Naperville yard either full of blooms or foliage

• Reprints

Ron Ory tends to cup plants in his backyard on Friday at his Naperville home. | Terence Guider-Shaw~For Sun-Times Media

Peek into
his garden

Some of the plants and trees found in Ron Ory’s garden:

Arbor Vitae

Blue Spruce

Clematis

Cottonwood

Crab apple tree

Crocus

Cyprus

Daffodils

Daylilies

False indigo

Geranium

Goldenrod

Hollyhocks

Honey locust

Hummingbird mint

Hyacinths

Ironwood

Kentucky coffee trees

Lilac

Lily of the Valley

Lupines

Milkweed

Native Horsetail

Ohio Buckeye

Paw Paw tree

Poplar trees

Prairie Smoke

Queen of the Prairie (endangered)

Shooting Stars

Tulips

Weeping spruce

Wisteria vine

Article Extras

Updated: July 21, 2011 11:58AM

What was a vast quarter-acre yard with little landscaping is now a garden full of more than 2,500 plants, many of which are native. They also attract all kinds of wildlife as well as respect from passers-by.

“One of the biggest compliments I had was someone who came whizzing by when I was doing some landscaping and came to a screeching halt and said ‘I like what you did with your yard,’” Ron Ory said.

Ory’s interest in landscaping began 20 years ago. Then he was renting a garden plot with the Park District. He realized he wanted to know more and, using his GI Bill, received an associate degree in horticulture from the College of DuPage.

He had been living in a condominium in Naperville after serving in the military when he became a “frustrated gardener.” So seven years ago, he bought his home in the University Heights subdivision primarily for its larger-sized lot. At the time, the landscaping included a few trees and a couple of yews. Many kids on their bikes used the yard, which is on a cul-de-sac adjacent to Wehrli Road, as a cut through. To deter that practice, Ory started by adding a crab apple tree and other plantings in the parkway.

He then went to work on landscaping in the front yard, trying to draw attention away from the garage door and making a continuous viewpoint all the way along the front. He also added pavers to lead from the curb to the door to “try to make it a little more inviting.”

“Every year there is less grass and more plantings,” Ory said.

When Ory, who is a master gardener, would add a tree, he would compliment it with plantings. He also would make sure that he would add a variety of foliage so that the colors in his yard would change with the seasons. He also encourages gardeners to think outside the box. He does not have a designated area for vegetables; instead Ory planted onions in his front yard nestled in with other flowers.

“I’ve got foliage or bloom, something going on at all times,” Ory said.

Ory also has been adding more natives to his plantings, like freesia and milkweed, because they are easier to maintain. They do not need to be fertilized or watered, and they attract wildlife like butterflies and a couple dozen different birds that visit every day.

Every year Ory adds about 400 to 500 plants, from evergreens to perennials. He purchases many of them, but he also gets some from friends. A blue spruce was someone’s Christmas tree. Neighbors gave him a blue flag iris. And a friend who was moving offered him her weeping spruce.

“Those are the best plants,” Ory said. “The price is right.”

But, Ory also gives back. He plants trees from seedlings and gives them away once they begin to grow. He also divides his plantings every year to give away. He recently donated 50 plants from his yard to the Park District, of which he is a board member, to extend its native plant program to University Heights Park, and he gives vegetables grown at the garden plots to Loaves and Fishes. In addition, he gave milkweed to his sister who has an early childhood development center; so that the children there could watch the stages of a butterfly that hatch their eggs on the plant.

And, while spring and summer are a busy time for Ory, who spends about an hour a day tending to his yard, he does not stop thinking of his landscaping when winter comes.

“In the winter I read catalogs and figure out whet I’m going to do next,”Ory said.

Columnist Angela Bender lives in Naperville. Contact her at abender4@wowway.com.