November Meeting Features DuPage Birding Club

The DG Organic Gardeners November meeting will be held at 7 PM Wednesday November 16 and will feature speakers from the DuPage Birding Club. 

Bob Fisher and Vicky Sroczynski will talk about hawks and owls we can look for this upcoming winter, and the basics on how to identify them. Bob and Vicky have been counting migrating hawks at Greene Valley Forest Preserve for 17 years. 

NOTE LOCATION: We are meeting at the Downers Grove Park District Lincoln Center, Room 503, at 935 Maple Ave, Downers Grove.

Members-only Garden Visit

Mark your calendar for the Member Garden Visit on Saturday, August 6, from 10 am to 2. The address and other details will be sent to members via e-mail. Hope you can join us!

Plant Sale 2022!

It's our biggest fundraiser of the year! Volunteer at our Plant Sale on May 7 at Hummer Park! Sign up here for shifts starting at 6 AM with set-up and going though clean-up at 1 PM.

Our Plant Sale gives gardeners a great opportunity to buy organic vegetables, herbs, and natives at the sale from 9 am-1 pm Saturday, May 7. 

NEW THIS YEAR: Annuals! Get flowers from seedlings and have a beautiful cutting garden! View all plants ordered for the sale here.

The sale is at the Hummer Park pavilion. Enter the parking lot off of Sheldon Ave. 

Proceeds from this sale allow our club to hire speakers for our monthly meetings, make donations to area organizations and clubs that share our mission, and pay for field trips. 

Help Plan 2022 at Our February Meeting PLEASE NOTE LOCATION

The Downers Grove Organic Gardeners will meet on Wednesday February 16 at the Downers Grove Park District's Lincoln Center 935 Maple Avenue, meeting room 503 at 7 PM.

We will discuss our upcoming May plant sale and solicit ideas for speaker topics and field trips for 2022.  Later, as a special treat, member Katie Herold will hold a short chair yoga session where she will demonstrate some yoga poses good to do after gardening.  Please share this message with your gardening friends and encourage them to attend this meeting with you.

A reminder—It’s time to renew your membership. Membership is $20 for individuals and $30 for families. There will be forms at the meeting. NOTE:  Meeting location this month is at the park district Lincoln Center, 935 Maple Ave. Please be prepared to wear masks in the building.

November Meeting PLEASE NOTE LOCATION

Our November will be held at 7 PM Wednesday, November 17 at DG Lincoln Center, room 503, 935 Maple Avenue, Downers Grove. Masks should be worn as required by the DG Park District.

Our speaker will be Lauren of Lauren's Beans 'n' Things. You may have seen her at the DG farmers market. Lauren is a young farmer in the Shorewood area. She is not certified organic but tries to use those practices as much as possible. She also coordinated with some farmers in her area to bring some of their produce to the farmers market.

Lauren will talk about how she got to this point in her life as well as what and how she farms. She may bring some seeds to share at the meeting.

No need to RSVP. We hope to see you the meeting.

September Harvest Fest

We will hold our annual September Harvest Fest at the Lyman Woods Visitor Center Wednesday September 15 starting at 7 PM. We'll share our summer gardening experiences and hear club member Lisa Burkhart talk about ideas she has for helping schools introduce gardens into their outside areas and curriculum. If you want to bring a snack made from your harvest, please keep it easy to share. You can also bring some of your harvest you'd like to show off.  

We will have access to both inside and outside areas. You will need to wear a mask while inside the building. However we plan to sit in the porch area for the actual meeting. 

NOTE: If possible consider carpooling as the lot is not large.  If you are able to, please arrive before 7 PM.

Location: William F. Sherman, Jr. Interpretive Center at Lyman Woods, 901 31st St., Downers Grove

Thanks to Katie Herold for growing the peppers in the photo!

View the Dark Skies Presentation

We welcomed Adam Kreuzer from the International Dark Skies Association to our screens this week and learned a lot about the effects of light pollution on us, on insects and mammals, and on the environment, as well as what we can do if we want to decrease these effects -- and maybe see the Milky Way once again!

Click here for the presentation.

Adam also sent the letters he wrote to his neighbors to get them to think about the effects of light pollution and what they can do to combat it.

Dark Skies Neighbor Letter

Dark Skies Neighbor Letter Follow Up