Take a 20-minute guided walk in the Lurie Garden of Millennium Park in downtown Chicago on Labor Day Weekend.

The free tours are offered from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. August 31, 2012, and September 2, 2012.

Learn the Millennium Park garden’s design, its native plants and how it all applies to the Midwestern home garden. The Lurie Garden is located at the southeastern end of Millennium Park (map).

Designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel, this 5 acre garden pays homage to the City’s motto, “Urbs in Horto” (City in a Garden), which refers to Chicago’s transformation from its flat and marshy origins to a bold and powerful city.

Highlights of the garden include the dramatically lit, 15-foot-high “shoulder” hedge. This physical representation of Carl Sandburg’s famous description of the “City of Big Shoulders” encloses the garden on two sides and protects the delicate perennial garden. A graceful hardwood footbridge over shallow water divides the garden diagonally between “light” and “dark” plates.

(Photo of giant hyssop courtesy of Lurie Garden)