Category Archives: Uncategorized

By the RORG Team Against all odds, 2020 was a pivotal year for the Red Oak Rain Garden – complete with several pivots. Some might say hard-fought and they would not be wrong. Here are the RORG Team highlights of um, wow, quite a year. LATE WINTER The RORG Team started out 2020 by applyingContinueContinue reading “RORG’s 2020 Year in Review”

By Layne Knoche, RORG Landscape Designer Early each December, my mom and I take on one of our favorite tasks of the year: putting up the Christmas tree. It sounds fairly simple, but I promise you, it’s anything but. While the tree isn’t the showiest or most extravagant, it’s steeped in traditions dating back toContinueContinue reading “Holiday Decorations from the Eye of the Landscape Designer”

By the RORG Team Over the fall 2020 semester, Red Oak Rain Garden Team members Layne and Kate had the privilege of leading the first RORG Student Team. The students, from Instructor Eric Green‘s Environmental Studies (ENVS) 492: Sustainability, Energy, and Environment Capstone class, accomplished a wide variety of tasks over the four months theyContinueContinue reading “RORG’s First Student Team: A Recap of the Fall 2020 Semester”

by Layne Knoche, RORG Landscape Designer, and Eliana Brown, RORG Director RORG’s design is based on the planting approach described in the book “Planting in a Post-Wild World” by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West. This approach includes the concept of designing with functional layers that form a complex yet organized landscape that reflects nature. RORG’sContinueContinue reading “Planting in Layers: How to Design with Native Species”

By Lauren Lindow, RORG Student Team Member Before the construction of the Red Oak Rain Garden, the area had been poor-quality lawn existing on compacted soil and filled with weeds. These conditions are commonly found in the average suburban lawn. Since the conversion to native plants, the area has grown into a much more interestingContinueContinue reading “Reimagining the Suburban Lawn: Opportunities for Growth”

By Layne Knoche, RORG Landscape Designer The cold, short days of December are upon us. However, on the occasional sunny day, there is still plenty to observe at the Red Oak Rain Garden at this time of the year. The Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) and female Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) shrubs are loaded with bright redContinueContinue reading “In the Garden: Early December”

By Nina Jurko, RORG Student Team Member The Red Oak Rain Garden hosts a variety of plants and shrubs. Over 50 species, most of which are native to Illinois, can be found in the garden. These beautiful plants are not just functional and pleasing to look at, but many of them are also edible. FromContinueContinue reading “RORG’s Edible Plants”

By Kate Gardiner, RORG Communications Manager The Red Oak Rain Garden will celebrate GivingTuesday with our Bridge Building campaign, joining millions around the world participating in the global generosity movement on December 1, 2020. GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement, unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and their world. GivingTuesdayContinueContinue reading “Giving Tuesday”

By Kate Gardiner, RORG Communications Manager There are many ways to help the garden – and not all of them involve getting on your hands and knees in the dirt! Here are ten ways to help the garden: Get in the garden! We are always looking for more people to tidy, prune, weed, and admireContinueContinue reading “10 Ways to Help the Garden”

By Kate Gardiner, RORG Communications Manager Noah Horsley was our second student to be featured for a spotlight series! Noah graduated in May 2020 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with an M.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. For his thesis, he researched nest success and post-fledging survival of the Common Grackle inContinueContinue reading “Student Spotlight: Songbirds in the Garden by Noah Horsley”