This will probably sound cheesy or spam-y but I would love to talk to people who have participated in community gardening programs. I am a student at Portland State University and I'm learning about the community asset-building aspects of community gardens. If you're willing, I'd love to do a little e-mail "interview" - more like a survey, really, where I send you a few questions and then you type out your responses and send them back to me. Your help would be very much appreciated. If you're willing, my e-mail address is healthypaige at gmail dot com. Thanks!

In Chicago, my neighbors and I are working with Neighbor-Space to turn a nearby vacant lot into a community garden. We're still in the planning stages and would like to get something in the ground this year.

There are two longtime existing community gardens (run with the help of Neighbor-Space) not far from our plot and our little group has been talking to their leaders, who've been very helpful. You might try talking to them.

Frankie Machine Garden - 1800 W. Haddon Ave., Marjorie Isaacson, marjiei@yahoo.com,

Greenhouse Garden - 1100 N. Wood St., J.W. Glass, jwglass@bscichicago.com, ph. 312-498-3889,

If you want some info on community gardens in the City of Chicago, talk to Margaret Weiner at Neighbor-Space. It's a non-profit citywide agency and she can probably find plenty of other people for you to talk to. They run about 55 community gardens in the city of Chicago and buy or lease the land, provide liability insurance, and provide some basic grant money along with a lot of good connections.

info@neighbor-space.org
312-431-9406

Sounds like an interesting project.

Good luck.

Not that relevant, but check out the 30 homemade earth boxes I put on my garage roof.

Diane