In the past, I have trained and volunteered as a University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener and worked at an independent garden center as a native plant buyer and gardening coach. I am a long time assistant steward of Thatcher Woods Savanna, Forest Preserve District of Cook County, and grow plants for the Native Seed Gardeners program. I am also a member of the Environmental Concerns Committee, Illinois Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers).
Professionally, I am the sustainability center coordinator at Triton College, where I also serve on the Greening the Campus Committee.
My garden:
My home is a 35x150-foot urban lot in an old neighborhood built at the turn of the twentieth century on a prairie in the Chicago Lake Plain. The soil is black silt loam. The garden is mostly in the backyard. What started as grass with narrow borders of annuals along the fences has evolved into a bird and pollinator-friendly polyculture of mostly native species of shrubs, flowers and grasses, along with herbs, rhubarb and raspberries, surrounding a small ecological lawn. I am always experimenting with new plants.
Ongoing collaborative projects:
Prairie Garden, Triton College, with students and faculty
- We started this project in 2009 by seeding into sod. We also propagated native plants from collected seed and plugged them in during Spring 2010. Winter 2010-2011 we are overseeding and also cold-stratifying more collected seed for spring propagation. We plan our first burn in Fall 2011 or Spring 2012, depending on conditions.
- This project involves a twelve-acre property in central Illinois corn/soy country which is being made more sustainable. There is a restored pocket prairie and remnant hedgerows. We have planted many native trees and plan to restore the hedgerows with native berry and nut-bearing species beginning Spring 2011.
