Birds, bees & butterflies

West Cook Wild Ones will be showcasing native gardens on Saturday, July 26 with the return of its Birds, Bees & Butterflies: A Native Garden Walk.” This year’s tour includes 12 native gardens in Forest Park and River Forest.

According to Beth Fioritto, one of the organizers for this year’s native garden tour, the purpose of the walk is to teach home gardeners about the beauty and utility of the native plants that have formed the basis for Northern Illinois’ ecosystems for millennia. 

As a designer of native landscapes, Fioritto says people wanting to go native in their gardens often don’t have a great way of envisioning what that will look like. She recalls a conversation she had with someone in an online garden discussion group, “He was frustrated about not being able to see great examples of native gardens on-line. I was able to share that we have this great tour here so that you can see native gardens in person.”

Fioritto says the tour is great for people just getting started with native gardening and also offers ideas for people who are well-versed in planting with natives.  The walk features some gardeners who are just starting out and others whose gardens are more established. 

David Hoyt’s River Forest garden was featured on the West Cook Wild Ones walk in 2022, when he had just transformed his front yard into prairie from seed. This year, tour participants will see the transformation of three years.

Turning his yard into prairie was the culmination of several years of learning about native landscaping and ecological gardening. Hoyt says he started with small areas of native plantings and then, “[I] thought why not tackle that conventional suburban lawn, and why not go for a bigger area?”

Today, his prairie-filled front yard not only lets passerby enjoy the fruits of his labors, but Hoyt also gets to enjoy the space every day. “It’s lovely. It’s just wonderful,” he says. “Throughout the growing season, it’s constantly changing. A new plant blooms every week.”

Hoyt, who enjoys taking wildlife photos in his garden, appreciates the changing nature of his garden over time. “It changes year-to-year as well. The dominant plants change. The mix changes. It’s not static; it’s a dynamic system,” he says.

Beyond their beauty, another benefit of native gardening is that native landscapes can serve as habitats for local plant and animal species and as way stops for migratory animal species.

Hoyt’s garden is home to chirping birds and the occasional deer, and he has seen a huge uptick in invertebrates in his yard. Butterflies and moths are both more numerous and more diverse than ever before.  In the spring and fall, he sees more migratory birds.

Another added benefit? Along with not needing to spend money on petroleum-based fertilizer, his water bill has plummeted as he hasn’t had to water the prairie in front of his River Forest home in years.

In Forest Park, gardener Katie Pittman has been working on her garden since she and her husband bought their house in 2022, when there was just “blank grass” in the front. Her home’s unique style — it was formerly a carriage house and the entire yard is in the front of the property — lends itself to an overgrown cottage garden.

Pittman, who planted all of the plants herself, says she was going for an English garden look. She used plenty of flowers of varying heights and notes that every spring and every fall, she replaces a bit of grass with native plants.

“There’s not a lot of rhyme or reason to it,” she says. “I’m just on a mission to bring as many native plants to my garden as I can.”

She calls her first planting of milkweed her “gateway drug,” and says she was trying to pull in as many insects as possible. Now, she maintains a list of birds that she spies in her garden and says the bees are another favorite side benefit of all of her plants.

 Along with Hoyt and Pittman’s gardens, this year’s garden roster includes three groups of gardens: mature gardens, young gardens and a mix of natives and ornamentals. Homeowners and gardeners will be present to answer attendees’ questions about plant names, favorite plants, and their approach to native gardening. 

Fioritto says funds raised from the walk and from West Cook Wild Ones’ annual native plant sales help raise funds for the grants that West Cook Wild Ones offers to schools or places of worship. She notes that the Forest Park Library and Har Zion Temple are two previous recipients who developed native gardens with the help of West Cook Wild Ones.

At the end of the day, Fioritto says that tour is primarily about showcasing people planting native gardens and encouraging people to plant more native plants, “We want to get native plants in the ground,” she says.