Innovative Ideas: Cultivating calm in Chicago
Nestled at the intersection of two of Chicago’s busiest streets, “The Island” at Gethsemane Garden Center offers quiet refuge in the midst of a cacophony of intense noise. Pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles come together to pause, ever so briefly, at this idyllic slice of urban paradise. To our garden center, The Island is more than a simple median in the middle of the road — it’s an escape, a place for neighbors to meet, for children to admire and adore nature, and for everyone passing by to have a chance to breathe.
We’ve been caring for The Island, which is actually City of Chicago property, for more than 30 years. What began as a passion project of our founder has turned into an icon on the north side of town. Our team carefully maintains The Island year-round — planting, pruning and watering as the plants change with the seasons.
And when the holidays come, we deck the entire median out in Christmas lights, dazzling the harsh, gray Chicago winter with lights as bright and vibrant as the blooms of the growing season. It truly is a microcosm of the shifting seasons and an unparalleled opportunity for us to show off what our garden center can offer to customers’ yards.
Season after season, The Island impresses with its layers of foliage and ever-changing visual interest, displaying a range of plant types. Trees tower next to the stoplights and lampposts, cutting through the manufactured mess of metal in a sign of defiance from the natural world. Perennials anchor the display of foliage and blooms, providing intrigue no matter the date on the calendar. Annuals cover the ground in a blanket of color. At times it looks wild, and yet, it’s all been carefully planned.
The Island gives us the unique ability to not only show off the range of our plant selection, but to foster community. Locals from the neighborhood adore this verdant oasis, and guests visiting from out of town or across the city are surprised to see such lush planting in between such busy streets. Every day, people stop to take pictures, pause to smell the flowers and take a few moments of their day to soak in true beauty amidst a concrete jungle.
Getting involved with a community project of this sort is easier than you may think. We didn’t set off to turn The Island into some grandiose landmark; rather, we were just trying to beautify an otherwise ugly and problematic area right in front of our storefront. The space would undoubtedly be underwhelming and underutilized without all the planting we do out there. It’s really pretty simple: we were looking at a large patch of boring dirt, and we had the plants necessary to make it something vibrant and welcoming. The love from our neighborhood came naturally after that. People want to love and appreciate beauty — you just have to take the initiative to provide it to them, and we’ve found that people especially love encountering beauty and nature when it’s unexpected.
Showing off our plant selection is really just a bonus — the real value is in knowing that generations of Chicagoans have found moments of respite when walking or driving past The Island. It’s like seeing a single flower sprout from a crack in the sidewalk, except on a much larger scale.
So if you’re traveling on Clark Street or Ashland Avenue in Chicago and you come across a small slice of densely planted splendor, you’ll know you’ve found the right spot. I hope it brings you the sense of calm it brings us, because it’s an awfully distracting world out there — but it can be a beautiful one, too.
Photos courtesy of Gethsemane Garden Center.
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