March / April 1997

Deadlines receive the blame for our own shortcomings. We don't complete what we set out to accomplish. In our case, we set out to bring you all the winners in our Gardening in Small Spaces Contest in our last issue and when the deadline hit, the list of finalists was left out of the article. We only showed you those top eight gardens that fit the space we allotted.

One finalist brought it to our attention. In leafing through another magazine, lo and behold, there was another finalist in a colorful two-page spread. With two such omens, it seemed politick to introduce you to these other wonderful gardeners that we visited last summer and to alert you to the 1997 Gardening in Small Spaces Contest. Deadlines being what they are, we didn't nail down the details for this issue but look for them in the May/June 1997 issue of the magazine.

Chicago itself had many finalists: Mike and Catherine Manika, who generally open their yard on the Rogers Park Garden Walk; Anne Huttner, a true plantswoman; Sherry Stansbury and Alice Joyce (two good friends whose immaculate backyards are both miniature treasures); Marcia Blocker, whose fine water garden nestles among towering perennials, and Debra Dombrowski, who really knows her old roses.

In Forest Park, we visited Chris Vasilakis and her husband Craig Barnes, whom we had met previously at Garfield Farm Museum. In Hillside, we enjoyed the garden of L.S. Solarz, who specializes in azaleas. Carole Fischer of Warrenville showed us her beautifully landscaped yard, only recently recovered from a flood while Herb Zuegel of Park Ridge impressed us with a wonderful computer database of his plantings. In South Elgin, Deborah and Ray Rees have developed a multi-faceted garden which will be featured when deadlines allow. Down in Crete, Bob and Claire Wiest master a variety of garden styles while in nearby Glenwood, the eclectic garden of herb-maven Ruth Ohlsen presented a special treat. Carol Napoleon of Forest View displayed real gardening prowess in a relatively young front yard garden. In Mount Prospect, Ernestine Sitkiewicz revived us with lemonade and a view of her garden from a lush grape arbor while in Arlington Heights, Art and Marian Gardiner get summer relief from the towering ginkgo tree that graces their garden. In Hinsdale, Jane E. Novotny shared with us her newfound love of water gardening.

Kris Jarantoski is a gentleman's gentleman and over the 15 years that I have known him, he has never changed that open, friendly demeanor even though he now finds himself as the Director of the Chicago Botanic Garden. To my way of thinking, he is the most powerful individual in Chicagoland's horticultural scene. He has much to say about our gardening habits and I hope you'll read the interview with him beginning on page 31.

When the idea for this magazine was just an idea, we had lunch one day and I described why I thought a magazine was needed just for Chicagoland gardeners. His counsel stuck from that day forward. He said that if the magazine were to succeed, it would have to be top-notch, that it couldn't be anything but the best.

With that as a goal, we have come a long way, setting our standards higher than we had money to achieve. The magazine, in our opinion, is top-notch and we're very proud of it. But it can always get better-immeasurably better. We'll always aspire to those words of advice from a man who now oversees one of the great garden treasures of Chicagoland.