A Dawn Redwood grows amongst Cleome and sunflowers in the front parkway under mid day light.   I bought this tree for $10 at Aldis and it spent its first year as an inside plant.  Being a redwood I thought it couldn’t survive Chicago’s zone 5 climate but upon further reading the tag this wasn’t exactly like the redwoods you find around San Francisco but one that can survive our climate.  It is doing much better outside than it did inside.

According to the tag this tree can grow to 75 feet tall which will make for a nice replacement for the tree they chopped down to put in a stop sign.

North front parkway raspberry cage in sunset light on July 3, 2015.  The sun is quite far to the north at this time of year.  This cage was built this Spring to support raspberry bushes.  It will be moved 2 feet north at the end of this season.  Two feet of raspberry bushes need to be cleared in that quadrant.

These cages keep the raspberry bushes growing straight up and not onto the sidewalk or street.  They use basic post and beam construction with 2x2s from 2x4s ripped in half and painted.  The beams all connect using single screws so angle braces must be used to maintain a proper square and support vertical and horizontal loads.  None of these cages are tied into the ground.

Haven’t updated this site in awhile and am behind on posting pics. I have been taking a timelapse of the front parkway since March 24 and put together a current cut for the Bucktown Garden Walk.