Click or Scroll Down to Photos

There are many reasons city dwellers make the transition from apartment or condo living to single-family homes. Separate dwellings provide more privacy and an escape from the noise of shared walls. They give their owners the freedom to customize their living spaces. But perhaps most importantly, single-family houses offer dedicated yards with outdoor living space for pets, children, grilling and deck activities…and gardens. Since there are so many neighborhoods with individual homesites on 25- or 35-foot wide lots in Chicago, and homes in the Far Northwest corner of the “Second City” are more affordable than comparable ones in other large American metropolitan areas, that dream is within many people’s reach.

CHICAGO, A GARDENING MECCA

Visitors to the Windy City are often surprised to witness how Chicagoans so famously grasp onto the temperate times of the year. Perhaps they explode with a sense of urgency to be outdoors as a reward for once again making it through the area’s punishing sub-zero winters with its heavy lake-effect snows and icy winds. When there are only so many perfect 70- to 80-degree days in which to enjoy outside activities, people embrace each one to the hilt. They take advantage of all the city’s nonstop opportunities to go to its hundreds of street festivals, its massive concerts in the parks, Cubs and Sox games, swim at Chicago’s 24 public sandy beaches, and/or eat out at sidewalk cafes or on restaurant rooftops.

Gladstone Parkers are no exception. The arrival of warm weather triggers a massive collective thaw. When the sun is shining over the neighborhoods, runners and walkers, cyclists and rollerbladers, and throngs of playing children swarm over every inch of the landscape. People are out and about constantly: on their decks, on their sidewalks, in their parks…and in their gardens.

The COVID pandemic starting in 2020, when lockdowns meant children were unable to go to physical schools and most adults could only work from home, just increased Chicagoans’ desires to delve deeper into decorative (and vegetable) gardening. Seed packets from online sources sold out nationally. There were also home ownership changes from locals moving to larger homes to create offices and/or children’s schoolrooms, bringing new motivation to garden with them. The evidence is not just anecdotal. Some of the same houses pictured here with lush, multi-flowering front yard gardens in 2026 show up night-and-day differently as compared.to old photos taken from some Gladstone Park roads where Google Street Views haven’t been updated since 2018.

GARDEN CHALLENGES IN CHICAGO

While Windy City gardeners can amend their clayey and urban soil, they can do little about the unpredictable weather that is part and parcel of living in the upper Midwest. When Mother Nature sends Her wide range of temperatures, flooding rains interspersed with drought, and harsh winds, gardeners must face those challenges head on. Dogs are another matter.

Temperature

The types of plants that can be grown in the Windy City are first and foremost limited by its severe winters. Some 2,880 miles north of the equator, Chicago’s latitude of roughly 41.88° N. provides for large temperature changes distributed among four distinct seasons. The USDA designates the city’s Plant Hardiness Zone as 6a, pegging its average winter lows between -5°F to -10°F. even though temps occasionally drop to the -20°s (-27°F is the record). Expert gardeners know, for example, that the boxwood evergreen that nurseries so confidentially promote for sale here can’t be planted where they’re subject to bitter northwest winds or they’ll sustain winter burn and severe desiccation that will turn them brown and eventually kill them. Still, moderated by the heat effect of the collective waters of Lake Michigan, Chicago is actually warmer than its surrounding suburbs during winter and cooler in the summer for the same reason.

Gardeners clamor for the 3^rd or 4^th week of April to roll around so they can plant tender annuals and vegetables, as it normally heralds the last chance for Spring frost. After another 178 or so frost-free days, the growing season winds down suddenly in mid-October with the first expected frost of the Fall.

The old joke, “What are Chicago’s two seasons?” (Answer: “Winter and Construction”) does NOT apply!

