Coming back for a second Summer of Solutions

Posted on July 3, 2013 by letsgochicago

David Mack (center) talking with the LETS GO team in summer 2012

Hello everyone! My name is David Mack. I am from Evanston, but have lived in Rogers Park all of my life. I just finished my freshman year on June 12. I’m one of the youngest to join Summer of Solutions at the age of 13 (I am 14 now). I am doing my second year here. I like this program because it gives me the chance to make a change in my town. I mean, who wouldn’t want to make their home a better place if they were given the chance? I was given the chance, and now I’m making my home a better place. Continue reading →

Green Economy

Posted on July 30, 2012 by letsgochicago

Hello All!

With our first signs up in front of our yardshares, we decided to kick off a week in “Green Economy!” LET’S REVIEW! As a program, we worked on developing potential business models. We came up with many ideas as well as questions. We discussed about what a “green economy” meant and what we could do to make a model that we could apply to our current system. This was important to us because we are trying to develop a self-sustainable model. For ideas on how to do this, we went to a place called the Green Exchange in Logan Square. The Green Exchange is a hub for sustainable and green businesses. While we did meet a variety of businesses, the one we spent the most time with was WeFarm America. We were able to meet some inspiring individuals that were making it easy for people to garden. They are doing exciting things with urban gardening. They developed a working business model for financial sustainability, and it was great to see how they were doing things. On Friday, we were able to close the week by getting to know some of the businesses in the neighborhood. We canvassed the neighborhood to talk with business owners and employees about their own business practice as well as what we were doing. We happened to run into the president of the Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce, Bill. Bill was supportive of our desire to know more about the neighborhood businesses and gave us his contact information. It was awesome getting to know the neighborhood businesses and seeing what they were doing.

ALSO, Molly taught us how to make paper for the week’s skill share! Many of us were very excited.

Greg

Water week!

Posted on July 22, 2012 by letsgochicago

Molly and children in the garden during water week

The week of July 9, which focused on water issues, was so busy we didn’t have time for a mid-week blog post, but we have plenty of water-themed stories to tell. We kicked off the week by watching a documentary called Flow: For Love of Water on Monday. It’s about issues of clean water scarcity, and how the privatization of clean water sources by big business is hurting our communities and forcing people to suffer. It was shocking to see such a phenomenon taking place, but it energized our discussion of global water issues, and inspired us with stories of how communities have successfully fought for their right to clean water. Continue reading →

Rain Garden Plants Have Arrived!

Posted on August 5, 2011 by letsgochicago

The 70+ plants that CNT generously donated for our rain garden have finally arrived!

Thanks, CNT!

We will be installing them in our side yard tomorrow in what will surely be an action packed day. Stop by and lend a hand! We will be finishing up our window garden and trying our hands at making eco-friendly soap to sell at our harvest party. Which reminds me, we are having a party!

Come out and chat with us!

To celebrate the end of our summer program will are inviting the community to check out what we have been up to. We will have our gardens open for touring, delicious fresh treats to snack on, plus you can meet our chickens! Hope you can make it out.

-Rachael

Rain Garden Planning

Posted on July 28, 2011 by letsgochicago

As part of our initiative with Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) to install 100 rain gardens in Rogers Park, we are moving forward on planting one right in the backyard of our Koinonia Eco Home. Last week, the rain garden project crew met up with CNT Senior Engineer Bill Eyring and his daughter to investigate further. We determined the back corner of the yard to be the best fit for a garden based on the location of the rain spouts.

Scoping out the rain garden spot.

The first step in preparing our rain garden is directing the path of the rain water. We will do this by digging out the corner of our yard to create a low-lying area which we will then bank with the extracted dirt. This low-lying area will then be filled with a variety of deep-rooted native plants which will absorb any storm water stopping it from causing any flooding to our property or washing debris into our waterways.

Testing our yard's water absorption ability

CNT has graciously donated over 70 plants for us to use to create our rain garden. Hopefully, we will have more pictures and updates to share soon!

-Carly and Rachael

LETS GO Chicago

Category Archives: Rain Gardens

Coming back for a second Summer of Solutions

Rain Garden Plants Have Arrived!

Rain Garden Planning

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