[Communications] [Test] 8th Annual Conference Updates • Meet the Presenters! • Send us garden photos

[CCGA Education Team]

8th Annual Conference Updates  •  Meet the Presenters!  •  Send us garden photos

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News for Community Gardeners

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Saturday, March 20 from 9:30am - 4:00pm
Hopin (virtual platform)
** Register for the conference (http://chicagocommunitygardens.org/conference/)
March 20 is more than just a Saturday and the day of our conference, it's also the Spring Equinox. It marks the arrival of more daylight and the warmth of the ground and air. It also marks exactly one year since we first entered the stay-at-home order given by Gov. Pritzker. And here we are, able to finally begin to envision life post-pandemic. We are warming up to a new spring growing season with the wisdom we've gained. Many new and old tips and strategies kept our gardens and urban farms resilient, and we became more agile. Our connections strengthened as this pandemic urged a balancing act in our daily lives, and our connections have never been more important. You Are Here. We acknowledge the critical part each and every one of you play every day.

We're busy preparing for our first ever virtual conference, and we're excited to share a day filled with learning, connecting and inspiration. In this issue, meet some of our presenters and breakout hosts, who are ready to share their knowledge and information and will inspire you to use it with their infectious energy and passion!
Keeping Bees at Your Community Garden
Matthias Lampe loves gardening and beekeeping and feels at peace when he’s at the garden or working with the bees! In his own words, “When I moved to Chicago from Europe I was lucky to have the El Paseo Community Garden in my neighborhood." As Head Beekeeper at El Paseo, he will share lessons learned in keeping honey bees and how they could benefit your community garden, including:
* How to start beekeeping (equipment, buying bees, location, tools, costs, etc.)
* What to know to be a beekeeper (incl. resources to learn beekeeping)
* How to harvest and sell honey (equipment, tools, costs, expected income)
* How to organize, involve and educate volunteers as beekeepers
* Where to find help (e.g., organizations and potential mentors for beekeeping)

After the presentation, Matthias will answer questions and will be available to help anyone with the decision process and the setup. Perhaps keeping bees could be a new project for your community garden in 2021!


Técnicas eficaces para la jardinera ecológica en pequeños espacios
(presentado solo en Español)
Este taller con Emilia Arellano del Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance será una discusión guiada e interactiva, centrada en el tema de cómo economizar para rendir el mayor provecho posible de una temporada de cultivo limitada y escasos recursos de tal forma que también contribuimos al cuidado de nuestra tierra. En equipo, diseñaremos un jardín urbano estándar que mide 4 pies por 8 pies usando un tapiz a la medida. A la vez, exploraremos cómo adaptar las siguientes técnicas para los jardines chicos: combinar plantas, plantar en sucesión, hacer nuestro propio abono y conservar el agua. Al final de la discusión, cada participante tendrá oportunidad de hacer preguntas mientras dibuja un plan para su propio jardín estándar de 4 por 8 pies. Emilia es la coordinadora de invernaderos de Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, donde ofrece talleres de horticultura para adultos y dirige un grupo diverso y dedicado de más de 30 voluntarios que propagan plantas ornamentales y comestibles. Su pasión por
la jardinería sostenible no se limita al trabajo. Como voluntaria en el programa de Jardineros Maestros de Chicago, tiene una amplia experiencia trabajando junto a jóvenes y adultos en jardines escolares, hospitales y jardines comunitarios en el norte y oeste de Chicago.
Tree Huggers Unite! Let's Plant and Protect Our Trees!
Why are more trees are urgently needed in our urban environment? Find out the answer to this question and what you can do about it (hint: it's in the title!) Join Betsy Elsaesser to explore the many benefits of trees. She will discuss the right trees for Chicagoland, where and how to plant trees and how to maintain them. Included is a brief introduction to the TreeKeepers program and the Openlands tree planting grant program. Betsy is the President of the North Park Village Garden Club, one of the oldest and largest community gardens in Chicago. She has loved gardens, trees and natural areas all her life. She has been a volunteer TreeKeeper with Openlands since 1993 and assists with TreeKeeper classes and pruning practical exams. She passed the International Society of Arboriculture exam to become a Certified Arborist, and also completed the Tree Risk Assessment Qualification.

#ChicagoGrowsFood: How to Creatively Grow Food in Small Spaces

Join the movement to creatively grow food with a variety of techniques at home in small spaces during the pandemic and meet your neighbors in the process. Peter Hoy and Akilah Martin invite new and veteran gardeners to join the session to celebrate our small growing spaces and share cultivation techniques and tools with each other. They will introduce gardeners to the social media campaign to tag food growing posts on Instagram with #ChicagoGrowsFood. There, everyone can share their stories and connect with neighbors online with searchable photos on Instagram. Peter Hoy is the Executive Director of Stein Learning Gardens at St. Sabina in the Auburn Gresham community. His current projects include #ChicagoGrowsFood, a collaborative of school garden educators, growers, earth stewards, and academics that formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that provides technical assistance and growing materials for families to produce food at home. Akilah Martin is a Certified Professional Coach and a
consultant at AM Root Builders, Inc. She holds a doctorate in philosophy and is a board member at Friends of the Forest Preserves. Her core values are joy and freedom; she is "rooted" in co-creating high energy relationships, specifically, creating and actively sustaining an abundantly healthy relationship for yourself and then others.
Selecting Fruit Tree Varieties for an Extended Harvest (Pick Three!)
Whether you are planning to buy your first fruit tree or thinking of adding a few more varieties to your orchard, Tim Hamilton of MidFEx (Midwest Fruit Explorers) will help you through the selection process. When looking on-line or browsing catalogs, the choices may seem overwhelming - which fruit to grow - apples, peaches, pears, cherries, or plums? You'll discover all of the differences between fruit trees and the challenges of growing them, including which fruits are easier to grow organically and which need to be sprayed to harvest fruit. Tim will present the idea of “picking three” different fruits or varieties to extend your harvest from summer to late fall here in Chicago. Tim is partially retired and spends his time on his passions: fruit trees and bees! Living in northern Lake County, Tim maintains an orchard containing over 60 trees on ¾ of an acre including 17 varieties of apples, 15 pears, 4 peaches, 4 plums, 4 cherries and quince. He is always searching for unique varieties of
fruit to add to his orchard with a focus on taste and an extended harvest.

