The youth at CYC Crown Center made adorable valentines this year— seed paper hearts! First, they choose which colors they want, and they cut and tear the paper into tiny pieces. Then the paper gets soaked in warm water, and the kids can mash up the paper with their hands! I carefully use a hand … Continue reading Seed Paper Heart Valentines! ♡

Even though it’s the middle of winter, there are plenty of gardening activities that we can do indoors! Throughout the winter I’ve been running programs with Chicago Youth Centers (CYC) and Belmont Village Senior Living. Both youth and seniors get so much enjoyment out of gardening activities, even when it’s too cold to go outside. … Continue reading Sprouting Microgreens Indoors During Winter

I led a terrarium workshop with the 2nd and 3rd grade class at the Four Winds Waldorf School! Thanks so much to my friend and colleague Brenna McLachlin for bringing me into her classroom— their class is set up in a tent outside, which is a brilliant solution for keeping school in session while shifting … Continue reading Terrarium workshop

I’ve been leading virtual aquaponics sessions with Chicago Youth Centers this fall as a part of their family engagement programs. All the families received an aquaponics kit with pea seeds, and we’ve been meeting and assembling our kits via zoom. We’ll be adding betta fish to the system, but already the pea sprouts have been … Continue reading Educational Aquaponics Program for Families!

I'm offering free gardening workshops online via the Homeschool Co-op 2020! The next one will be about seasonal gardening, focused on planting a fall garden-- Tuesday September 1st at 4:30-5:30pm CST. This class is open to kids ages 8+ and families/adults. Register here: https://tinyurl.com/yy2lfchc

I'm thrilled with how this program went this summer! It was a 6-week long virtual apprenticeship program for 17 teens, in partnership with After School Matters and Carole Robertson Center for Learning. With their support, I created the entire curriculum from scratch! We learned about a variety of topics having to do with environmental justice-- … Continue reading Environmental Justice Changemakers Program

My little 4x8 plot in front of my building is growing nicely 🙂 So far I've been able to harvest spinach, lettuce and radishes! I just love being able to go out to the garden and harvest fresh greens. The maple tree above the garden has been dropping its seeds, but luckily the tree doesn't … Continue reading Lil’ Garden is growing!

These pictures are from my "Lil' Garden" in front of my building. It's a small 4x8' plot, and several weeks ago I seeded peas, spinach, radish, carrots, and a few varieties of lettuce. They're all looking great! I also picked up a couple of cabbage starter plants from Home Depot and planted them in the … Continue reading Springtime Seedlings!

Earlier this year, Chicago Youth Centers’s Bronzeville location Elliott Donelly Youth Center decided to create a large new garden space in their giant sand pit! Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled with this idea. I designed a plan for the space during my Edible Landscaping and Container Design certification course with Windy City Harvest: … Continue reading Chicago Youth Centers new garden space

Summer has been HOT. I tell you what... we went from a late start in Spring to a full blown, ongoing heatwave. In any case, we've still been planting, maintaining and harvesting, and having a blast! At CYC we got a bunch of delicious sweet peas recently: And our first pepper! We've been building up … Continue reading Fun in the sun!