Forest Park Community Garden: A Dream Realized

For over a year I've been working with a friend and fellow garden blogger on starting a community garden in our Chicagoland neighborhood of Forest Park, Illinois. I've been hesitant to discuss it here on my personal gardening blog because, well, I'm paranoid and I didn't want to tell you about it, then need to un-tell you about it if somehow the project wasn't a success.

This past Saturday we finally broke ground at Forest Park Community Garden. Rather than tell you the specifics of it, I'll simply direct you to our website and the great article published in our local paper today.

After seeing the article for the first time last night, I couldn't sleep from all the energy it gave me. This article prompted me to reflect on just how big an impact gardening has had on my life. Not only has it taught me more than I can articulate about the environment and where my food comes from, it gave me the passion and wherewithal to start and finish a pretty big project designed to help my community. All my life my actions have pretty much been limited to crap required for my paying job, or crap I did for personal gain. This is so different, and so rewarding. I couldn't be happier.

Now that our garden is sort of "official", I'll likely be sharing more about it here. I hope you'll be able to learn something from our experience or maybe even find the motivation to start, or get involved in a community garden in your neighborhood.