Very happy to announce the publication of Nance Klehm‘s The Ground Rules, a 70-page newsprint broadside inspired by her ongoing community composting project (of the same name) in Chicago. I’ve been helping Nance and intern Jacob Blecher structure and edit the book off and on for the last six months. It’s a holistic, hands-on guide to composting … Continued
I did this little interview with Nance Klehm as a companion piece to an exhibit she participated in earlier this year called AgriART: Companion Planting for Social and Biological Systems. Although the premise seems at first quite straightforward — “An array of art works that critically engage with cultures of food production and consumption” — I … Continued
“Some greenhouses grow vegetables. Some grow flowers. What grows at the two gleaming 2,500-square-foot greenhouses rising from a gray industrial district at South Canal Street and 14th Place is a bit more complex.” Really great story on the Greenhouses of Hope at PGM in this weekend’s Sunday Tribune Magazine. Though it does remind me how … Continued
Stringing together even two interesting words has seemed a challenge of late. Late-summer lethargy? Age-related brain cell loss? Allergies? Who knows. Who cares? Here, instead, are are some pretty pictures, shot this morning in the greenhouse and gardens behind the Pacific Garden Mission. PGM is a Chicago institution; originally founded in 1877, the shelter stood … Continued
WBEZ producer Kristin Moo did a short little piece on the Greenhouses of Hope at Pacific Garden Mission, where I’ve been volunteering for the last eight months. I was out of town the day she came down to tape, but I wouldn’t have been able to contribute anything that Nance and Sayre — and our … Continued
On Tuesday I graduated, finally, from the U. of I. Extension’s master gardener program. This is noteworthy not because I consider myself suddenly qualified to dispense any sort of horticultural advice — despite the certificate and spiffy new name tag I am still shocked and amazed whenever anything grows, anywhere. But I am a bit … Continued
Anne Ford — who is, by the way, a great example of a writer-as-polymath and whose work I always enjoy for its thorough, open-minded take on whatever it is that has captured her attention — has a nice piece in this week’s Reader on my friend Nance Klehm. This passage handily sums up why I … Continued
(photo from GRG) The blog Green Roof Growers has a nice post about the Greenhouses of Hope at the Pacific Garden Mission. I work here once a week but wasn’t around for the planter project. I did spend most of last Monday sanding down some nice new worm bins, though — so if you’re in the market for a worm … Continued
Mike Gebert’s latest Sky Full of Bacon podcast explores the rising popularity of urban foraging. Check it out to hear chef Art Jackson and artist-gardener extraordinaire Nance Klehm discuss the food to be found beneath your feet–and to remember what the city looked like in September, before that bacon sky turned mud-grey and the streets filled up with … Continued
Passing this on from Nance: The Greenhouses of Hope at Pacific Garden Mission, offers a pound of worms to the Chicagoland community for a $20 donation. We sell very nice untreated often reclaimed wood worm bins 1.5 cubic foot, ‘under-the-sink’wormerie w/ ~1000 worms for $75 9 cubic foot ‘bench warmer’ wormerie w/ 2,500 worms for … Continued