Ball Horticultural Company Wins Three Green Awards

When Ball Horticultural Company, a world leader in plant development and distribution, planned to expand its headquarters in West Chicago, it thought big.

Not only in building a state-of-the-art, environmentally sensitive laboratory and warehouse, but also in its approach to landscape improvements that would accompany the additions. Its goal was to create the most ecologically friendly setting possible.

It succeeded on both fronts: Its Ball Premier Laboratory has been certified by the U.S. Green Building Council and the project has netted three sustainable landscape awards. Ball Horticultural's corporate campus landscape improvements have been recognized with:

· A Conservation & Native Landscaping Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Chicago Wilderness,

· An Environmental Stewardship Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects' Illinois Chapter, and

· An Excellence in Landscape Award from the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association.

"It's an honor to have our corporate landscape celebrated by such an array of landscape and conservation professionals," said Bill Doeckel, director - retail & brands, for Ball Horticultural.

"It's validation that our commitment to sustainability really is the right way to do things. What's more, our CEO and owner, Anna Ball, absolutely loves it. She's done native landscaping at her home, so this aligns perfectly with her sustainability-minded priorities."

Enhancing the streetscape and main entrance to the company's corporate office was one aspect of the landscape improvements. What was previously a 1960s landscape, consisting primarily of turf with a few trees and an occasional planting bed, has been completely transformed.

Now most of the turf is gone. An undulating walkway with beds bursting with colorful perennials that create a prairie and savanna, intermingled with annuals, invites visitors to linger in the landscape as they approach the new buildings and the main entrance to the headquarters.

A small turf border creates a crisp edge for the beds. The approach is replicated across the street from the headquarters and new buildings, where previously there were trees and grass. The result is a naturalistic, landscaped corridor.

At the back of the complex, a central courtyard created by the addition of the new lab features native prairie and savanna landscapes, which nearly surround a central area of turf. Edible gardens and ornamental landscapes border the main terrace where employees are allowed to harvest fruits and flowers. Woodland and wetland gardens round out the transformation.

Native plants comprise roughly 75 percent of the project area, with more than 150 species of native grasses and forbs within the prairie, savanna, woodland and wetland landscapes.

All of this helps the landscape retain stormwater and reduce local flooding. There are five large rain gardens that help slow rainwater. Planted swales meander through the landscape, taking overflow from adjacent sidewalks to the site's detention basin. While a stormwater management tool, the swales also add an aesthetic element. They are planted with native grasses that mimic water flowing through a creek bed.

The clean water that does enter the detention area is now helping to sustain wetland plants in the bottom of the basin, adding another ecosystem and additional biodiversity to the landscape.

"All of these elements have been carefully orchestrated to keep rainwater on site, rather than having it run off and contribute to local flooding," said Geoff Deigan, president and CEO of WRD Environmental, which Ball Horticultural retained to design the landscape improvements.

"Ball Horticultural really deserves to be commended for making stormwater management such a priority."

The effort is paying off. Ball Horticultural's Bill Doeckel reported that, after the severe spring storms of 2013, the rain gardens were full, while the detention basin was dry - a sign that the landscape was acting as a natural sponge.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, all of the native plants on the site also mean that the landscape can tolerate dry periods more than many. Its water-retentive features turned out to be critical for its survival, since it was installed just prior to the extreme heat and drought of the summer of 2012.

Plant loss was minimal. "If those plants could survive that summer, they'll survive anything," said Mr. Doeckel. "I'm shocked they made it. The way they filled in is just astounding."