Homan Grown
Annamaria Varona tending to vibrant red clematis flowers in a North Lawndale garden

Beauty.Bounty.Benevolence.

Edible gardens and community landscapes, designed and stewarded by one family, two generations.

Plan a projectSee the gardens↓

A mother and daughter

We design and steward permaculture landscapes across the Great Lakes region — edible gardens, community plantings, and urban-durable plants chosen for the exact site they land in.

Annamaria Varona designs with 15 years of practice. Lucía León manages the projects and production. One family, two generations, one intention.

Selected Work

2012 to Present

A portfolio of living places.

Each project is a study of one site. Its light, its water, its soil, and the people who live with it. Swipe to explore.

  • Residential

    Oak Park, IL

    Oak Park Residential Garden

    A private residential garden documented by location and year only, preserving client privacy while showing the ongoing evolution of the planting.

  • Community Collaboration

    Chicago, IL

    Malcolm X College Memorial Garden

    Installing a memorial garden with faculty and administration for a beloved teacher at Malcolm X College.

  • Community Collaboration

    Chicago, IL

    Stone Temple Youth Green Team

    A fruit orchard and gravel garden designed with the Historic Stone Temple Missionary Baptist Church Youth Green Team.

  • Community Collaboration

    North Lawndale, Chicago, IL

    Sears Sunken Garden

    An ongoing community collaboration with North Lawndale residents and renowned garden designers Piet Oudolf and Roy Diblik to design the historic Sears Sunken Garden. Renovation work begins in 2026.

  • Community Collaboration

    West Side Chicago, IL

    NLCCC GROWSS Youth Council

    Teaching the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council GROWSS Youth Council — Greening Open Space, Water, Soil, and Sustainability — on raised-bed gardens and cut-flower cultivation.

  • Community Collaboration

    Barrington, IL

    Barrington High School Permaculture Garden

    An educational conservation-grant project teaching students permaculture principles. Three classes designed gardens in groups, the winning design was installed around the greenhouse, and edible design competitions are now part of the school curriculum.

  • Institutional / Commercial

    West Side Chicago, IL

    Legacy Charter School Bioswale

    This is an ongoing rehabilitation of a bioswale located outside of Legacy Charter School in Chicago. The area was primarily taken over by three native plants and unwanted plants. Homan Grown is adding diversity and more color to the plant palette.

  • Institutional / Commercial

    Chicago, IL

    Lawndale Christian Health Center Campus

    Homan Grown was asked to restore and bring more diversity to the Lawndale Christian Health Center (LCHC) campus and four City of Chicago owned bioswales that LCHC oversees. Plants were chosen that were close to the original design, and yet also had more durability.

  • Residential

    South Shore Chicago, IL

    South Shore Residential Garden

    A private residential garden transformation in South Shore, documented by location and year only while preserving client privacy.

  • Residential

    East Garfield Park, Chicago, IL

    East Garfield Park Residential Forest Garden

    This is the beginning of a residential forest garden focused on providing habitat for wildlife. In temperate climates such as Chicago, a forest garden is made up of eight layers - Overstory, understory, shrub layer, herbaceous perennials, bulbs, groundcover, and vines.

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Working together

From a walk through the site to a garden that keeps giving.

One

We walk your grounds and listen.

We come to the site, read the soil, light, and how you live with the space, and listen to your vision for it.

Two

We design and plant it.

A permaculture planting designed around your vision — edible, native, urban-durable species chosen for your exact site, then installed by our team.

Three

We tend it as it grows.

A minimum three-year stewardship plan. As gardeners say: the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps.

Start a project

Let's walk your grounds.

Tell us about your site and your vision, and we'll start with a walk through the grounds.

Plan a project→414-339-5537