Connect to School Gardens:
Growing More Food and Celebrating Culture in Community

Meet Juline McClinton, Sam Koentopp, Amina Bahloul and Katherine Jernigan (clockwise).
Katherine Jernigan, Amina Bahloul and Sam Koentopp of Big Green invite CCGA members to participate in two new programs to increase community participation in school gardens and steward school garden spaces to grow more food and share diverse cultural practices with the school community. Juline McClinton will join the conversation with her perspective as a Garden Leader with the Austin Green Team. She is an active volunteer working to help organize, maintain and support community gardens and community beautification in the Austin neighborhood. Katherine, Amina and Sam are with the nonprofit Big Green where they work to connect students to real food through a network of 200 gardens in CPS schoolyards.

Mapping Soil Lead in Chicago,
Potential Uptake by Vegetables

Meet George Watson (left) and Andrew Margenot (right).
Join Dr. Andrew Margenot and George Watson of the Crop Sciences Department at University of Illinois for an in-depth look at where lead is found in soils in Chicago. Crop uptake of lead from soil is a concern for community gardeners, but there is scant evidence on risks as well as risk mitigation. Using soils from Chicago via greenhouse and field experiments, they will share an evaluation of just how much lead makes it up into vegetables, with tomato and kale as model crops. They also evaluated recommended and alternative methods to lessen crop uptake of lead and will share results and discuss how proper control of respiratory risk (e.g. mulching), and safe in-ground production of these two crops may be possible.

Permaculture in Practice

Meet George Watson (left) and Andrew Margenot (right).
Meet George Watson (left) and Andrew Margenot (right).

Share your Community Garden Pics!
Show off your hard work! Share your masked planting and socially-distanced activities! Email your photos to us ** here (mailto:photos at chicagocommunitygardens.org?subject=Community%20garden%20photos)
and we'll share them in our community garden slideshow and on Facebook.

Are you webinar savvy? We need you!

We're seeking people to help with behind-the-scenes technical support for the conference. If you’re interested, please contact the ** Communications Team (mailto:communications at chicagocommunitygardens.org?subject=Technical%20support%20for%20conference)
. This year, Support Team members receive complimentary admission, which includes limited time for attending sessions, breakout rooms, networking, and the Expo Area during the conference and access to all recorded presentations!

Become a Virtual Exhibitor

You are invited to become an exhibitor to share your valuable knowledge, resources, and skills with Chicago’s Community Gardeners. The virtual Expo Area will be open for the duration of the conference. Your virtual exhibitor booth will allow you to engage in real time with attendees as well as share pre-recorded content, slides, and links to your website. As an exhibitor, you can include special offers to attendees via your booth. Attendees can also register interest with your company, allowing your representative to contact them via chat during the conference, or email after the conference. If you’re interested in becoming an exhibitor, please complete this form: ** https://forms.gle/TMQunTevNNaqTWcS (https://forms.gle/TMQunTevNNaqTWcS7)
** Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoCommunityGardenersAssociation/)
** Website (https://chicagocommunitygardens.org/)
** Email (mailto:info at chicagocommunitygardens.org)
Have ideas, suggestions or news you would like to share with fellow community gardeners in the next CCGA email? Please send those items to ** communications at chicagocommunitygardens.org. (mailto:communications at chicagocommunitygardens.org)

For questions about CCGA and how to get involved, email ** membership at chicagocommunitygardens.org (mailto:membership at chicagocommunitygardens.org)
or visit ** chicagocommunitygardens.org/ccga-organization (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=00179W6ckE8nHc3_ea7VKAt_U7Qet-JCzLSSeOPh9N6gLUWNELIG_623Uq6CaEg83lQ1WW0jnA6WuALEV1KYm5MScGNmqRYtYgAgBDTodIy-SyCKM58AQz6GunGMbJ4-ek7UqfS8SQG6_xSbq9jDG3ygw1D1zHRazackxCKDCvakZu8s8cYVx8sGl2f1mgl-HYIDcDzXQnxkrapObZi2PTbGA==&c=Q_d2K6wsNreybPhq6TiCSg0zyf5NMPf7aMT2L5QmEGvWL4M9ouukwQ==&ch=86ZxnO5wcbz_NBbECE7jjonhPQ3EptToF6SB0B4xUiWBxWw2KdMzXQ==)

Need resources for your community garden? Have resources to offer? Email ** resources at chicagocommunitygardens.org (mailto:resources at chicagocommunitygardens.org)
.
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