Congratulations to the 2022 CEGA Award Winners!
Lead photo: Getting ready for the group photo, by Julie Siegel, courtesy of the CEGA website
Once again the vital work of gardeners has been recognized through the Chicago Excellence in Gardening Awards (CEGA), which returned to in-person site visits this year. Gardens that had entered the program in the past – either sometime during the first three seasons, or through the 60-Second Garden Video Challenge born during the pandemic – were invited to participate again. The work of the winning gardens was revealed in a ceremony on Saturday, September 24 at Wild Blossom Meadery & Winery on Chicago’s south side. Each garden or organization received a certificate and a beautiful all-weather sign, courtesy of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. You can find the complete list at https://chicagogardeningawards.org/
Starting off the awards at the top of the ceremony were six school gardens, a few known well to CCGA through the Resources distributions.
Community garden awards were given for ornamental, specialty, and vegetable gardens with many CCGA gardens winning. We’ll highlight two of the winners here: The Historic Slumbusters Garden in North Lawndale and Maxwell Street Community Garden in the South Loop.
The Historic Slumbusters Garden was recognized for an ornamental garden award. Representing the garden were gardener Kimberly George and Margo Stewart, niece of the original Slumbusters gardeners, Lorean and Gerald Earles. “My uncle would be so pleased with all the hard work done to keep the garden a beautiful and peaceful place, “ said Margo.
Maxwell Street Community Garden was recognized as a “Specialty” community garden. Maxwell has a blend of allotment and ornamental beds with space for community members to gather. For Maxwell, this means providing remembrance and connection with a memorial bench and three mosaic and ceramic murals. Several beds are devoted to raising food for the community, and the garden also provides inviting community spaces and hosts a large number of productive beehives.
Urban farms made another category and residential awards were given for container gardens, specialty, vegetable, and ornamental gardens. A handful of hard-to-categorize growers and gardeners received awards, with honorable mentions rounding out the ceremony.
A very special CEGA Garden Angel Award went to Ron Wolford, a retired U of I Extension educator who used his knowledge, experience, and many skills to help launch CEGA in 2017. The highlight of the event was meeting fellow gardeners and hearing the unique story attached to each garden.
CCGA extends its congratulations to all the CEGA winners and our sincere thanks for all you do to create livable communities that are greener, healthier, and more equitable.