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Chicago Urban Gardening

The day to day experiences of a University of Illinois Extension Urban Horticulture Educator in Chicago, Illinois

July 24, 2010

Cyndi's Catalog of Garden Catalogs

Cyndi Johnson gardens in California and has developed an online resource for home gardeners, Cyndi's Catalog of Garden Catalogs. She has a listing of more than 2000 mail-order gardening catalogs in the United States and Canada. The companies are rated for quality, service and price.

Cyndi's Catalog of Garden Catalogs

Posted by Ron Wolford at 4:06 PM | Permalink |
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July 15, 2010

City Produce Project Starts Earthbox Vegetable Garden

The mission of the City Produce Project project is to provide fresh vegetables to Chicago's south side residents living in "Food Deserts"-areas with no access to fresh vegetables.

Vegetables are being grown for the project on two acres of land at the University of Illinois Horticulture Research Center in St. Charles, a 5,000 square foot plot at the University of Illinois Extension Cook County Sheriff's Garden and a one acre plot at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. The Illinois Corn Growers Association also has sites growing sweet corn for the project.

The vegetables will be picked up twice a week from the growing sites by the Greater Chicago Food Depository and delivered to ten churches on the south side of Chicago. Vegetables will be distributed at the churches to church members and community residents. University of Illinois Extension nutrition staff will be conducting nutrition classes for program participants at each church site.

Another mission of the project is to start Urban Earthbox/Smartpot Vegetable Farms at designated sites in Chicago. These gardens will have a combination of 25 earthboxes and smartpots to grow vegetables in. Six organizations have been selected so far for the project:

BrightStar Community Outreach

735 East 44th Street

http://www.brightstarcommunityoutreach.com

Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council

1751 West 47th Street

http://bync.org

Eden Place Nature Center

4417 South Stewart

http://www.edenplacenaturecenter.com/

Quinn Chapel AME Church

2401 South Wabash

http://www.quinnchicago.org

Atzlan Rehabilitation Workshop

1112 East 87th Street

http://www.adasmckinley.org/vocational_training.html

Third Unitarian Church

301 North Mayfield

http://www.thirdunitarianchurch.org/

More Information:

Earthbox: www.earthbox.com

Smart Pots: http://www.smartpots.com/

Posted by Ron Wolford at 1:59 PM | Permalink |
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