Avondale Garden Alliance grows community through urban agriculture

CHICAGO - In Chicago's Avondale neighborhood, a group of volunteers is busy preparing the soil for this year's Mindful Living Garden on Drake Street. 

Avondale Gardening Alliance

The backstory:

Not only do they plant and pick vegetables and flowers there, the Avondale Gardening Alliance (AGA) is a network of neighbors who value the importance of urban agriculture.

"It's volunteer-run and we're all about providing resources, knowledge, access and education about food systems, sustainability and food security," said Nathalie Rayter, AGA lead organizer. "We're one of the most greenspace-poor neighborhoods in the city. This garden is embedded in the neighborhood, providing a space not only to grow food for food security for our neighbors, especially during times when food prices are going up ... but we also offer space to relax, connect with green space, and to participate in urban agriculture."

The group was founded in 2014 by Christina Schleich, an attorney with the Public Guardian's Office by day and leader of the AGA on weekends. 

It has now expanded to include community dinners offering donated produce from the garden, the Avondale Community Chickens, the AGA Avondale Almanac that collects all our resources for gardening, enriching their relationship with nature and our community and events and gatherings several times a month. 

Next Saturday, they have an Earth Day Clean-Up and Party planned at the Concordia Annex.

"We also have one of our hallmark events, our Seedling Extravaganza, where a lot of Avondale gardeners have started seedlings and will be offering them for swap and for low-cost donations from $1 to $5," said Rayter. 

The event involves thousands of vegetables, herbs and native plants and takes place at Revolution Brewing on May 19.

For more information, visit the AGA website.