His father, Lyle, loved gardening, and when Craig Bergmann was 5 years old his father gave him a 20-by-20-foot plot behind the garage with some sun and mostly shade, where they fashioned brick-edged beds. “The seed was planted and before long I was doing the gardens of houses on our block in Glen Ellyn,” says the younger Bergmann, now 43 and owner of Craig Bergmann Landscape Design Inc. in Wilmette.
At DePaul University, he studied biology and planned to become a marine biologist. He worked for awhile in the reef tank at the John G. Shedd Aquarium, another job at a Chicago flower shop changed his direction. A customer who came in to buy flowers asked who managed the shop and when Craig, then 21, said he did, she complimented his taste. Then she hired him to transform her Kenilworth garden as a present for her husband. Bergmann asked friends to help with the installation.
That job led to others, then to a company founded in 1981 with his late partner, James Grigsby. Twenty-two years later, the firm employs 109 people and, in addition to the Wilmette headquarters, has its own nursery and retail garden center on 22 acres in Winthrop Harbor called Craig Bergmann’s Country Garden.
Q: What should a garden do for a house and its owners?
A: If the garden works, it should change the owners’ lives and make them happier to come home. We try to develop a style that relates to the home’s architecture.
Q: Do you only design and install gardens?
A: We hope each garden becomes the start of a long-term relationship. We like to maintain it. That doesn’t mean we mow grass or plow snow, but we care for beds and flowers, prune topiaries and plant seasonal patio containers for our weekly customers.
Q: Not all landscape designers have a nursery. Why do you?
A: We like to grow between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of the high-quality, specialty items we install such as topiaries, espaliers, uncommon varieties of perennial plants. We also offer an “over-winter” service for specialty container plants for weekly clients. We bought the property 13 years ago when it was a farm field with a farmhouse, two big oak trees, good soil. We couldn’t afford the house but needed the land since we had maxed out the property we had in Wilmette. We wanted to improve the quality of what we offered and here we can do constant research. We also have extensive display gardens so it’s become a destination. We have two plant procurers who search all the time for good woody material, and we have a full-time growing staff at the nursery.
Q: Tell us about training staff to work in clients’ gardens?
A: We typically care for about 70 properties a week during the season and take on about 25 new projects a year. We don’t hire and let loose our gardeners who maintain clients’ gardens. We tutor them for a minimum of a year. They have to speak English and practice good hygiene. They become part of a dedicated family. I’ve employed some for 15 years.
Q: Do you require a minimum size garden or budget?
A: No, but I go to every job possibility before I say yes to be sure that what clients want is consistent with their property. I want to be sure we’ll get along. I don’t want to put a garden in one corner of a property since I want the entire garden to look its best. Some estate gardens may not need everything redone, however. I have no problems with clients who don’t know a lot, but I want them to articulate what they want, whether it’s a feeling or long-term goal. There’s no minimum budget. Our gardens average $120,000 to $150,000 but we’ve done $6,000 and $2 million gardens. It depends on what it is, whether it’s new construction. I don’t want new gardens to look brand new so we bring in bigger materials.
Q: But, is there a general budget, such as 15 per cent of a home’s value?
A: That’s reasonable, but it depends on whether we redo the garden or start from scratch and how many details we incorporate, such as statuary and masonry.
Q: Is there a type of garden you haven’t yet worked on?
A: We’re known for our traditional style, following European tradition. But because I like to challenge myself, I’d love to do a modern garden with simple composition and textural variation.
Q: Are there other differences besides size in doing a city versus suburban garden?
A: The biggest challenge is having enough light because the more shadows there are from neighboring buildings, the more extreme the light conditions become. In the heat of the day, one can go from full shade to hot sun.
Q: What homework should anyone do before hiring a landscape designer?
A: Again, the more they can articulate their wishes the better. They can clip photographs or describe a memory of a favorite garden. I like to make each garden personal, so they need to guide me. I like them to visit my projects and hear reactions. We have an extensive interview sheet, from pollen allergies they may have to what color flowers they like to cut to bring inside.
Q: How do you come up with ideas?
A: I travel a lot and bring a sketch pad and camera. I’m inspired by public and private gardens, but I also look at what grows along the road in a ditch, if it’s an unusual color combination. I’m interested in details, minutiae.
Q: Do you draw a master plan?
A: Yes, and after the plan, when we see where we’re going financially, we often install in stages, based on what makes sense. If there’s going to be a pool we wouldn’t put in the garden [first] and then the pool afterward, since the garden would be destroyed.
Q: How hard is it to work in Chicago?
A: It’s not, as long as you know your plants. We have a huge array at our disposal. But you can’t necessarily emulate a photograph of a garden from Long Island or England because you set yourself up for failure. We have to consider our climate’s extremes. A challenge is to remember we have a moisture-retentive soil, but it’s also a rich soil. Plants die because they’re in the wrong place; they don’t have the right soil conditions or light. People need to know what the plants they buy need, or how they can care for them. They need to know their limitations, whether they be time, money or patience.
Q: How quickly will owners see results?
A: It depends, but the adage is true that the first year the garden sleeps, the second year it creeps, and the third year it leaps.
Q: What about those who can’t afford a professional?
A: They can take seminars at the Botanic Garden or quality garden centers like mine and others. They can take a garden club tour or walk, look around, take notes of what they like. There is basic software. I’ve never met a true gardener I didn’t like and who wasn’t generous with information about what they’ve done.
Q: Do you have a garden?
A: Yes, at my office which used to be my house and office but I moved downtown in December. At the office there’s an old farmhouse and outbuildings in the compound with a small enclosed garden. I’m always attempting the impossible there. I want it to be perfect, but it never is because it constantly changes. One favorite is a purple leaf peach tree. When the fruit ripens, the peaches turn black. A friend gave it to me as a 6-inch-tall tree and now it’s 10 feet tall.
Q: Any pet peeves?
A: For professionals–promising what they can’t deliver and not telling the truth. For homeowners–not divulging their real budget or when they treat my staff not as well as they treat me.
Q: Do gardens last?
A: You should get 40 years. I’m not talking about flowers but organization of the space and patios, walls, beds and shrubs, as long as it’s maintained. You need to spend money to put in your garden, but you need to spend to take care of it as well.