Sun

Besides temperature, most of Gladstone Park’s front yards are limited by access to sunlight by the shade cast from its many majestic trees lining their streets. While people are grateful their healthy tree canopy provides enough shade to lower temps in their yards as much as 10°F on stifling summer days, that same attribute can make plant selection tricky. Full sun plants, which constitute roughly 60% to 75% of the flowering species, often becomes wishful thinking. Which is why part shade/part sun plants such as hydrangeas, yews, hostas, ferns, impatiens, wild columbine, Coral Bells (heuchera) and astilbes are popular here. Some of these need as little as 3 to 4 hours of sunshine daily to flourish.

Water

Water is another issue. In March, April, and May, Chicago typically experiences active storms with increased rainfall, averaging 3.5 to 4.5 inches per month. City folk know this is usually the best time to start new plants and establish lawns. While summers here used to have the reputation of being the wettest time of the year, that has changed in recent times as the climate has shifted. Increasingly lengthy dry periods have plagued city folk during the last few years, forcing people to water their gardens and lawns more than they ever had to in the past.

That makes supplemental water a requirement for ideal plant maintenance. Perhaps due to the small size of their properties, few Gladstone Parkers have installed automatic irrigation systems, making hoses and manual sprinklers the operative solution. Following conservation and good plant practices, most homeowners in the community set their sprinklers going in the early morning to reduce evaporation, prevent fungal diseases, and prepare roots for daytime heat. Finishing the chore before most people are out and about is also helpful since most sprinklers are rigged to span entire front yards from the house to the street, including the sidewalk.

Dogs

Gladstone Park likes its dogs as well as its gardens even though some people think the two should not mix.

It is a fact that dog urine can burn plants and alter the composition of the soil because of its high concentrations of nitrogen and salts. Feces sometimes contain disease-producing organisms that it’s possible for people to contract (even though its parasites are generally species specific). But if not picked up, poop can smell, leach into storm drains, dirty people’s shoes, and attract rats that find it tasty and nutritious. YUK.

While acknowledging the drawbacks, Chicago as a city has long recognized the great benefits of pet ownership for its inhabitants. Lower blood pressure! Enforced exercise! Dog and human play dates! Oxytocin hits! Emphasizing the bond between America’s dog owners and their canine companions, U.S. News & World Report established Chicago in 2024 as the 3rd most popular city in the U.S. for dogs. Chicago’s government supports animal ownership in public housing units, its park system offers over two dozen off-leash dog areas, and its businesses offer a huge network of pet-friendly options.

Certified as one of the nation’s greatest dog cities, Chicago’s park system offers over two dozen off-leash dog areas, its government supports animal ownership in public housing units, and its businesses form a huge network of pet-friendly options.

Still, there is the elimination of waste problem.

Perhaps the first American urban effort to get animal poop off public sidewalks and grassed areas came out of New York City in the 1930s. Called “Curb Your Dog,” the civic campaign urged pet owners to train their leashed pets to deposit their waste in the street gutter, relying on city street sweeping machines to flush it away. Posted on streets were red Curb Your Dog signs, one of the last of which still up in 2014 was snapped by Forgotten New York before they were all removed. The initiative was a failure. Not only were many pet owners unable to get their animals to the edge of the street to poop when they were ready, but also it became untenable for the city to clean the waste often enough. Public health concerns grew.

Seeing that lack of efficacy, Chicago never really got into Curb Your Dog. The city waited until the nationwide pooper-scooper movement of the late 1970s swept in. First codifying its pet waste rules with the 1997 Removal of Excrement Ordinance, the city went that step further and mandated pet owners clean up after their dogs in public spaces or be fined. At first residents bought long metal or plastic pooper-scooper devices to carry with them that could shuttle their dogs’ feces into a chamber at the bottom without having to bend down. Although these devices are sometimes still used by pet owners as waste collectors for their own yards, no one ever wanted to carry one around on a walk. It was a cumbersome and disagreeable system, making a high level of compliance unattainable.

There had to be a better way. Some dog owners discovered they could use their old plastic grocery bags for the chore, allowing them to keep their hands clean from the inside while picking up animal waste before turning the bags inside out and tying them for disposal. Residents promoting the initiative saved grocery bags and put them outside in special covered boxes on their parkways for dog owners who didn’t have one when they needed it.

