In celebration of Indigenous People's Day, we invite you to join The GardenWorks Food Readers Book Club's to discuss Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants  by Robin Wall Kimmerer.  Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass―offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

Even though Blooming Fest has been cancelled, The GardenWorks Project will be holding its Vegetable Seedling Sale as a presale this year. Visit our shop to purchase ahead of time - supplies are limited, and pickup will be at the West Chicago Resource Center between 9AM and 1PM.

Due to COVID-19, we will be doing a drive-up pickup this year.  Please arrive between 9AM and 1PM and someone will be there to place your items in the car - thank you for supporting our mission!

In celebration of Earth Day, we invite you to join The GardenWorks Food Readers Book Club's to discuss The Fate of Food by Amanda Little. A winner of the 2019 Nautilus Book Award, The Fate of Food takes us on a tour of the future. The journey is scary, exciting, and, ultimately, encouraging.
Climate models show that global crop production will decline every decade for the rest of this century due to drought, heat, and flooding. Water supplies are in jeopardy. Meanwhile, the world’s population is expected to grow another 30 percent by midcentury. So how, really, will we feed nine billion people sustainably in the coming decades?
The race to reinvent the global food system is on, and the challenge is twofold: We must solve the existing problems of industrial agriculture while also preparing for the pressures ahead. Through her interviews and adventures with farmers, scientists, activists, and engineers, Little tells the fascinating story of human innovation and explores new and old approaches to food production while charting the growth of a movement that could redefine sustainable food on a grand scale. She meets small permaculture farmers and “Big Food” executives, botanists studying ancient superfoods and Kenyan farmers growing the country's first GMO corn. She travels to places that might seem irrelevant to the future of food yet surprisingly play a critical role—a California sewage plant, a U.S. Army research lab, even the inside of a monsoon cloud above Mumbai. Throughout her journey, Little finds and shares a deeper understanding of the threats of climate change and encounters a sense of awe and optimism about the lessons of our past and the scope of human ingenuity.

This summer, we invite you to join The GardenWorks Food Readers Book Club's LIVE event this year! We will gather to discuss Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman, a highly acclaimed youth fiction book that uses thirteen speakers to bring to life a community garden's founding and first year. The book's short length, diverse cast, and suitability for adults as well as children have led it to be used in countless one-book reads in schools and in cities across the country.

Awarded ALA Best Book for Young Adults, School Library Journal Best Book, Publishers Weekly Best Book, IRA/CBC Children's Choice, and NCTE Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts, Newbery-winning author Paul Fleischman.

A Vietnamese girl plants six lima beans in a Cleveland vacant lot. Looking down on the immigrant-filled neighborhood, a Romanian woman watches suspiciously. A school janitor gets involved, then a Guatemalan family. Then muscle-bound Curtis, trying to win back Lateesha. Pregnant Maricela. Amir from India. A sense of community sprouts and spreads. 

Seedfolks has been drawn upon to teach tolerance, read in ESL classes, promoted by urban gardeners, and performed in schools and on stages from South Africa to Broadway.

Fall is a great time to get your garden going... AGAIN! The GardenWorks Project will be holding its Vegetable Seedling Sale as a presale this year. Visit our shop to purchase ahead of time - supplies are limited, and pickup will be at the West Chicago Resource Center between 9AM and 1PM.

Due to COVID-19, we will be doing a drive-up pickup this year.  Please arrive between 9AM and 1PM and someone will be there to place your items in the car - thank you for supporting our mission!

Taught from indigenous traditions as well as native ecology management techniques,  The GardenWorks Project is proud to host a workshop about Native Gardening. In this online workshop, learn to maximize results in your garden through intentional native design, plant selection, and restorative techniques.

The GardenWorks Project is proud to have worked with 19 community gardens over the last 4 years. This workshop will present the basic fundamentals needed on how to start a community garden, topics related to the community gardening movement nationally, as well as examples and tours of gardens within the region that are growing for good!