Planting Pretty
This hands-in-the-dirt, outdoor-focused branch of Weetu, a design collaborative established in 2007, is led by master gardener Jorje Orozco-Cordero. Orozco-Cordero came to Chicago via the austere gardening world of Capitol Hill and quickly conceived a plan for our city’s “unattractive garage walls and alleyways.” His freestanding, self-sustaining, illuminated Weetree Walls caught our attention: Lightweight aluminum planters (artfully designed by his wife, Carly Cannell) are outfitted in three-foot custom sections to create garden walls complete with low-energy pumps, an organic growing medium, fertilizer and plantings. Each custom design and installation includes site-tailored raincapture and irrigation systems. As smart as they are pretty, the systems are being installed by leading decorators and city restaurants with outdoor spaces as places to grow herbs. The firm is on the fringe of commercial accessibility with ready-made planters available in the very near future. goweetree.com