More recently, Chicago increased penalties for neglecting to pick up dog poop to up to $500 per instance with exceptions given only to blind persons walking guide dogs. But since the law dictates that city workers or officers must personally see infractions to cite offenders, only about a dozen pet owners a year are charged for not picking up poop as revealed on p.6 of a 2023 Department of Streets and Sanitation memoranda to the City Council’s Committee on the Budge and Government Operations. Instead, the rules are enforced through informal social controls.

Because many dogs refuse to relieve themselves on paved surfaces or even in their own yards, pet owners do the best they can. Luckily, Gladstone Park dog owners are a responsible bunch and probably 99%—well, maybe 98%—pick up dog poop using a turned-inside-out small plastic bag from leash-clipped rolls now manufactured for that specific purpose. An unwritten community law—it’s called respect—has most dog walkers endeavoring to restrict their dogs’ elimination to sidewalks and parkways, off front lawns and any garden areas. They instead try to propel their animals to areas of crabgrass and away from picture perfect lawns to do their business on the assumption the former care less about their grass than the latter.

Many of the 50 Alderpersons in the city of Chicago distribute free “clean up after your dog” signs that stake in the ground. They serve the dual purpose of enforcing a community good while keeping the politicians’ names in front of their constituents. Alderman Jim Gardiner, who first won election in the 45th Ward which includes Gladstone Park in 2020, liberally doles out these missives. Other gardeners post signs of their own.

Photos by Mina.

But when a dog’s gotta go, a dog’s gotta go. Females unpredictably squat anywhere to pee. Males are attracted to upright structures where they do the least damage by lifting their legs on light poles, fire hydrants (of course), abandoned Lime scooters and Lyft bikes (ha!), and even, ironically, on the very signs that remind residents to pick up after their animals. They all poop when the urge calls.

Now that pet owners have accepted their responsibilities to pick up their animals’ waste, a new controversy has arisen over where the poop bags should be deposited. Dog owners on long walks find it nigh impossible to carry a bag or two of dog waste a mile or more before reaching their own homes and garbage cans. Their remedy is to throw the bags in the nearest residential trash can, often behind corner houses with their waste cans at the end of alleys close to the sidewalks. Most homeowners are tolerant of the practice because, after all, the alternative is so much worse. But a few have tried to strike back by putting little signs prohibiting! the! practice! on the lids of their trash cans or even trying to bungee tie their cans closed.

Although some pet owners meet up to parade their dogs together on walks, most people in Gladstone Park walk solo. After turning any corner, they follow the long-standing tradition of yielding the block to any dog already on it by crossing the street to the other side with the objective of keeping all pets safe and healthy. Locals with infirm pets sometimes wheel them in baby strollers so the animals can benefit by being outside in the fresh air.

PLANT SELECTION

For plant selection advice, people from Gladstone Park have the best of local experts to turn to. The Chicago Botanic Garden, on 385 acres north of the city in Glencoe, features 27 distinct display gardens and four to five natural habitats on six miles of lake shoreline with nine islands. The Morton Arboretum, on over 1700 acres in southwest suburban Lisle, has a huge catalogued collection of trees and other living plants, gardens and restored areas. Visits to either titillate the senses and provide cascades of ideas. Both have extremely informative websites and offer horticultural advice.

Like people everywhere, Gladstone Parkers turn to gardening for the immense benefits and personal fulfillment they get from the activity. Offering stress relief, it provides exercise and a satisfying connection to nature in the outdoor air while helping the environment with support for wildlife as well as stormwater management. Those who really get into it can put their creativity to work as they design layouts and choose plants to express themselves. A big part of the aesthetics of gardening is planning three progressive seasons of growth in coordinated colors starting with the snowdrop, daffodil, and tulip bulbs of spring and ending with the asters, chrysanthemums, and sedums (stonecrop) of fall.

Of course, those who plant vegetable gardens—even if it’s just a few tomato plants on their decks—benefit from the fresh, organic produce.

