Seed Cache- Grow Out Crew

As we wrap up after a great Seed Savin’ Social, we are trying to get Grow Out Crew seeds turned in earlier this year; ideally by Thanksgiving. This gives everyone a real break before seed activities pick up again in January. If you are a Grow Out Gardener with seeds to return, please reach out to LSandoval@sustaindupage.com to make arrangements. 

If this sounds fun, you too can grow different varieties of peas, beans, lettuce and tomatoes to build our seed stock! Growing these more rare- and often commercially unavailable- seeds helps preserve seed diversity. The image below shows how much seed diversity we've lost in food crops in the last century. Growing and saving less common varieties helps preserve the diversity we have. 

Reach out to us if you are interested in learning more about this important effort!

Compost Crew

Although we advocate for leaving your leaves in place for insect habitat, we understand most people don't want them in their yards. So, if you're going to get rid of them, why pay to send them to a landfill when you can drop them off for FREE and turn them into soil that will help grow local food?

Bring your bagged leaves to our compost site and we'll take care of them for you. For the health and safety of our volunteers and our garden, we ask that you don't include any of the following:

• Large sticks or thorny branches (including rose and raspberry canes)
• Plastic garbage
• Animal droppings
• Chemically treated lawn clippings

If you'd like to save your bags, dump the leaves to the side of our bins and take the bags back with you. We take drop-offs from dawn to dusk at our garden location. Park near the green garages and follow the signs to Sustain DuPage and you'll see our composting area to the right as you come down our garden path.

Please note that the grounds are both a school as well as an arboretum, so we ask people not to drive to the compost pile and to be careful during school hours. Our volunteers can help you unload your car between 9 AM-12 PM on Saturday mornings in October if you need assistance.  

If you're interested in volunteering with our Compost Crew, please contact stasiak@sustaindupage.com. It's a great way to get exercise as you help the environment!

Gardeners Project

The last official day of our Gardeners program will be October 28th, however, we may continue to meet sporadically in early November as we wrap up additional tasks. Those announcements will be made on our WhatsApp Gardeners group for those interested in joining.   Big thanks to Anton Dimov for stenciling the name of our garden cabin, which was generously donated to us by Diana Cabigting in 2021!

Protectors Project

Though the garden will soon be put to bed for the winter, there are still opportunities to volunteer on-site with us.  The Protectors project aims to "rewild" portions of land at the Theosophical Society.  This mostly includes removing weeds and invasive shrubs,  and collecting and sowing native seeds.  It's a great way to stay connected to the land during the sleepy months of winter.  There is always a fire, snacks, and beverages to keep our crew going.  If you are interested in joining, you can simply show up Saturdays from 10am to 12pm for November through March.  Workdays are posted on our Google Calendar.  If you would like to be added to our WhatsApp group for Protectors, or have any questions,   email davidb@sustaindupage.com

Protectors volunteers removing invasive brush from the re-wilding areas.