Chalet's Landscape Division has received a Grand and a Merit Environmental Improvement Award from PLANET (Professional Landcare Network) for its residential landscape design/construction of homes in Lake Forest, Ill., and Wilmette, Ill.
The global awards program, which is open only to PLANET members, reflects the association's commitment to creating and preserving the beauty of the landscape. The program is designed to reward independent landscape, lawn care and interior plantscaping professionals who execute superior projects. Chalet will be recognized at PLANET's Awards Reception on Friday, Oct. 30 at the Green Industry Conference in Louisville, Ky.
Chalet's Grand award winner in Lake Forest is a formal, structured and manicured landscape reflecting the beauty, elegance and permanence of a period Italianesque villa. Beyond the front entryway, garden visitors are greeted by a three-tiered, limestone fountain surrounded by a large semicircular pergola with hand-carved limestone columns and a sunken garden.
Between this and the residence, a parterre contains more than 1,000 Green Velvet boxwood and two matching limestone water features, both fountains with one also doubling as a Jacuzzi. Highlights include an adjacent folly purchased by the owner at auction in Florence, Italy.
Chalet's Merit Award winner is a stately English Tudor in Wilmette, complemented by a formal, manicured and symmetrical garden. Dense yew and Green Velvet boxwood hedges line the front foundation and are meticulously trimmed while Tina crabapples flank the front entry, left natural to contrast with the structured landscape. As visitors travel down a bluestone walk from the brick driveway to the pool area, a diverse and colorful array of Daphne, rhododendron, viburnum and astilbe catch the eye.
A mixed border softens the edges of the nearby pool deck while groupings of Norway spruce and dark green arborvitae provide privacy. An adjacent secret garden provides an intimate getaway. Other features include a functional and practical serpentine stone seat wall and hidden vegetable garden.
For information on the PLANET Awards, visit www.landcarenetwork.org.
Chalet's garden and retail center is located at 3132 Lake St. in Wilmette, Ill. Its landscape division is housed on a 28,000-square-foot complex on 16 acres in North Chicago, Ill. Chalet also operates a 183-acre nursery in Salem, Wis., which grows trees, shrubs, perennials and vegetables under the Chalet Farms brand.