City Garden Open Every Day of the Year Hours: 9 am – 5 pm daily; Thursdays till 8 pm Where: Garfield Park Conservatory South Cost: Free   A dramatic new garden is now taking shape on the land just west of the conservatory. Chicago’s newest public garden will integrate city through and through. Urban hardy plantings, garden “communities” that meld easily one to the next, recycled bits of cityscape….this will be a garden like no other.   The City Garden takes urban greening as its guiding principle, and it will give expression to that principle at multiple levels, from its structure to its materials and plantings. It will also provide an important link in an ever-growing lacework of boulevards, gardens, and open spaces scattered beyond its borders.   The first phase of the garden was completed last summer; the second will be completed this summer.
			Demonstration Garden May 1 - November 1 Hours: 9 am – 5 pm daily; Thursdays till 8 pm Where: Garfield Park Conservatory West Cost: Free   Visit the Garfield Park Conservatory and explore our Demonstration Garden, a beautiful city-lot-sized working garden, to learn about community and organic gardening in Chicago. Theme areas inside demonstrate urban agriculture, beekeeping, composting and other techniques used to grow food, community and beauty in city spaces.   For self-guided visits the Demonstration Garden is open daily during Conservatory hours of 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Thursday till 8:00 p.m.   Gardeners are available to answer questions and guide visitors through the garden on Tuesdays 9:00 a.m. - Noon, Thursdays 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. (Garden is staffed May – Nov., Thursdays through Sept.)
			Monet Garden May 1 - November 1 Hours: 9 am – 5 pm daily; Thursdays till 8 pm Where: Garfield Park Conservatory East Cost: Free   The Monet Garden is an adaptation of impressionist painter Claude Monet’s well known garden at Giverney, France. Originally created as an indoor display for the 2000 Flower and Garden Show at Navy Pier, the award-winning garden was subsequently transplanted to the conservatory grounds at the close of the show.   The garden is a very miniature and very loose interpretation of Monet's actual garden designed by conservatory General Foreman Bryce Bandstra. It features many of the same types of plants; and it plays with color in much the same way that Monet did. Like his garden, the main allee down the center is filled with bulbs in the spring which then switch to iris, peonies and poppies, and then nasturtiums, sunflowers, and a range of other annuals and perennials for the remainder of the season. Some of the beds are themed with blue or white or pink flowers. Smaller "paint box" beds play colors against each other like Monet liked to do. He used these to explore the qualities and combinations of colors.   Some of the most popular features in the garden are the espaliered fruit trees, the wisteria standards, and the picnic area under the old crab apple tree.