For those considering new plantings or information on how to care for existing plantings, the most thorough informational database of plants (7,500!) that grow in the Midwest can be found at Missouri Botanic Garden.

To get more planting ideas, adventurers can tour the city’s 15 Absolute Most Beautiful Gardens in Chicago identified by TimeOut Chicago. Residents can also visit the Chicago Park District’s two major historic glass-roofed botanical conservatories where plants and flowers can be viewed year-round: Garfield Park Conservatory at 300 N. Central Park Avenue and Lincoln Park Conservatory at 2391 N. Stockton Drive. The city’s legendary parks can also be explored, including Jackson and Washington Parks on Chicago’s South side designed in the late 1800s by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., America’s first and greatest American landscape architect, and Humboldt, Garfield, and Douglass Parks on the Western side of the city created by Jens Jensen, the dean of prairie landscape architecture some 50 years later. Use the Chicago Park’s District’s “Park Finder” to locate gardens and facilities they maintain that you want to visit.

INVASIVES, WEEDS & GARDEN THUGS

While early settlers to the Midwest viewed the native prairie that surrounded them as a hostile wilderness, modern Illinoisans have gained a new appreciation for the ecological treasures found naturally in such lands. Many species of plants that came from the prairies such as the purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), perhaps disdained in the past, are now sought as valuable plants. For those Gladstone Parkers who are looking for native plants, there are several Chicago nurseries that now offer them. (Consult the Illinois Native Plant Society for an ever-changing list of garden centers nearby.) The mail order nursery Prairie Moon has also become a specialist at providing them.

At the same time, we have new lists of undesirable plants ranging from toxics and invasives to annoying weeds to garden thugs. The Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection documents 14 plant species in the first category that are illegal to “import, sell, transport, own, keep, release, introduce or otherwise possess” within its borders. It actively discourages its residents from growing another 43 plants already prevalent to the region in its 16-page online booklet, but doesn’t regulate them because they are not commonly sold.

Attitudes towards weeds run the full gamut of some people not caring a hoot about how many are abounding in their yards to others obsessively spending hours each week down on their knees removing every one they see by hand. Even though the definition of a weed keeps changing, homeowners are free to regard any plant they don’t want as a weed even if neighbors welcome or at least tolerate those same species. But all pretty much agree that dandelions with their deep taproots, nutsedge with its tall light green strands and regenerating root nuts, wild onions whose bulbs multiply like rabbits, and crabgrass with its prolific seedheads fit the bill as undesirables.

More specific to shady Chicago lawns are wild violets, the round-leafed purple-flowered creeping Charlie, and the white-flowered field bindweed with its deep white knobby roots that are nearly impossible to eradicate. Horrible thistle, which is as truly horrible as its name, is another. All these and more are why homeowners desiring to keep their sidewalks in tip-tip shape will pull, burn, or chemically kill weeds volunteering between sections before their root systems explode and crack the the pavement from underneath. It’s where weed whackers won’t cut it, doing no more than lop off plant tops but leaving root systems on steroids behind to do the damage. Just like leaf blowers, another automated halfway tool the garden industry talked us into needing for our yards in the 1980s that only distributes leaves to a different place, not get rid of them!

The Chicago Botanic Garden identifies the worst of the worst weeds in the area in its 10 Weeds to Pull Now.

Endemic to the local Gladstone Park landscape are at least four plants we could call garden thugs. These are plants that aren’t bad enough to cause ecological damage or create health problems, but are aggressive growers and often refuse to play nice with neighboring plants. The orange day lily with its sword-shaped leaves is one of these, as is the Rose of Sharon despite its gorgeous purply blue, white or pink blooms. There are also vines such as Virginia Creeper and the wild white-flowering morning glory that, if unchecked, boundlessly climb through bushes and trees choking off their growth, if they’re not damaging house exteriors with their sticky clinging feet. Because of their colorful or architectural presentations, these thugs are often tolerated or even encouraged where they volunteer through cracks in the pavement of alleys or along sidewalk fences. Homeowners who elect to put up with their invasive seed habits, tuberous root spreading, and rampant growth sometimes even cultivate them into their yards. If tamed, they can be surprisingly effective-looking.

