24th Ward

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Community Garden - Press Release

Pat Marshall is a community activist that has been cleaning up the neighborhoods in Chicago she resides for most of her life. A delightful woman who loves the community of Lawndale where she resides, was excited when she saw a barren open space. She saw a lot of potential there, but what she decided on was a community garden where plants could be grown, the community at large could clean, and hopefully in a few years, people could use as a green space for barbecues.

Unfortunately, a dilemma developed quickly after the weeding was done; they needed plants.

Gary Antonich of Your Growing Concerns donated 107 perennials to the community garden, officially named: Albany Troy Learning Gardens.

Your Growing Concerns is a perennial/herbs/flowering shrub nursery located in Campton Hills Illinois. The nursery is owned and operated by Gary & Cheryl Antonich. They are both Air Force Veterans. The nursery is managed by Gary who has a B.S. in Ornamental Horticulture from the U of I and is also an Adjunct Faculty at Triton College instructing classes in Herbs/Vegs, Perennials to include Native Plants and Woody Ornamentals.

Pat Marshall has openly stated, "I'm very elated and very thankful for Gary because when we were at a standstill, his donation allowed us to move forward. The flowers really brightened up our efforts."

Now that the plants are in the ground, bigger projects are developing for the space. Pat Marshall plans on getting more plants for the garden, and working with local schools to find a way to have an irrigation system built to keep the plants healthy. She also would like to enlist the aid of the community to join a positive loitering effort and cleaning up the litter in a three-block radius from the garden. The more interest that comes in, the farther they could reach to create a community wide clean-up day.

For More Information:

Pat Marshall

PatMarshall.24thward@gmail.com