2025 News
Powell School Visits the RBVG
Recently, the Garden welcomed Second Graders from Powell School. for a tour. and a lesson on engaging our senses in a garden. Students were shown a variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers grown in the Garden, and learned how to identify them through touch, smell, and sight. They were especially taken with the mammoth sunflower head donated by member Connor Celeste. Thank you, Connor.
During the tour, the RBVG's special features were highlighted for the children.
Stops at the compost and rain barrel stations included a discussion on Respect for The Earth, while visits to the Mini Orchard and Donation Gardens taught lessons in Respect for Community. The future gardeners were eager to learn and to share what they already know: "Food comes from seeds." Don't we all know it!
Many thanks to Powell teacher Cordell Longstead for reaching out to us and allowing us to conduct our first Children's Tour. We learned a lot, too! We are already planning next year's tour!
"Circulation Desk" at the RBVG
The Garden is asking members to donate seeds from their gardens to help create the new RBVG Seed Library. Vegetable and/or flower, all seeds will be accepted.
Member Jolene Hanchar will be collecting, cataloging, and storing seeds for distribution next season. Please bring your seeds to Jolene when you see her in the Garden so they can be labeled and stored, or reach out to her at rbvg7900@gmail.com, and she will contact you to arrange getting your donation.
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Next Spring, seeds will be available free to members and eventually we hope to share/trade them citywide with other community gardens!!
Setting The Example
Congratulations to our new members on their beautifully maintained plots! Michael Kuby, LaDeena Furey, Jolene Henchar, and Fred Stafford exemplify the RBVG Standards and excellence in gardening. All of you join long-time members Manuel Alvarez, Yao Kourdjonou, Nick Garcia, and Pedro Aranda as the best of 2025!
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Pollinators Matter / The Lincoln Park Wildlife Group
The Lincoln Park Wildlife Group is once again conducting research in the RBVG, focusing on pollinators this season. We have an abundance of pollinators for the group to study. They will make two visits to the Garden to monitor and photograph the various types of pollinators not only in our designated speciality gardens, but also along the main pathways and on the borders of members' plots.
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A recent New York Times article reaffirmed why every garden needs to protect pollinators, something the RBVG has been committed to throughout its history. Currently, our Garden features six plots designated specifically as pollinator stations. These areas, along with the required flowered borders for members' plots and the main pathways, create a haven for bees and butterflies every season.
You can read the article, See How Butterflies Are Surviving or Not, in Your Area, in the March 6, 2025, edition of the NYT. A copy of it will be posted on the Garden's Information Board after May 1st. The article discusses the status of butterfly populations in the Chicago and feel pride in what our Garden has achieved and continues to do to protect these vital members of nature and the world safe.
