Kneeling in the dirt of a median strip on 149th Street near LaGrange Road in Orland Park last weekend, Linda Capadona experienced what she termed “real gardening.”
With the sun beating down on her, the Orland Park resident dug out a trowelful of dirt and placed a green, reedy bundle of prairie grass into the hole.
“I don’t get to do this type of gardening much,” explained Capadona, a condominium dweller who was collecting gardening tips from a dozen or so other members of the Orland Park Garden Club.
The volunteers toiled for several hours to turn the median into a colorful, flowering oasis. They planted about 150 wildflower plants and 220 clumps of prairie grass, provided by the village.
“We wanted to finish off this median, to have something (pretty) for the cars that go by here,” said Sue Pawlowski, a landscape architect for the village.
“This (median) had never been planted before, and development is coming this way,” added Rae Ringhofer, president of the garden club.
Development means more people are likely to drive past this median and catch a glimpse of native plants with such colorful names as Coral Bell and Paprika Yarrow. These hardy plants can withstand adverse conditions, even sprays of street salt in the winter.
They were a good choice for the median strip, said Priscilla Pribyl, another volunteer who lives in Orland Park. “These are things that can grow without much attention or care,” she explained.
Capadona normally showers attention on a balcony full of begonias, impatiens, herbs and geraniums, but she is looking for other gardening challenges. She said she is thinking of planting some wildflowers near a wooded creek at her complex.
“I wanted to learn what’s natural and what to use by the creek,” she said.
