Garden Stakes at Green Edens

As I was making bud vase stakes, I also had another venue in mind. I met mother-daughter team Amy and Heather at a local networking event, and learned that they ave a store front up in Evanston’s West Village.

Green Edens Horticultural Services is a professional garden design and landscaping company owned and operated by women. Founded in 2011, the company has a storefront at 1402 Greenleaf Street. The mother-daughter duo and other employees specialize in creating sustainable, naturally beautiful surroundings for your home or business with organic perennial, edible and annual flower gardens. Their focus is on native plants material to encourage the re-population of local insects, birds and wildlife, which is near and dear to this butterfly lover.

While I don’t have a garden nor a green thumb to container garden with, I do benefit from this lovely business. In addition to garden design services, the storefront sells garden tools, organic seeds, spring bulbs, bird and bat houses, ​canned goods, local pottery, jewelry, botanical watercolor cards, hand made soaps, and now, my garden stakes!

For this batch, I went taller to keep the scale of garden plants in mind. I freewheeled on the jig until I had shapes I enjoyed.

Then I started designing the colors and enjoyed mixing and matching different tones for the infinity ‘grape’ stakes.

The hearts were fun to make as well, and I have to admit being sad to let them go. But I do hope they will add whimsy to someone’s lovely plants soon.

After adhering all the colors, I did a photoshoot and played with various configurations.

It is fun to mix and match the pieces, but you can start with one for a statement piece and then collect more as you go.

Then I transferred the lot to transportable receptacles so I could bring them over to Green Edens.

I am pleased with how they all turned out, and look forward to making more critters and sculptural elements for my own shop and for upcoming art fairs. Ladybugs are hard to keep, and my dragonflies are running low as well. People have also requested bees and owls, and other designs. The possibilities are endless!

Green Edens is located at 1402 Greenleaf Street in Evanston, IL 60202, with store hours Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 12 to 3 p.m. Stop in and peruse their selection of other handmade artistry and garden-specific items.

Green Edens Horticultural Services Include:

• Consultation and Design
• Garden Installation
• ​Pathways
• Organic and Sustainable Maintenance Services
• Raised Beds, Trellises and Arbors
• Classes and Workshops
• Food Product​ion, Edible Landscapes and Tower Garden
• Seasonal Displays
• ​Eco-Lawns and Lawn Care Recommendations
• Invasive Plant Management
• Water Management and Drip Lines