Sustainable Home Tour

Naperville, February 25th, 1:30 to 4:00pm, $30

Sustain DuPage presents a tour of one of DuPage County's prime examples of sustainable architecture, featuring integrated native plant landscaping, a green roof, both active and passive solar elements, energy-efficient construction, and more!  Visit our Eventbrite to learn more and purchase tickets for this event:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sustainable-home-tour-tickets-816163766797?aff=oddtdtcreator

Seed Swap at the Wheaton Library!

Dreaming of Spring and fresh produce from your garden? Get a head start on your planning and join Sustain DuPage at our free Seed Share! Meet us in the basement event room at Wheaton Public Library from 1-3pm on February 24th.

What to bring:  

• We welcome heirloom and open pollinated seeds, including those purchased packets you didn’t use all of last year.  
• Please bring seeds saved or purchased within the last 2-4 years or less, and stored in a cool, dark, and dry place.
• Label the seeds with the type, variety, and the date and location they were harvested, along with any other descriptions that might be helpful. An example would be: Cherry Tomato: Italian Yellow Cherry. 2020 grown in Glen Ellyn.
• Please DO NOT bring seeds saved from hybrid plants. They won’t grow true to type.
• You are welcome to come take seeds even if you do not have seeds to contribute, just please take only what you can use this season.
• Your preferred seed storage: Ziploc bags, envelopes, medicine jars.

We will have:

• Blank envelopes and pens for you to take notes
• Some of our seeds to share
• Activities and coloring pages for kids
• A hands on seed demonstration table
• Sign-up table for One Seed, One Community 2024 (Amish Snap Pea)

Seeds left at the end of the day will be donated to the Wheaton Public Library’s Seed Library and the Sustain DuPage Seed Cache.

Put our Seedling Share on your calendar as well and bring any extra plants you've started to our event May 18th!

Protectors

This winter the Protectors project has been working on a variety of outdoor rewilding and rehab tasks at our stewarding site on the grounds of the Theosophical Society. Besides invasive shrub and tree species removal, we've been sowing native seeds, creating a "mushroomery" growing plot for mushroom logs harvested during our forest tending, and we're currently working on pruning the concord vineyard on the property which has been producing for over 40 years! If you'd like to get involved, this project meets in person on Saturday mornings from 10 AM-12 PM at 1926 N. Main St. Wheaton, IL. Please dress appropriately for outdoor work and check our calendar before coming, since we do cancel if it's too cold outside.   

 

Community Cooking

 

For the 2024 growing season, Sustain DuPage is planning on introducing regular food prep events.  These events will be designed to support volunteers with processing tasks for harvest that can get overwhelming during the growing season: washing, cleaning, peeling, chopping, boiling down greens, weighing out quantities, canning etc. Volunteers could bring produce from their own gardens, and we'll have some from the Sustain DuPage garden as well. If you are interested, please click here and fill out this questionnaire to help us better understand your needs and preferences.

 

Gardeners

The 2024 Gardeners planning meetings are now underway. Meetings are from 6:30-8:00 PM Wednesday nights at the Glen Ellyn Library through the end of February. We have a max capacity of 24 people, so please RSVP if you are planning on attending so we can reserve your space. 

The Sustain DuPage Garden is a communal growing space where likeminded people come together to grow food, community, and gardening skills together as a group. We use sustainable gardening practices and have fun experimenting with different crops and techniques to produce a bounty of food for our volunteers, mission projects, and SD community. All are welcome! 

Check our most up to date calendar on our website

If your organization's event falls within the mission of Sustain DuPage and you'd like to advertise it in our newsletter, please contact us at info@sustaindupage.com.