No space for a garden? Go vertical. Green walls can improve air quality, cut energy costs, and provide a habitat for desirable wildlife. They also solve age-old dilemmas. “We just used a series of vertical gardens to hide a pair of ugly Andersonville garage façades, and are about to build a large fence-integrated one to be a privacy wall between two Hinsdale homes,” says  Jorge Orozco-Cordero of Weetree. For a large Lincoln Park house, Morgante Wilson Architects and Kettelkamp & Kettelkamp Landscape Architecture designed and executed a living green wall (shown above) that uses a hydroponic tray system to swathe 900 square feet with an installation that’s colorful year-round and matches the home’s neoclassical styling. Two walls of the Whole Foods Market at 1550 N. Kingsbury St. sport a wire mesh system covered with vegetation selected by Wolff Landscape Architecture that is slowly creeping into place. It’s an idea we straight-up love. goweetree.com; morgantewilson.com; kandkla.com; wolfflandscape.com

Photograph: Tony Soluri

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