* Rogers Park Gardeners Group Growing

Hi Craig –

Begging your indulgence to help promote the next meeting of the Rogers Park Garden Group scheduled for Tuesday, June 26 at 7 p.m. at Rogers Park Presbyterian Church, Fellowship Room (2nd floor).

Terry Guen of Terry Guen Design Associates, coordinating landscape architect for the Lurie Garden at Millenium Park will be giving a presentation on landscaping with native plants.

The meeting is free to members; $5 for non-members.

The Circle Park planters at Loyola Park at the end of Morse were planted this past weekend by the Garden Group, Loyola Park Keepers, and a few additional volunteers including Jocelyn Meyer who deserves a big shout out for making a day of it and the littlest gardener, Julian, who may have been the hardest worker of all (well, he was certainly the dirtiest and happiest of the bunch!). I have to say that the planters look pretty darned good!

A tired but satisfied group! A big Thank You to everyone who donated plant materials, money, time, and good wishes.

The Garden Group would LOVE to take on additional community gardening projects as soon as our aching bodies will allow. However, not even the best massages can overcome funding and active volunteer member shortages. The Group is pretty pleased with event turn out so far. We’re tickled that close to 50 people have paid $10 in dues and joined.

The support from the bloggers (particularly yourself) and others in the community has been terrific.

We are grateful to everyone who has shown their support in contributions and promotion. But at this point we are in dire need of additional active volunteer members.

We need people to help with the following committees: membership, community garden, marketing, and others. We need doers and we need them fast! The group began around a dining room table with three people in January.

We have since brought on 5 others who are taking an active daily role. But, still, that’s not enough. For the RP Garden Group to be a sustainable entity that makes a real difference in the community, we need more people because making this group work takes a lot of effort and work and we all have demanding day jobs. The more active members who are involved, the less work for everyone and the greater the ownership interest on the part of the entire community. This is not “our” garden club; it is Rogers Park’s garden group.

We planted the seed, nursed the seedling, and now need others to help weed and water so that this new community of neighbors will grow and grow.

Best,

Pamela