Chicago Botanic Garden

The Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) is a  385-acre Garden featuring 24 display gardens and four natural areas, uniquely situated on nine islands surrounded by lakes. Their mission is to promote the enjoyment, understanding, and conservation of plants and the natural world.

At the Garden, you can take a course, attend a lecture, buy a gardening book, find 2.2 million garden plants, or have your mystery plant identified. Visitors to the CBG website can help themselves to detailed plant and gardening information.

The CBG also offers a series of internships and seasonal jobs for youth and adults. See Green Youth Farm and Windy City Harvest.

GreenNet

GreenNet is  coalition of nonprofit organizations and public agencies committed to sharing information and resources serving as a clearinghouse for information about greening in Chicago and developing joint efforts to improve the quality, amount, use, and wide geographic distribution of sustainable, green open space in the City of Chicago.

You can use the site for information and resources on finding, starting, funding,  and maintaining a community garden. The site also contains links to education and information resources.

Friends of the Parks

Friends of the Parks (FOTP) is a 501(c)(3) designated park advocacy organization, dedicated to preserving, protecting, and improving Chicago’s parks and forest preserves for all citizens. Since 1975, FOTP has increase private and public commitment to Chicago’s parks through establishing park advisory councils, developing new parks, renovating playlots, and presenting public workshops and lectures to create and informed citizenry.

FOTP:

Works to preserve forest;

Offers seed grants to registered community gardens;

Provides Environmental Education programming for kids;

And strives to increase community involvement in the planning, design and operation of neighborhood parks and open spaces through the Partnerships and Advocacy in Neighborhood Parks program.

Parkways Foundation

Parkways Foundation was created in 1994 as an avenue to raise private funds for projects within the Chicago Park District (CPD) for the enrichment of the physical and cultural landscape of Chicago’s neighborhoods. Their scope includes, but is not limited to, the needs of children and families as well as historic preservation. The foundation offers grant opportunities to community garden groups registered with the Park District. Parkways also works to raise needed funds for the growth and enhancement of educational programs and camps in our neighborhoods.

Working in partnership with the board of directors, private donors, foundations and corporations, Parkways is able to provide support for projects that may not otherwise get funded in a timely manner.

Greencorps Chicago

Greencorps Chicago is the city of Chicago’s community gardening and green industry job training program. They offer three programs to community groups: Plant Distribution Days, Garden Assistance, and the Green Industry Job Training program.

Their mission is to promote environmental stewardship and improve the quality of life by establishing natural spaces that are safe, healthy and sustainable through hands-on involvement with trainees and community partners.  They do this by creating awareness, building commitment, developing expertise and providing the resources necessary to create community gardens and green spaces.

Greencorps Chicago, established in 1994, is a program of the City of Chicago Department of Environment in partnership with WRD Environmental.

About Greencorps Chicago’s Programs

• Plant Distribution Days and Technical Assistance:
  Five times a year, Greencorps Chicago distributes seeds, vegetables, annuals, perennials and bulbs free of charge to community organizations. We also provide technical assistance, garden materials and hands-on labor. Groups must apply and certify their community gardens to participate in our plant distribution days or receive assistance. We do not distribute plants to residential gardeners on our Plant Distribution Days.
• The Great Perennial Divide:
  Residential gardeners and non-certified garden groups are welcome to donate, swap, and/or receive perennial plants, trees and shrubs at this annual event, sponsored by the Chicago Botanic Garden, Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, Greencorps Chicago and Openlands.

• Garden Assistance:
  Assistance is available for community garden groups in the form of horticultural expertise from staff, installation and maintenance help from our job trainees and garden materials including plants, soil and tools.

• Green Jobs Training:
  Each spring, Greencorps Chicago accepts and hires approximately 70 people into its nine-month green industry job training program.

• Mayor’s Landscape Awards:
  Schools, community organizations and businesses who make an outstanding contribution to the city’s environment may apply for and receive recognition through this annual awards program.

• Greencorps Chicago – Calumet Program:
  The Greencorps Chicago – Calumet (GCC) program will specialize in ecological restoration training and use of those skills to restore Chicago’s Calumet area open spaces.  GCC will hire and train crew members on restoration techniques, chainsaw operation and safety, herbicide application, seed collection, plant identification, regional ecology, and prescription burn training.