Avieve Entryway Transformed

Last week I went to Avieve to have Jana freshen up my locks with her hair genious.  The front entryway looked like this:

Well, you know me.  I have to put containers everywhere!  A few days after talking to Genevieve Andres, the cool salon owner (she does brows like nobody's business, people!) - the front entryway has been transformed:

Genevieve scored these containers at Home Goods.  And while I wouldn't put ceramic containers on an exposed balcony, I think they'll weather in this sheltered entryway just fine.  I lined them with insulation and put Packing Pearls from Sprout Home in the bottom.  

This is my third business installation, and I'm thrilled with the results!  

(BTW.... for my regular readers, Wednesday walkabout has been on hiatus because my camera drowned in my handbag.  Fortunately, my new Panasonic Lumix is here!  I'll be returning with lots of great photos and other projects soon!)

Wednesday Walkabout: Chicago's Lakeview Neighborhood

Time for another Wednesday Walkabout....And don't forget to check out some of my previous Walkabouts:   Lincoln Park,  Chicago Loop  and Old Town.

I just love Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood and lived there when DH and I met.  My gym is still in the hood and I love running the same routes I ran when I was 21 and still new to Chicago.  Even then, I remember admiring all the lovely homes and containers, wondering how people got their plants to look so great......

My life then?  Martinis and marathons.

My life now?  Carpools and container gardens.

While my regular sitter took the twins to the beach on this sweltering day, I wandered around the old neighborhood and saw these gorgeous containers.  I love them because they are substantial enough to stand up the seriousness of the architecture and because they are big enough to be part of the house and not seen as cheapie add-on.  They are planted perfectly and simply:

And around the corner is this surprise.  As they said on the A-Team, I love it when a plan comes together......this is a simply gorgeous use of repetition, which is my favorite design trick to pull together a space.

Look how this Chicago greystone owner makes the second floor balcony pop off of all that ivy.  Again with the repetition...three simple evergreens underplanted with pink petunias.  

Here's a view from across the street.  Note the two low rectangular containers in the same grey color, which visually connect the space.....very pretty.

This neighborhood is filled with proud gardeners.  One nice man saw me taking pictures and asked if I wanted to see what he had done with the planters on his house......

A lot of Chicago neighborhoods have business associations that install and plant up gorgeous planter boxes.  I plan a post on all of them at the end of the summer.  Aren't these pretty?

Last, the Days Inn on Clark Street, which has seriously upped the ante from the old smoking stand I used to cross the street to avoid while jogging down the street......

I mean, when's the last time you pulled up to a Day's Inn entryway that looked this good?  Gotta love Lakeview......

As much as I wish the Chicago summer would go on forever and ever, I wonder if we would be such show-offs with our container gardens if they weren't such a short-lived experience each year, if we didn't live through 5 months of grey and cold to get to this point every year........

I Got A Shout Out!

The other day I signed up for Blotanical, a cool blog all about gardening blogs.  (Yes, I'm officially a garden geek.)  It's a truly global community of bloggers wrangled by Stuart Robinson, a passionate gardener from Western Australia.  I definitely encourage you to check it out!

It was through Blotanical the fabulous Canadian gardening blogger, photographer and writer Nancy Bond of Leaping Greenly, Notes from the Front Deck found me.  And guess what - she is featuring my blog on her sidebar!

Thanks, Nancy, for your excellent blog and for the shout out!

Stay tuned later today for a Wednesday Walkabout featuring Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood.

Printer's Row Balcony Boxes

In my last post, I showed you the preliminary design for window boxes in Printer's Row.  My client's request:  planter boxes rivaling those of Venice!  This was our inspiration:

Here's a before shot, with empty balcony boxes, which we sourced here:

And the after.....the view from the client's kitchen sink.  I love how the boxes bring a human scale to the high rises surrounding the view.

Basically, I toughened up the inspiration design (street level, east-facing) with plants more suited to the 28th floor, north-facing, windy balcony site. 

Looking to recreate this design?  Here's your recipe:

Lush Balcony Box Materials

These were my carts yesterday as I laid out a balcony box design for a Printer's Row high rise.  The pair of planter boxes I'll be filling are 36" long, as are these carts.  Perfect for lining up a design so you can visualize it in your space.  Once I lay out the design I like, I make a planting schematic and take a digital picture.  That way, once I get the plants out of the car at the site it's easy to remember my plan.

Tomorrow:  All the details about this installation, and before and after shots!