Photos by Mina.

LAWNS

Because garages are accessed by residents behind their homes through Chicago’s paved alley system, there are few driveways from the street. Conjoined lawns flow from property to property in a grand sweep on virtually every block, magnifying the size of standard 25-foot Chicago city lots and 35-foot expanded lots that make up most of the properties in Gladstone Park. Perhaps this is why few Gladstoneians install fences in their front yards even though the city permits solid ones up to 4-1/2 feet tall and fences that are at least 80% open (like chain link) up to 6 feet. Or maybe it’s because we’re a friendly people with the desire to know and break bread with our neighbors.

Front yards unimpeded by either fences or driveways by virtue of Chicago’s alley system—which channels cars behind houses—create the visual effect of sweeping lawns (above). Even standard 25-foot wide city lots are made to look much larger when they are conjoined, as shown by these Georgian brick homes on N. Lovejoy in Gladstone Park. Photo by Mina.

Many locals engage lawn services, not in small part to support immigrants (mostly Latinos) who dominate the industry. But most Gladstonians who engage the companies to mow, edge, aerate, fertilize, rake, and weed-treat their lawns retain control over their own trees, shrubs, and flowering plants in their ornamental gardens. Because that is where they get their pleasure.

CHICAGO TREES

The benefits of trees to Chicagoans are numerous and increasingly appreciated in an era of climate change. While city folk here always considered its trees beautiful and atmospheric—providing striking visual contrast to harsh concrete and rigid architectural lines—they now recognize how important the trunked beasts of the plantmosphere are. Especially as a cleaner, greener, more sustainable environment is desired.

Not only do trees cast shade and reduce temperatures, they also alleviate pollution, decrease soil erosion, and soak up large amounts of storm water runoff. More recently they have been acknowledged as economic boosters for raising property values, reducing energy bills, and drawing people to areas where they are planted to shop and participate in community events. These giants of the plant world are given credit for creating healthier lives by cooling urban heat islands and blocking winter winds, thereby promoting outdoor exercise, which in turn improves physical and psychological health.

With a caveat. Because most Gladstone Parkers reside on 35-foot wide lots up to about 175-feet deep, they cannot plant shade trees on their own properties if they want to grow anything else. All full-sized trees are relegated to the public right-of-way in parkways between sidewalks and streets and are managed by the City of Chicago.

Under the city’s Our Roots Chicago program, new initiatives have been made to expand the tree canopy to every neighborhood, especially those that traditionally haven’t experienced their benefits. Assigning its Bureau of Forestry to manage new plantings, the city selects urban-tolerant shade trees that will survive road salt, narrow sidewalk spaces, and anything the increasingly furious Mother Nature throws at them as She rebels against man’s interference to the planet’s design.

Although Chicago’s urban tree lists over 150 trees it finds suitable for the city by factors such as ease of transplanting and hardiness, it leans heavily into species native to Illinois with an eye as to whether they are climate change ready. So while there are 17 types of maples, 15 lindens, 13 oaks, 9 crabapples and various other species on the list, the city most frequently plants the dependable Common Hackberry, Kentucky Coffeetree, American Linden, Ginkgo, Sugar and Red Maples, and Village Green Zelkovas.

In the author’s experience is typical, residents should expect tree people to show up unannounced some 2, 3, 4, 5, or more years after making their request for a parkway tree. Unconcerned whether anybody’s home or not, subcontractors will show up unannounced before exerting assembly-line precision locating and digging the hole, aligning the tree, creating the root well, and watering whatever species was available at the time. The homeowner’s only notice will be returning from work or shopping to find the tree and instructions on watering it left at the front door. In the author’s case, it took four years after her initial request to get a tree planted. And then she got a Bur Oak. But she’s more than satisfied to the improvement to her lot and the streetscape in front of her house, as shown below.

