Key Takeaways
- Chicago police officer Deronis Cooper has been cultivating his lush condo garden for 14 years as a tribute to his grandmother.
- Using the “thriller, filler, and spiller” planting method, he grows tropical plants like elephant’s ear, coleus, and sweet potato vines.
- Cooper grows his plants from starts in containers and gives them away to neighbors at the end of the season.
After a long day as a Chicago police officer, Deronis Cooper happily starts his late-night shift: watering every inch of his West Side condo’s garden. “My day job is pretty demanding,” Cooper says. “The garden is my escape.”
From early spring through summer, Cooper transforms his building’s lot, his second-floor deck, and the stairs between them into a tropical oasis. The lush tapestry of sweet potato vines, coleus, and banana trees—most of which he grows in pots—has become a beloved neighborhood fixture.
Cooper started the garden 14 years ago as a tribute to his grandmother Olive Vinson, whose vegetable patch he tended as a child. “She was my best friend, one of the most loving people in the world,” he says. Cooper carries on her generous spirit. Before winter each year, he gives away his plants so neighbors can tend to them indoors. “As long as you can come dig them up, you can have them.”
From small spring starts, annuals like elephant’s ear, grow supersize over summer. Cooper employs the “thriller, filler, and spiller” planting formula with a large cast of plants. Plants like elephant’s ear and majesty palm are the thrillers, coleus and petunias fill in, and sweet potato vines often act as the spillers.
Over summer, foliage winds up covering the containers entirely, so Cooper opts for secondhand pots over pricier ones. Planting in both slim window boxes hooked onto the top of a picket fence and in large pots on the ground creates a wall of foliage.
Cooper trims brown leaves as needed. But for the most part, he lets plants “do their thing,” as with the pink and black ‘Redemption’ elephant’s ear leaf poking through the wrought-iron gate.
Seating areas are scattered throughout the garden for Cooper to unwind, entertain friends and family, and welcome curious passersby. He sticks to black wrought-iron furniture, which he prefers because it doesn’t distract from the vivid displays of foliage.
Color isn’t the only star in Cooper’s garden. Varying textures also add to its wild appeal, including feathery umbels of King Tut papyrus, delicate pink clusters of Señorita Rosalita spider flower, and the dramatic veining of blood leaf foliage. Two large wine barrels, a Facebook Marketplace score, provide ample room for riotous plant combos…