Low tunnels and vermicompost at the South Chicago Artists' Garden

Over the weekend, we took a trip down to the far South Side of Chicago to check out the South Chicago Artists' Garden, a large community garden that replaced four abandoned city lots. There, we met with Thea Maria Carlson from Angelic Organics, who gave us a demonstration of vermicompost (compost with worms) and explained how a low tunnel works.

Here's a brief description of the Artists' Garden from the Angelic Organics website:

In a neighborhood with a high incidence of diet-related disease and limited access to fresh produce, the garden provides an important source of fresh, healthy food for the gardeners and their families. The annual harvest has included radishes, green beans, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, mustard greens, collards, peanuts, sun flower seeds, garlic, potatoes, raspberries, chiles, tomatillos, and honey from two bee hives tended by families neighboring the garden.

The plants in the photo above, at left are more mature than the plants in the rest of the garden is because they got a head start this winter and spring in a low tunnel, which is a type of greenhouse. With a wooden frame and some greenhouse plastic, you can raise root vegetables and leafy greens in the off-season, and get an early start on plants that require more sunlight, like tomatoes.

-Mark