I've Got Good News And I've Got Bad News
First, the good news. We received word on Monday November 3rd that we CAN use the Harlem site for the new community garden. This has taken much longer than any of us imagined, although I'm not sure why I would imagine anything dealing with the State of Illinois would take less than like a million years!
The bad news is that the site is basically a big ole pile of rubble. (As a side-note, I think the word "rubble" is seriously under-used and under-appreciated and I personally plan to use it every chance I get for a while.) As Jessica described in her post about taking the soil test samples, there is only about 4 inches of dirt, then she hit rubble in every spot she sampled. I know it'd be much easier if this site was pure rice dirt just waiting to be planted, but that's usually not the reality of community gardens. The idea is usually to take a spot that nobody wants and turn it into something beautiful for the community to enjoy and to create a place where folks who might not have the space to garden can grow their own food. This is just that sort of space. We'll just use raised beds (which many people prefer, anyway) and plant right on top of the rubble.
Bonus good news: Jessica also finally received the results of the soil test and the lead levels were fine for planting.
So, moving forward, our new best friends are the folks over at the Park District of Forest Park. They currently maintain the property and are very excited to work with us to make the Forest Park Community Garden a success.
The bad news is that the site is basically a big ole pile of rubble. (As a side-note, I think the word "rubble" is seriously under-used and under-appreciated and I personally plan to use it every chance I get for a while.) As Jessica described in her post about taking the soil test samples, there is only about 4 inches of dirt, then she hit rubble in every spot she sampled. I know it'd be much easier if this site was pure rice dirt just waiting to be planted, but that's usually not the reality of community gardens. The idea is usually to take a spot that nobody wants and turn it into something beautiful for the community to enjoy and to create a place where folks who might not have the space to garden can grow their own food. This is just that sort of space. We'll just use raised beds (which many people prefer, anyway) and plant right on top of the rubble.
Bonus good news: Jessica also finally received the results of the soil test and the lead levels were fine for planting.
So, moving forward, our new best friends are the folks over at the Park District of Forest Park. They currently maintain the property and are very excited to work with us to make the Forest Park Community Garden a success.