Gaia’s Home Garden Club
The newly created Gaia Home Garden Club started in April of 2024 and aims to become an annual member-invited club to increase urban farming knowledge and the amount of home gardens amongst members in the Chicagoland area. Members will become part of the fight against global warming, reducing carbon emissions and cutting out fossil fuels by reducing the need to transport produce and reducing plastic bag waste.
Lead by an urban farming expert, members get hands on experience with starting their own home gardens, learning about sowing, harvesting, and storing their garden produce and herbs; and tips and tricks for maintaining the garden, combatting against pests, and seasonal planting schedules for best results. Members have the added benefit of sharing gardening tips and getting advice through a Gaia Home Garden Club message board!
The Gaia Home Garden Club currently has 9 members who have committed to three gardening workshops for the year from spring to fall. This year the workshops will take place in May, July, and September to correspond to the planting and harvesting time for the provided produce and herb seeds. In the future, Gaia hopes to increase to 4 workshops per year between March and September.
At the first workshop on May 11th, each member received a starter kit that contained seeds and tools, organic soil, premeasured wood for growing beds, an instructional booklet detailing gardening do’s and don’ts, and a model garden to get started. Workshops are held at the Gaia Climate Center located at 8918 S Green St. Chicago, IL 60620.
This garden club will accept new members on an annual basis but welcomes community members to come and interact with Gaia Garden Club leaders and garden members, as well as take part in presentations. The garden club requires a firm commitment to the prescheduled workshops for that year, which could be 3 or 4 workshops. Those workshops cover beginner planting, maintenance, and harvesting to ensure complete understanding of the care and flourishing of your garden, whether it be for your home or your community!
The Gaia Home Garden Club is in their first year with plans to continue offering membership invites on an annual basis starting in early 2025. To stay up to date on the Gaia Home Garden Club and get information about when enrollment begins for 2025, join our email blast. To take part in the upcoming workshops, events, volunteer opportunities, and other on-sight sustainable actions check out our Facebook and Instagram!
Check out our first ever Gaia Home Garden Club workshop!