Landscaping Tips & Insights • The ILT Vignocchi Journal
Notes From the Field
Landscaping tips, seasonal guidance, and the occasional strong opinion from a family that has cared for Chicagoland properties since 1969. Written by the people doing the work: our designers, our horticulturists, and the crew leaders who have watched the same gardens change for twenty years.
What You'll Find Here
01
Seasonal guidance.
What to do in the garden this month, and just as usefully, what to leave alone.
02
Design and inspiration.
How outdoor spaces get planned, and why certain choices still look right a decade later.
03
Plant and lawn care.
Practical landscaping tips for Chicagoland soil, shade under mature oaks, and a deer population with opinions.
04
Property management.
For the people responsible for grounds that have to perform every day, not just look good in June.
05
Behind the scenes.
Occasional stories from a family business that has been at this since 1969.
Landscape Planting Services in the Chicagoland Area: How Plant Selection Gets Made
Plants are the only part of a landscape that keeps changing after the crew leaves. Landscape planting services across the Chicagoland and Lake Geneva area work in northern Illinois zone 5b, on clay-rich glacial till, under deer pressure that quietly decides what survives.
Our horticulturists select against those three facts rather than against a catalogue, because a plan that ignores them looks correct for exactly one season.