Tuesday, June 30, 2015

From Trash to...Pretty Much Everything!

Thanks to Kay and Carrie from SCARCE (School and Community Assistance for Composting and Recycling Education) for visiting us in June and amazing us with the many, many projects the organization has going on with YOUR trash! Here is Kay with her magic eco-cape, made out of old ties.

To find out more about what SCARCE does with the things we throw out, visit www.scarceecoed.org.

Monday, June 15, 2015

June Meeting

Join us at 7 p.m., Wednesday, June 17 at the Downers Grove Public Library to hear Kay McKeen talk about SCARCE (School & Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education), an organization that has been working since 1990 to help schools and other groups preserve the earth and live sustainably. Kay will also give some tips for composting.


The Downers Grove Organic Gardeners are committed to raising the awareness of organic gardening in our community and educating members about the benefits and methods of organic gardening and other environmentally sound practices. We meet on the third Wednesday of the month in January, February, March, April, June, September, October and November at 7 p.m. in the Downers Grove Public Library. The board meets at 6:30 p.m. and you are welcome to come early to attend the board meeting. Membership is $20 for individuals and $30 for families.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Plant Sale Report: Many Kinds of Success!

Our plant sale on May 9 is usually a success, as our community is always looking for organic vegetables and perennials at great prices. This year was no exception. Not only did we make money (this is our only fundraiser, except for club dues) but we extended the reach of organic plants in our area.

However, this year, there is one more success to report, and this one has many facets. We ended the sale with leftover plants, and while we had many customers buy from us after May 9, we were also able to help fulfill our mission and donate (or sell at reduced cost) plants to local organizations, including the St. Mary of Gostyn teen ministry and for an Eagle Scout project.

But our outreach to People's Resource Center in Wheaton is even more exciting. Not only did we give plants to a PRC volunteer to grow vegetables for the center's food pantry, we donated plants to the pantry itself.

This means that many families in need who visited the pantry for food also took home plants to grow their own food.

Thanks to everyone who made the Plant Sale happen, especially committee chair Nancy Carlson. Thanks to everyone who worked that day to set up, check out, or just rearrange plants as shoppers selected their purchases.

And thanks to Mary Ann Badke and Roberta Muehlhaus who "babysat" the leftover plants and helped get them to customers and to organizations. We all worked together to increase the amount of homegrown organic food in the DuPage County area!