Chicago Bureau of Forestry subcontractor finishing the planting of a 12-15 foot Bur Oak on the author’s parkway October, 2022, four years after it was first requested (left). By July, 2025, the tree had grown another six feet and was starting to create a nice streetscape presence in front of her house (right). Photos by Mina.

GARDEN LOCATIONS & STRUCTURE

Most of Gladstone Park’s land has been long divided into 35-foot x 175-foot city house lots, which severely restricts the property that is available for gardening. That’s why residents often cover every square inch of soil that isn’t lawn on the fronts, sides and backs of their properties with Midwest-friendly trees, shrubs, and flowering plants.

Looking at a garden, we notice the emerald green grass, the glorious flowers, the vaselike or bulbous shapes of a shrub. We don’t often think about the hardscape elements that form the structure that encases and magnifies the softscape live parts of a garden. But one can’t exist without the other.

The hardscape of a garden includes everything made of inanimate material, whether concrete, stone, brick, or wood. It includes paths made of cement, gravel or stepping stones. Undulating or straight garden bed walls constructed of pavers, stones, or timbers. Decks made of wood or composite and patios of flagstone or pavers. Each component leads us to or positions us in places with definite personalities where we can enjoy nature’s plants growing around us.

Other hardscape items allow creative folk to customize their gardens even further. In Gladstone Park, homeowners freely display sculptures, whether they’re cement replicas of Greek gods, pagodas, realistic-looking deer (rabbits, frogs, ducks), or playful, even humorous resins of mushrooms, aliens, or dinosaurs. Benches, water features, fire pits, swings, trellises, light poles, and even temporary badminton nets can either serve as focal points to further magnify the garden or provide purpose for homeowners. While more of these elements are found in backyards where homeowners kick off their shoes and relax, an examination of the photographs of front yards will reveal many of them there as well.

Some homeowners add to the finery with stone pots and window boxes. That is, if they’re not also adding fairy gardens, spinners or cultural artifacts such as religious statuary or flags to the mix. Unlike other cities whose people may eschew them, Gladstonians proudly demonstrate their loyalties by mounting front yard signs declaring their support for unions, social justice issues, first responders and the names of the schools their children attend. For, like all Chicagoans, people in the local community are not afraid to have opinions and speak their minds.

Perhaps even more than the American flag, Gladstone Parkers joyfully fly Chicago’s flag, its two horizontal bands of light blue (representing the Chicago River and the Illinois & Michigan Canal} sandwiching four central red stars commemorating historic Fort Dearborn, the Great Chicago Fire, the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, and the Century of Progress Exposition of 1933. Prominent among those who mount flags showing their sports affiliations is the Cubs’ iconic white flag emblazoned with its great blue “W” that is displayed on house fronts after each home victory. Ethnic connections are also displayed with Ukrainian, Mexican, Polish, Lithuanian, and other flags from around the world.

And sometimes enterprising homeowners without enough room for fun stuff in their backyards will repurpose their front yards entirely, as did residents in the photo below with their front yard playground!

Gladstone Parkers whose backyards don’t have enough room for badminton, lawn chairs, or playground equipment freely expand such activities to their front lawns, like at this 2/3-flat on N. Miltimore. When you have only so much property, you have to use every inch to the hilt! Photo by Mina.

POCKET GARDENS

Gladstone Parkers hanker to take advantage of every inch of land they own as well as some of which they don’t technically own at all to install pocket gardens. These are found in three locations unique to Chicago:

Parkway/Street Corner Gardens are found in the 10-foot wide city-owned planting areas between the street and sidewalk. While most residents do no more than maintain grass around the shade trees planted by the city in the parkways, an increasing number of homeowners have taken advantage of the extra space for decorative gardening, particularly at corners where streets intersect. Even though residents are warned that utility companies reserve the right to dig on parkways without warning when repairs are needed with no need for compensation or replacement, they take the chance to add their own plants and cultural artifacts. Maybe it’s because Chicagoans know that even if they are not “legally” allowed to plant any of their own trees or vegetation taller than 36” on the parkways, these regulations are widely ignored and rarely enforced.

