Meet the team
Purna is a gardener and organizer who discovered a love for gardening as a child when they tasted a homegrown tomato for the first time. Their growing experience includes time on an organic family-run farm in Slovenia, tending gardens and leading programming for kids with the Chicago Park District, and a sprawling jungle of houseplants. When not gardening, Purna enjoys biking, cooking, making art, and rock climbing. Their current favorite plant is Blue Wild Indigo (Baptisia australis).
Ted brings 10 years of experience gardening as an organizer and cooperator. He likes trellising tomato plants, drawing garden bed designs, and building long-term garden infrastructure.
Katherine has been an avid gardener since she sprouted her first arugula leaves in Spring 2012. Her experience spans her own home experiments, like container herbs and raised vegetable beds, to volunteering alongside experienced stewards at community gardens in the Southeast Side of Chicago. Her interests include soil life, gardening with microbes, plant wisdom, and the mysteries of fungi. Her current favorite plant is Prairie Blazing Star (Liatris pycnostachya).
With over 20 years of combined gardening experience, the Chicago Garden Growers team applies urban agriculture best practices to increase neighborhood access to fresh produce while building a stronger community. As a worker-owned cooperative, Chicago Garden Growers responds to community needs in our own neighborhoods and builds local health and wealth without the extraction or inefficiencies of standard business models.
Eco-friendly means…
Vision
We envision healthy and resilient communities where we all have access to fresh produce grown in our own neighborhood gardens, applying Indigenous and permaculture practices that are sustainable and heal our relationship with the earth.
Soil Health
A successful garden is all about growing soil health with a balance and diversity of microorganisms that mutually benefit garden plants without the need for artificial fertilizers, harmful chemicals, or excessive watering. With the appropriate growth of fungi and bacteria, you’ll only need to add compost to feed your garden and save the time, money, and contamination required by standard colonial agricultural practices.
Accessibility
Gardening is for everyone! We specialize in customizing garden designs that accommodate seated, standing, or other needs depending on different mobility, medical, or bodily status.
Frequently Asked Questions
We currently service the greater Chicago area. Contact us to ensure your property is within reach.
We start with a free 30-minute consultation to walk through your space, talk about your wants, needs, and dreams, and discuss possibilities for your space. From there, we develop a plan and design for your review. Once approved, we move ahead with the installation of your new plants or garden beds. If desired, we also offer maintenance and garden stewardship to maintain the health of your new garden!
A collectively owned & operated association of worker members who meet economic, social, and cultural needs based on principles of democracy, self-reliance, solidarity, equity, honesty, and caring for each other.
Our vision and purpose is to strengthen our community and heal our relationship with the earth, not to simply provide services for money. We do not extract from clients, neighbors, workers, or the earth for individualistic profit.
We strongly believe that a better world is possible, and that in order for us to build it, we need to create a more robust solidarity economy based on the principles and practices mentioned above.