Please join us to learn more about plans for a combination community/demonstration garden in Skinner Park, and to meet other people interested in growing food together.

The Community Roots Demonstration Garden, planned to be built this spring in Skinner Park, will be an outdoor classroom space that will provide Chicagoans of all ages greater access to gardening education. Designed for both kids and families who want to learn more about growing their own food, the site will be able to host a range of workshops highlighting native species, pollinating plants, composting, rainwater harvesting, season extending techniques, and a variety of other topics that help inform and excite both seasoned and novice gardeners. The outdoor classroom will serve as a central hub for Chicago Park District-sponsored garden education, as well as opening itself to garden groups and educators to host their own workshops and events.

Overall, this project was proposed as a way of highlighting the incredible diversity of experiences that gardening has to offer – in both growing methods and in community & youth engagement techniques. While focusing in large part on growing fresh produce, the garden also plans to feature fruit trees and berries, native plantings and digging beds. Further, a variety of styles of raised beds and planters will be featured, and different areas of the garden will serve to teach visitors about a variety of topics from healing and sensory plants to companion planting, rainwater harvesting, insects, and more.

Half of the garden space will be dedicated to community gardening, and the remaining half for teaching and learning – with the hopes that excess produce on the “demonstration side” will be donated to a local food pantry or organization in need.