Isn’t it funny? Today, what we think of a garden in the suburbs is vastly different from what folks think of a garden in more rural parts of the Midwest. The idea of gardening for sustenance has always been one of the virtues of Midwestern gardening. Typically, here in the suburbs, gardening seems to be driven by looks. How beautiful the garden will be acts as the guiding style principle and therefore dictates the ingredients.

Harkening back from many of our ancestor’s European roots, aesthetic gardening was for the wealthy and “real” gardening was for putting food on one’s table. As a garden-maker for others and for myself, I strive to combine “then and now” into the history of an All-American garden, here in the breadbasket of our great country. Why can’t it be beautiful and deliver on all fronts? It can and, to me, a garden should.

Craig Bergmann Landscape Design has won critical acclaim for intertwining design, horticulture, and architecture in a way that is unique to Northern Illinois. The firm is known for its award-winning attention to detail, establishing a true dialogue between the living garden and the architectural site. Today, CBLD is headquartered in the historic David Adler-designed A. Watson Armour Estate in Lake Forest, and also operates a 25-acre nursery located in Wadsworth.

Craig Bergmann Landscape Design, 900 N. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest, 847-251-8355, craigbergmann.com.