Lettuce Grow and Share!

Well, our community garden has come along way since its roots as a garden of little seeds, waiting to root themselves!  Now with a lush abundance of lettuce, swiss chard and cabbage springing forth, our hard work even from months in the cold has contributed to every green leaf reaching out to its solar source of life and energy.

With help from high school volunteers, we were able to load up a garage load of rock, soil and good manure (even the cows have helped!) into our newly constructed garden beds.
  The tomatoes were called for the challenge of taking on the outdoors, while the peppers and herbs were transplanted to their new tanning beds for growth.  Just as these vegetables have been growing stronger from their wiry starts, so to has our community of gardeners!  Our Sunday tradition of working and eating earth has been a source of peaceful productivity and knowledge shared amongst ourselves regarding more than just the seeds around us.  

The Backyard

Benton House was also blessed with the services of our friends at UPS  (www.ups.com), who dedicated their time till the job was done, and done well.... building the N for our now BEN BEDS!

They also helped by painting the BH logos in the gym, running electric for the food Pantry fridges, hanging the doors in our Faurot Hall and donating $10,000 to Benton House. We greatly appreciate you for all you have done to help us on our way!

To the summer's heat and thundershowers - we say cheers for helping our seeds flourish into what we have previously taken for granted in our grocery isles and for bridging the members of OUR Bridgeport community! Come unite in light.

    

Monday - June 6th Minutes
GARDEN PLANTING/SOIL : We can order more soil!  Woohoo!  Once the soil is ordered, we can work on getting some new plants out.  Also, save your plastic bottles - we use these to create little greenhouses around the plants.
CONSTRUCTION: We now have plans for a bench, plant signs and a sign encouraging our visitors and selves to keep the garden clean.
VOLUNTEERS: Benton House will be having volunteers from M-T for 9 weeks!  That means our plants will get some regular watering and upkeep.
PUBLIC RELATIONS:  Kristina and Kristin will be speaking with our Alderman to inform about our garden and our goals of helping Bridgeport be a model for urban food development through community gardens.  Stella will be working on creating us a page on Tumbler while seeing if we could get further publicity/donations through Whole Foods.  We can also work with Benton House web designers to further develop our page.
EVENTS/ACTIVITIES: EVERY Sunday is a fun work day, so come on over!  We'll keep you updated with more food workshops possibly including Zaytune and Pleasant House.  Also, we're looking into a fun mixer at Simone's soon with the possibility of movies in the garden in July/August.
NEXT MEETING: MONDAY JUNE 20th at 7 PM.  Hope to see you then!

A Bed fit for a King with the Seeds to Bear Forth!

Spring has sprung forth good projects and great community in BH's Backyard Botany and the scene is being set for a bountiful display of nature's wealth!

This past weekend, the Big Event happened and with the energy and teamwork of students from the Illinois Institute of Technology and Shimer College, in just 3 hours we planted over 150 new crops, cleared out the garden space, fabricated a garden sign from stunning trash and constructed three large raised beds!  The team effort and comraderie was incredible and gave the garden a good start to a successful season.  Kristina (a super woman!) organized the Big Event with numerous projects to improve Benton House - including the garden.  Our projects included Kristin (a master of gardening) cleared the gate path of rugged tree roots for a future spot of marigolds, while Matt and Adam (the dynamic woodworking duo!) worked with diligent and intelligent volunteers on making 3 strong raised beds out of scrap wood.  Jerrod and Daisy kept the beats a flowin' with some great spirited volunteers who started plants for some mouthwatering veggies - Tongue-teasing Tomatoes, Pep You Up Peppers and Care for Carrots among the many (scientific names to follow soon).  Jen (masterful at her gardening:)) made the garden into a picture perfect scene, without pesky weed vines stealing our Spinach's Sun and good structure for future growth.

More details on seeds/methods of building to come.  In the meantime, check out these great volunteers and their efforts!

THANKS TO GREAT VOLUNTEERS AND OUR GREAT TIME!!  More exciting gardening to come!

The Seed takes the Lead!

Kate, gardener extraordinairre

 It all starts with the basics - soil and seed... and of course some good fun labor!  Last Monday, the Benton House Garden Group planted the seed for what should be a bountiful garden, filled with great fruits and vegetables.  Cool crops, such as "hail me, i am kale", "rock the brocc"oli, "sugar daddy snap peas" and "behead us, we're lettuce" were planted in 156 cups of soil.

Kate made sure our soil was wet for planting.  Don't forget to mix your soil with water if planting. 

Heidi and Jerrod assured that each seed was carefully planted.  Kate's suggestion of digging a hole to the recommended depth with a pen made it easy to ensure a little seed of joy would have good soil surrounding it.

Heidi and some leafy greens

Heidi made sure every cup had its fill!  There will be plenty of room in the garden for some good kale!



Jerrod loves gardening just over playing with the band, Bring It On Home.

- Show quoted text -





Jerrod was quite focused and felt the texture of every seed.  What seed is this, Jerrod?





Matt, sends love to his seeds.



Matt loves to care for plants.  His room garden takes in rescued plants that have been neglected by their owners and he abides by a "no plant left behind" policy.  Send him your plants!

The Final Array of Seeds, all 156 cups.

Here's to a great garden season!!!!

What do you see here? The Start...

You've probably seen a few of these empty plots in Chicago - just waiting for a good construction crew to tear it up and turn it into an overpriced condo.  Well, in just a few months, this once snowy backyard will instead be a lush garden plot associated with the neighboring Bridgeport community and the Benton House Community Center.   This blog will plot the efforts of community members (young at heart to old in spirit) and the land that they shape, while providing a nutritious and educational resource for our community.  Stay tuned for a good green adventure!