Examples of parkway gardens are below. Note the first photo features the native parkway garden in the acute triangular corner of N. Menard and N. Magnet of the city-run William Gladstone Park property with its fieldhouse in the background. The last two photos show a climbing tree and children’s swings, play activities that expanded onto their respective parkways when there wasn’t enough room in homeowners’ backyards. All photos by Mina.

Sidewalk Gardens are found primarily on the corners of western streets in the 2-4 feet of soil between the house side and the sidewalk. Because western-oriented roads tend to be main thoroughfares, they have reduced parkway widths of only 3-4 feet, propelling homeowners to add ornamentals (and even Little Free Libraries!) along their house sides for additional landscaping possibilities. All photos by Mina.

Gangway Gardens are located in vegetative areas next to the narrow paved paths (gangways) that lead from the street to the backyard in between neighboring homes. These two 4-foot wide strips adjacent to each other historically offered 8 total feet of cross-ventilation and natural light between densely-packed urban lots while providing for service paths for maintenance workers to access backyards and basement utilities.

There has never been any city rule as to whether gangways between houses should go on the right or left side, which allowed for builders to situate them in sensible ways, particularly on unusually-shaped lots. Typically the architectural design of the house and the location of its front door dictated the side service path to the backyard be oriented to the opposite side. Perhaps because as development in Gladstone Park spread in a northerly direction, most gangways in whole swaths of blocks in the community are on the right sides of houses. Half of the 8-foot space between houses is thus taken by one 18-inch to 2-foot wide walk for the house on the left; the adjacent house’s 4-foot side can be planted as desired. (Only rarely are both gangways together in the same space between houses, usually because a builder at one end of a block started with gangways on the right while another builder at the other end started with gangways on the left, creating a disjoint somewhere in the middle.)

Because these areas between homes are often quite shady, they are predominated by hostas, ferns and the like unless they are just pebbled over. (Fun Fact: the name “gangway” originated in the Windy City during the Prohibition Era when the narrow passageways between buildings served as escape routes for criminals evading police; while other cities might have similar narrow paths, the cultural home of the term is unique to Chicago.) All photos by Mina.

SUMMER GARDEN PHOTOS

There were so many gorgeous and distinct front yard gardens to be found in Gladstone Park in July, 2026 when these photos were taken that only a small portion of them could be included. It was the wish to highlight every worthy gardening effort every homeowner made to enhance the visual beauty of their yards and community with plants, but space limitations unfortunately made that impossible.

It is important to recognize that the array of over 70 summer garden photos on these pages is not meant to be a “best of” collection. There were just way too many outstanding candidates in the community to include. Instead, they were selected to show the vast spectrum of front yard gardens in Gladstone Park in one point of time. Ranging from the modest to the elaborate, they specifically include those with statuary of all types and flags representing sovereign countries and cities, sports allegiances, and social justice causes. Also recorded for posterity are gardens with signs promoting school loyalties, first responders, and—because Chicago is a great union city—organized labor groups.

Every block of every street in the community was walked—even tiny McCook and W. Haft—with the prospect of finding gardens everywhere that could be showcased. Both the modest and the majestic are included. Interestingly, it was the author’s observation that when one neighbor on a block had gone all out with a decorative landscape, other neighbors followed suit. As if gardening were contagious!

P.S. Residents of our fair sub-neighborhood who want a “Best Gardens Contest” could approach the Gladstone Park Chamber of Commerce or the Gladstone Park Neighborhood Association, which successfully promoted the celebration of Halloween in the community with a decoration competition for several years. (Indeed, users can see 69 photos of yards decorated for the spooky holiday on this website at Halloween 2024.)

To View Photos: The photos were divided into rough categories by type. Click on any of the three garden gates below to enter one of the different sections and then progress to see the other sections in any order. Tap on any one photo to enlarge it and then arrow right and left through others to view plants, signs or other trappings in greater detail. By hovering over any photo, its titled address can be seen, giving the viewer the information needed to locate any of the gardens to view in person from the sidewalk or street if desired. All photos by Mina.