West Chicago-based Ball Horticultural introduced a showroom of sorts this summer: the Gardens at Ball. Designed by landscape architect Douglas Hoerr (responsible for much of the beautification of Michigan Avenue, by the by), the grounds are meant to show off nearly 2000 of Ball's varieties and inspire would-be gardeners to, well, get diggy with it. After all, as today's Washington Post notes, in an era in which interest in domestic gardening may be waning, the 100 year-old company's future depends on it.