Free Water for Chicago's Community Gardens

by Juanita Salvador-Burris
(Chicago, IL, USA)

Watering our vegetable plots in the Brickyard Community Garden in the South Side of Chicago used to be the kind of garden disaster Doug wrote he was in recently and that his wallet was responsible for the situation. You know, he was passing the buck. So I wrote him about the FREE WATER we get from the City of Chicago through a land trust program called NEIGHBORSPACE.

Community gardens in the city apply and if the city elders or bureaucrats judge that your garden can be maintained/sustained by the community members, it is designated as FOREVER A GARDEN.

Not for sale to a developer who can bribe a city alderman or alderwoman. CHICAGO'S motto is Urbs in Horto ? City in a Garden. As many of you already know, our King Richard who has reigned for six terms has turned Chicago green and surrounded parking lots with wrought iron fences to make these look beautiful like he saw in Europe.

So I am sending photos of our Brickyard Community Garden:
1. The view from my third floor condo back porch
As an early bird, I often do tai chi on the back porch, taking in the fresh air and looking out to the garden next door, right below.
2. A photo of the other early bird, a Red Cardinal perched on a tomato cage with climbing cucumbers behind, which my Nikon telephone lens captured from my third floor perch.
3. View of our family veggie plot in the background with five white hanging baskets, including the partially planted raised bed. The picnic table is under a pergola covered by Concord grape leaves.
4. The city Water Department-installed hydrant, connected to the street?s water main, to which two hoses are attached for the front and back areas of a 50wide x 160wide lot.