From the category archives:

Community gardening

FAQs on proposed urban ag ordinance in Chicago

by Cassandra West August 4, 2011 Agriculture
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Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is moving along with plans to define urban agriculture in Chicago as it tries to get an ordinance passed by the City Council. In late July, the Mayor’s Office released an FAQ on urban agriculture and a document on urban farms (commercial) and community gardens (non-commercial). One difference between an urban [...]

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Emanuel plans to expand urban agriculture in Chicago

by Editor July 26, 2011 Agriculture

Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to expand community gardens and urban farms to promote economic development, job creation and increase access to healthier food options in Chicago’s food deserts. “It is unacceptable that thousands of Chicagoans live in communities that lack access to fresh foods,” Emanuel said Tuesday during a ribbon-cutting for the urban Iron Street [...]

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Root Riot community gardeners’ work day in Oak Park

by Cassandra West July 21, 2011 Community gardening

If you have a garden, you’ve got to work it. Every gardener knows that or will soon learn it. Root Riot, a community garden in Oak Park with approximately 50 beds, held a workday on July 16 to pull up weeds and put down wood chips. The garden even inaugurated its newly built table and [...]

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A Sunday seed swap and seed starting demonstration

by Cassandra West March 7, 2011 Community gardening
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Having never gone to a seed swap, I had only a vague idea of what to expect when I signed up for the Forest Park Community Garden 2011 Annual Seed Swap and Seed Starting Demonstration. Would anyone be remotely interested in the garden-variety Burpee seeds I wanted to swap? Would the swappers be tripping over [...]

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One Seed Chicago: Eggplant, radish or swiss chard?

by Cassandra West January 30, 2011 Community gardening

Thinking about what to plant when the growing season finally returns to Chicago? After a long, cold, snowy winter like the one we’ve had here, many local gardeners are dreaming about seeds and soil and sun — and the crops to come. We are. In the meantime, we can make real those dreams by choosing [...]

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Woodlawn garden wins Chicago landscape award

by Editor October 20, 2010 Community gardening

By Susan Richardson The 65th Street and Woodlawn Community Garden recently won first prize in Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Landscape Awards in the vegetable garden category, competing against 13 other gardens. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office, which runs a vegetable garden at the County Jail, and the Fulton Street Flower and Vegetable Garden took [...]

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USDA will expand support for school food gardens

by Editor September 7, 2010 Community gardening

By Susan Richardson Just in time for the beginning of the school year, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced a $1 million pilot program to develop and manage community gardens at high-poverty schools in five states. Funded through the National School Lunch Act, the program targets schools where 50 percent or more of students [...]

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Krafting a campaign to support food gardens

by Editor August 6, 2010 Community gardening

COMMENTARY By Susan Richardson A recent story about Chicago-area Kraft Foods is simply too delicious to ignore. The world’s second- largest food company – and maker of the nutritious Cheez Whiz (“Cheezy and Darn Proud of It!”) – is encouraging the consumers of its Triscuit wheat crackers to grow their own food. Some of you [...]

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