english garden on the prairie

It took some nerve to tear up a yard full of plantings they'd lovingly tended for years, but that's exactly what Rosie and Bob Drucker did. After visiting gardens in England, they came back to their 80x100-foot lot in Wilmette, approximately 18 miles north of downtown Chicago, with fresh eyes. "We both have green thumbs and grow beautiful plants," Bob says, "but something was missing -- it didn't feel like a garden." That's when they called in landscape architect Douglas Hoerr (pronounced Hare), and the fun began.
 
The Druckers' slate-roofed brick home had "cottagey charm" in Hoerr's estimation. "I envisioned a 6-foot enveloping masonry wall to enclose the garden and then worked out sight lines from inside the house. What would they be seeing from the rooms where they live and work? When combined with a rich horticultural overlay, this would achieve the English garden look they desired."

Photographs by Kritsada
Written by Elvin McDonald

Design:
Landscape architect: Douglas Hoerr, Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects, 850 W. Jackson Blvd., Suite 800, Chicago, IL 60607; 312/492-6501, hoerrschaudt.com.