Winnetka -- Turkeyfoot Garden

Turkeyfoot Garden recreates native Illinois prairie, savannah and woodland on about one acre in a suburban neighborhood, screening out traffic noises, other houses, deer and invasive weeds. Looking as though it has always been there the current garden was implemented in 2005, based on a landscape design from P. Clifford Miller Landscape Artistry. Native grasses, goldenrod, honeysuckle, a black gum tree and a red buckeye planted in front of the ranch-style house recall the prairie with the building seeming to emerge from the land rather than imposing on it. Most of the trees on the property are native varieties; only three of the twenty-nine species are not native to this specific area. There are sixty-three different varieties of flowering herbaceous perennials and bulbs and twenty different kinds of ornamental grasses. Mature oak trees shade much of the property, along with a fernleaf beech, katsura, staghorn sumac and shagbark hickory. White pines are planted along the fence line.

Grass paths lead from the staged prairie to an open savannah where young trees grow amidst Echinacea, Joe-pye weed, verbena, hyssop, rudbeckia, and ironweed in the summer. In the spring trillium and mayapples grow under serviceberries. The trees' foliage provides color in the fall, including a pagoda dogwood, katsura, hickory, the beech and several varieties of oak.

A patio next to the house is edged in boxwood and epimedium. A sculpture of a young girl by John Kearney is featured and another geometric sculpture by John Martinson is sited at the back of the garden. One cultivated garden bed near the house is planted with tulips, narcissus, bleeding heart and stonecrop.

Persons associated with the garden include P. Clifford Miller (landscape designer, 2005-present); John Martinson (sculptor); John Kearney (sculptor)