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!

First off, very excited to announce that I'm joining the team at Urban Growers Collective (formerly Growing Power) for two programs: a youth program this summer in partnership with After School Matters, as well as an ongoing preschool garden program at Educare in partnership with the Ounce of Prevention Fund! The youth program with ASM … Continue reading Spring in full swing

Springtime is... still feeling like wintertime! It snowed yesterday, and the soil is frozen again. Last week when the weather was gorgeous for a couple days, we direct sowed carrot, radish and pea seeds at the preschool. The kids had a blast! They love using the mini wheelbarrows to transport soil and the fill planters. … Continue reading Early Springtime

It's time to start springtime seedings! At the preschool we make "soil towers," which are just like soil blocks except cylindrical shaped. I created this simple soil tower making tool out of a short PVC pipe and a wooden dowel with a knob fixed to the top, and pin on the bottom. The rounded knob … Continue reading Seed starting!

Gotta keep up the blog posts! Winter programming has been going beautifully. These are microgreens that we grew at Chicago Youth Centers-- broccoli, kale, radish, and mustard greens. Microgreens are packed with flavor and nutrition, and are also so easy to grow in a sunny windowsill! They take 2-3 weeks to grow large enough for … Continue reading Winter programming

We've had an awesome couple weeks in Gardening Club at Chicago Youth Centers, check it out!  Lemon cucumbers... such an interesting variety! Look like lemons, taste like cucumbers 🙂  We found a giant!  Harvesting and prepping basil  We made bruschetta!  A rainbow harvest 🌈 Corn is tassling!!  Lemon cucumber on the vine Spicing it up! … Continue reading Harvest and garden snacks 

Excited to be working with Chicago Youth Centers and creating their edible garden together with the children!  Today we harvested peas and cucumbers... the kiddos loved them! Gotta get more pics of this garden site next time I'm there, it's flourishing!!  

  Another post for today... I'm on a roll! Had to share this one 🙂  Been getting super into square foot gardening recently! I led a square foot gardening lesson for the kindergarteners at Smart Love... this technique makes it super easy to space plants properly. For example, one square foot is enough space for … Continue reading Square foot gardening lesson

Getting used to this blogging thing... I need to update more often! I love trellising plants... how their tendrils have their own kind of intelligence, being able to sense what they can wrap themselves around. These peas have grown so fast, their tendrils grabbed onto each other for support! I adjusted the trellis so they … Continue reading Trellising tendrils

I transplanted this lettuce from microgreens that weren't doing so great... I wanted to try and save them. After about a month, theyre looking so healthy and beautiful! They taste great too 🙂 This is in the greenhouse at Smart Love Preschool, where I work as their Gardener-in-Residence and lead the "seed to table" garden … Continue reading Greens galore