Hey there and welcome! We’re blowing the dust off of things figuratively and literally with the first HUGE project of 2023 and our first blog post covering it. March was full of excitement for so many people around our country because of March Madness, the greatest time in basketball. We celebrated a different type of March Madness. Our March Madness = Bed Building Blitz.
Last year, we applied for and were awarded 2 grants from Schwemm Family Foundation and the Aya Initiative that would help us rebuild our farm from the ground up. These particular grants allowed us to focus on rebuilding the raised beds that we put in when we first started in 2016. If you don’t remember, or you’re new here, here’s a photo of those garden beds before we installed our trellises. Those beds are 4×8 raised beds made from lumber only 8 inches tall. They didn’t rise very far from the ground and were hard on the body to work.
We choose to use the square foot gardening method to grow food on the farm. It is a way for us to grow the most amount of food in the least amount of space while also allowing us to grow on land that may have been inhabited by businesses like cleaners, or even paint manufacturers. There were quite a few in this neighborhood.
Our community wanted higher beds. Heck, WE wanted higher beds so that our backs weren’t SO sore after a long day of work, so we started the transformation.
Then we tore the farm out in October and November. First removing all of the beds, trellises and netting that were present on the farm. We removed pokeweed, and so much milkweed as it had become invasive too. That took a long time. Neighbors, junior farmers and folks who needed to blow off a little steam helped us remove all of the stuff that you could see above the mulch.
Then came the hard part. Getting to the weed fabric that we placed in the most RIDICULOUS of ways. Instead of laying one layer the same way, we did a bit of a crisscross situation that proved to be cumbersome getting up. Lots of pulling, and falling, and laughing happened. Lots of it. Some crying too, for good measure.
and then it looked like this
Then, our Executive Director found out that after all that work, the plans for the farm would be derailed because a sore shoulder turned out to be a frozen shoulder with the added bonus of a pinhole tear of her rotator cuff. It stopped work a bit because she’s a hard person to convince to let us help her, so it took some very special people to get us to the place we are now.
This is about the time that it happened, we’re certain. She tells us that she doesn’t have that many regrets.
First, we installed fence posting across the Eastern end of our farm with the help of the Habitat for Humanity staff. This work was done on a beautiful November day. What you don’t see is the fact that while the posts are going in, there were several deliveries of 30 yd3 of the mulch that would claim our fearless leader’s right shoulder.
Look at that squad! If you’ve never installed fence posting, you may not realize just how back breaking it can be. Digging holes, removing debris, making a straight line, and then filling those same holes with cement can break a sweat on the most experienced of workers.
We took our chances and installed a 32″ vego bed. One lone raised bed that held its own.
Our farm then sat untouched for the coldest parts of the winter. Lonely. Wishing for a buddy.
It didn’t have to wait TOO long. In the middle of March we had volunteers from Latin School of Chicago that helped us build 6 more of these over a two day period, and one of the coldest stretch of days in March. Madness for real.
This is the type of teamwork that invigorated everyone. After sharing the limitations of her mobility, Natasha’s village sprung into action and the Community Food Navigator sponsored a work day for National Ag Day where TWENTY SIX individuals showed up to cut and build 11 wooden raised beds. Organizations that were represented were The Morton Arboretum, Contemporary Farmer, Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, and Revolution Workshop.
Not to be outdone, Habitat for Humanity heard the rallying cry and partnered with Loyola University to help us build 10 raised beds. Properly squared and all! We rocked out to tunes from ye olde Radio Disney, heavy on Miley Cyrus and laughed a LOT!
Habitat for Humanity then returned with students from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and added 5 more beds to the bunch. It was quite cold, but they pushed through!
We’re now 34 beds into our bed-building blitz and the end is in sight. Of course, we wouldn’t bring you all of this way without showing you a progress photo.
Our goal was 60 beds by the time the grant period was done, and we are on track to accomplish that with several more days of volunteering coming up in April and May.
We’d love to have you come and volunteer with us on the farm if you’re available. More dates will be listed in our events section, and crossposted on Facebook, LinkedIn and even IG/Twitter.
Hope to see you soon!
Keep Sowing & Growing!
