Community Garden Returning this Spring to New, Permanent Home

The McKinley Park Community Garden is set to return to after over a year's hiatus from planting, weeding and harvesting at the popular neighborhood spot. Now assigned a new, permanent home on the Chicago Park District land "between the Damens," the garden will no longer face uncertainty about its future with each growing season.

The cadre of volunteers who run the garden gathered this past Sunday to finalize plans for 2018. One main event will be a full-day garden build-out on Saturday, April 14, to construct the new garden beds and site layout. Sign-ups for plots should begin on February 26, said garden volunteer Kara Breems, with a kick-off meeting for gardeners slated for Saturday, March 17.

A graphic from a community garden presentation shows the old and new locations of the garden.The plots will go quickly, Breems said, as the number has been reduced to 24 plots from the 60 plots available at the old garden spot, located on donated private land on the north side of Pershing Road between Wolcott and Winchester avenues. Plots at the new site will be available on a first-come, first-served basis and will cost $50 for the season.

Gardeners will also need to commit at least 10 hours of volunteer labor to the garden "in order to ensure we can build and fill all new beds, prep the new site and maintain it to the standards laid out by the park district," Breems said.

"New beds, soil and mulch cost a lot of money," she said, "so we will be applying for several in-kind grants to secure materials. We also raised funds from our 2017 plant sale and cocktail party, and we'll use those funds to get the garden in the ground."

Benefits of the new garden location include full sunlight and placement in a less-used part of McKinley Park where once-a-year deliveries of soil and mulch will have the least impact on public space. Water will be available via four 275 gallon tanks, but the garden will ultimately work toward installing a permanent water source. The location also accommodates the potential future joining of southbound Damen Avenue with northbound Damen Avenue between Pershing Road and West 37th Street.

About 100 people are on the community garden mailing list, Breems said, and everyone will be notified via email of garden updates and the process and deadlines for reserving a plot. Anyone who is interested in signing up can send email to mkpgarden@gmail.com.

The site layout for the community garden includes 24 plots, as shown in this graphic from a garden planning presentation.

This photo from a garden planning presentation shows the old garden location on Pershing Road, a couple blocks from the new location.