forbs, and shrubs. The Jemski clan love to keep track of all the bees, beetles, butterflies, and moths that abound! Almost every plant is a host for some sawfly, butterfly, or moth. They have recorded 25 different species of butterfly and moth, 15 different species of bee, and so many house sparrows, haha! It’s still a work in progress, but they joyfully invite you to peruse their happy place, and if you’re so inclined, grab a scavenger hunt and be on the lookout for a few woodland animals the family has placed throughout the garden!
