Gardens

OUR GARDENS

Womanspace has several named gardens on its campus, and visitors are welcome to enjoy them seven days a week during daylight hours. A garden is like all of us – growing, changing, learning, surviving, thriving – embracing and celebrating life, joys, and sorrows. Volunteers lovingly tend Womanspace gardens, and the gardening group welcomes assistance when anyone is so moved!

LILLY FERNANDEZ MEMORIAL MEDITATION GARDEN

The Lilly Fernandez Memorial Meditation Garden, located behind both the center and New Dimensions studios, is a large area, with several planted “berms.” The Lilly Garden is a memorial to Lilly Fernandez, a woman significant in the life of Sunil Puri and his brothers in Bombay, India. Dedicated in 1998 as a gift from Sunil Puri, this large garden with walking paths (in the contour of a dancing woman), features many types of flowers and shrubs. By way of example, one berm is a “cottage garden” with flowers for cutting; one is a sculpture garden featuring sun-loving plants and, among others, a 3-dimensional sculpture of the Womanspace Web (our logo). One berm is a prairie garden, featuring many plants native to this part of Illinois (and which serves as a “nursery” for plants destined for our prairie restoration project at the far edge of our campus.

CELEBRATION GARDEN

The Celebration Garden at the front entrance to the main building features a large stone bench in honor of Barbara Sjostrom, and as a central feature, a beautiful fountain dedicated in honor of Alissa Cargill. The Celebration Garden provides a shady spot for resting or conversation, and features a patio with paver bricks engraved to celebrate life’s passages with inspiring messages, thoughts of friends or family, tributes to lost loved ones, folk wisdom, philosophies, milestones, etc. Purchasing a paver brick allows individuals to make a personal statement that becomes part of the living history of Womanspace.

RESTFUL GARDEN

At the entrance to New Dimensions is a Restful Garden, featuring two beautiful teak benches (dedicated in 1993) and a lovely area newly landscaped in 2007 as memorials to Cindy Sievers Post and her father, Stan Sievers, lovingly provided by Shirley G Sievers and her family.

PEACE GARDEN

Across from the entrance to New Dimensions Studios is the Peace Garden surrounded by a circular driveway. This garden features two stone benches in a sitting area and the Peace Pole, dedicated in 2000 as a gift from the Board of Directors on the 25th anniversary of Womanspace honoring founders Dorothy Bock and Elaine Hirschenberger. The circular nature of the Peace Garden makes it a wonderful site for various rituals and celebrations at Womanspace. Near the Peace Garden there is also a large clearing in the pine forest where celebrations are also held occasionally.