GROW CHICAGO ONE SEED AT A TIME

Chicago is uniting gardeners by planting a common seed across the city and will be linked together in a season-long celebration of urban greening. They've selected three candidates to choose from and the winning seed will be from a plant that was once commonly found in the prairies around here, but is now rare in the wild outside of prairie restoration projects and cultivated gardens. I voted for the purple coneflower.

Last year One Seed Chicago distributed 10,000 Blue Lake Pole green bean seeds and helped Chicagoans rediscover growing their own food in a recession.

Mr. Brown Thumb is working on this worthy project which is sponsored by NeighborSpace, a nonprofit land trust dedicated to preserving and sustaining community managed open spaces in Chicago and I thank him for bringing it to our attention. This is indeed a fantastic way to provide thousands of people the opportunity to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers, to restore habitats, and create unique gathering places in their own neighborhoods.