Extreme gardening--why not? The outside world already has extreme sports and extreme makeovers, so why shouldn't the world of gardening get in on the fun?
In this issue we are featuring stories about several happily besotted gardeners who could fairly be described as carrying their favorite activity to the limit. First, there's our cover story about Naperville's Patricia Armstrong whose over-the-top gardening is quite literally true. Prairie on a roof anyone?
Then there's Dan Lewis, whose admiration for all things French has driven him to turn his five acres in LaPorte, Indiana, into a Midwestern homage to Versailles. Here's a man who never met a hedge he didn't like--or want to trim. You'll get exhausted just looking at the photos.
You will also feel tired when you read about Kevin Poorman, a man who loves firing up his outdoor kitchen so much that he regularly gets up on weekends to go shopping for...oh, 50 or so pounds of meat that he then rushes home to cook. The 50 or so friends who gleefully accept his impromptu invitation to come over and share the feast love his obsession too. Rumor has it his 5-minute pizzas, cooked in a wood-fired oven reminiscent of a traditional Italian trullo, are top notch.
Then there are Michael Pink and Sharon Porter, Evanston gardeners who have taken the step (considered extreme by some) of removing all of their front and back lawn in order to grow the vegetables and flowers they love. Yes, there was that one crazy year in which they tended 60 tomato plants, but really, what they're doing should be Standard Operating Procedure for all of us.
Finally, we have the McArdles and the Jordans who, while not extreme gardeners themselves, do represent polar opposites on the garden style thermometer. In Barrington, the landscape surrounding the McArdles' contemporary house was professionally landscaped by Mariani Landscape with an abundance of native plants to achieve a breezy natural look. In the city, the historic townhouse of Chuck and Candace Jordan is adorned with a paved courtyard, statuary and a floriferous second-floor deck that embody grace and elegance to the Nth degree.
Beauty and joy come in many forms. I find it all extremely interesting.
