Tun Ratan works alone in his garden, but anyone from the community is welcome when it's time to enjoy some green space.
Ratan says he has been interested in gardening since he was a child, growing up in a small town about a four-hour drive from Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal.
During his junior high school years, Rattan, who loves plants, found his outdoor workspace in his father's garden, which was filled with a variety of flowers and vegetables.
Rattan planted plants in her father's garden, including 29 species of cacti, and her creativity in planting the garden has become so valuable that it has won awards, she said.
“We were always involved in gardening,” says Rattan, “and we absorbed a lot of information without even realizing it. In fact, we even won first prize in a local gardening competition. It was a source of great pride for us.”
Ratan immigrated to the United States from India with her husband when she was 26. They first moved to River Forest in 1984 and have lived there ever since, Ratan said.
Rattan's garden has been featured twice in Garden Walks organized by the Friends of Oak Park Conservatory and the Oak Park and River Forest Garden Club, outdoor events that showcase local residential gardens and allow people to walk through them. Rattan's last participation was this past season.
Rattan first took part in the Garden Walk in 1999, but the garden she exhibited had been several years in the making. Rattan says there were many requests for her garden to be exhibited, and Garden Walk organisers had asked her to take part many times.
“My front yard was so beautiful with flowers, but they kept asking me. I had just added an extension to my house, so my back yard was all dug up,” Rattan said. “So I told them, 'I'm not ready yet,' and they kept asking me for about three years, and finally in the third year I said, 'OK, I'm ready.'”
One of the garden's unique features is a section of white fragrant flowers that Rattan calls the “Moon Garden,” which includes plants such as white lilies and white roses. When creating the Moon Garden, Rattan said he found it difficult to choose flowers due to the local environmental conditions and climate.
“[The moon garden] “There were about 22 varieties of white, fragrant flowers that grew in Chicago,” Rattan says. “They were hard to find, but they were the focus of my garden in 1999.”
Although his garden has only been featured twice on Garden Walk, Ratan says his neighbours always come and enjoy the flowers and greenery. He says it means a lot to him to receive appreciation from his neighbours for his hard work.
“I had people walking through my yard all the time,” Rattan says, “and I was so grateful for their appreciation. People walked through my yard, they didn't need permission, and everyone knew about it.”
Like her father's garden in India, Rattan's garden in River Forest requires long hours of work outdoors. But for Rattan, it's a labor of love.
“It started as a passion,” Rattan says, “a passion like no other. I would garden for hours, from morning till night. While everyone else went out for dinner and drove home, I was still in my dirty clothes, digging…[I] I was waiting for the flowers.
Ratan said he enjoys being in nature as it gives him peace and tranquility.
“The best thing about plants is that they don't talk back,” says Rattan. “This will tell you everything you need to know.”
Ratan says that over time, his routine and workflow have adjusted. Despite some obstacles, he is determined to maintain his plants to a high standard.
“Over the years, I developed arthritis and couldn't put in as much effort,” Rattan says, “so I decided to dig up all the perennials and replace them with shrubs and plants that were easier to grow.”
Currently, Rattan said the garden's landscape is made up of many lawn ornaments and decorations that she designed herself: water basins reflect colorful flowers, different types of rocks frame the landscape, and seashells of various sizes fill the flower beds, all of which she collected during her travels abroad.
When she's not working in her garden, Rattan works for a travel agency. She has visited about 45 countries and is always on the lookout for new items to put in her garden while she travels.
Rattan says one of the things she enjoys about being a gardener is letting others enjoy her plants, so she sometimes puts free plants in the birdbath for neighbors to come and collect.
“A lot of people would give me lots of plants and they would take them and put them in my birdbath,” Rattan said. “They knew they were free to take them however they wanted.”
One of the most encouraging things for Ratan is seeing others appreciate plants as much as she does. Ratan said she has friends with cancer who choose to visit her garden for tranquility and peace.
“The happiest moment was when cancer patients came to my garden,” says Rattan. “They would drive up and there would be patients sitting quietly in their wheelchairs in my garden. We would say 'hello,' and we'd go in and they would just enjoy themselves and leave when they wanted. I had three cancer patients who came to my garden and enjoyed it. What really made me happy was that I thought the patients found solace in my garden.”
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