Wednesday Walkabout: Chicago's Lakeview Neighborhood

Time for another Wednesday Walkabout....And don't forget to check out some of my previous Walkabouts:   Lincoln Park,  Chicago Loop  and Old Town.

I just love Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood and lived there when DH and I met.  My gym is still in the hood and I love running the same routes I ran when I was 21 and still new to Chicago.  Even then, I remember admiring all the lovely homes and containers, wondering how people got their plants to look so great......

My life then?  Martinis and marathons.

My life now?  Carpools and container gardens.

While my regular sitter took the twins to the beach on this sweltering day, I wandered around the old neighborhood and saw these gorgeous containers.  I love them because they are substantial enough to stand up the seriousness of the architecture and because they are big enough to be part of the house and not seen as cheapie add-on.  They are planted perfectly and simply:

And around the corner is this surprise.  As they said on the A-Team, I love it when a plan comes together......this is a simply gorgeous use of repetition, which is my favorite design trick to pull together a space.

Look how this Chicago greystone owner makes the second floor balcony pop off of all that ivy.  Again with the repetition...three simple evergreens underplanted with pink petunias.  

Here's a view from across the street.  Note the two low rectangular containers in the same grey color, which visually connect the space.....very pretty.

This neighborhood is filled with proud gardeners.  One nice man saw me taking pictures and asked if I wanted to see what he had done with the planters on his house......

A lot of Chicago neighborhoods have business associations that install and plant up gorgeous planter boxes.  I plan a post on all of them at the end of the summer.  Aren't these pretty?

Last, the Days Inn on Clark Street, which has seriously upped the ante from the old smoking stand I used to cross the street to avoid while jogging down the street......

I mean, when's the last time you pulled up to a Day's Inn entryway that looked this good?  Gotta love Lakeview......

As much as I wish the Chicago summer would go on forever and ever, I wonder if we would be such show-offs with our container gardens if they weren't such a short-lived experience each year, if we didn't live through 5 months of grey and cold to get to this point every year........