For 24 years, Ron Wolford has been helping inner city Chicagoans bring beauty and vitality back to their neighborhoods through the Chicago Urban Gardening Program. The Urban Gardening program helps communities develop open spaces into productive community gardens spurring community pride and encouraging redevelopment.
Wolford coordinates the Chicago Master Gardener and Master Composter programs. He also writes monthly garden tips for the Chicago Tribune, and is a member of Extension's award-winning Northeast Regional web development team.
Wolford's office is in the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. He works with teachers and students providing technical assistance and links to the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
He earned both his master's and bachelor's degrees in agricultural education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Urban Gardening Program
Since 1962, Gerald and Lorean Earles have been residents of the North Lawndale community, an economically depressed neighborhood three miles from downtown Chicago. North Lawndale is one of the poorest communities in the state and has lost half of its residents and more than 5,000 homes since riots raged through the area in 1968. The burned shells of the buildings are still common and where they have been demolished, vacant lots remain filled with weeds, trash and abandoned cars.
The University of Illinois Urban Gardening staff first began working with Gerald Earles in 1985, when he set out to make some changes in his neighborhood. He wanted to create a community garden on four vacant lots on Trumbull Avenue a few doors down from his home. The garden was named the "Slumbusters" community garden by Earles and his neighbors and the group of gardeners soon became known as Slumbusters. The Slumbusters - a group made up of mostly senior citizens on fixed incomes - are cultivating 25 plots at the garden, growing everything from okra to pumpkins and sunflowers.
The Slumbusters are a perfect example of how the Urban Gardening Program helps citizens re-energize their communities. The Urban Gardening Program in Chicago reaches over 8,000 adults and youth each year.
"When people ask me what this program is all about, I always say that it's about much more than the value of vegetables grown," says Wolford. "This is a program that energizes people and makes them see that they can do something to improve their neighborhoods. It gives them hope and you can't put a price tag on that."
This program is a joint effort of University of Illinois Extension and the Illinois Department of Public Health's WIC Program. Community vegetable gardens supported by the Extension's Urban Gardening Program provide the Englewood community's WIC Nutrition Center's 20,000 recipients with fresh vegetables from July to September. Inner city community gardeners are paid for their produce providing a much needed source of income. Last summer over 8,000 pounds of vegetables were grown at the Jackson Park and Washington Park community garden sites, the Cook County Sheriff's Garden and the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.
Environmental Education - SOUL Program
Save Our Urban Land (SOUL) was formed from a unique partnership between University of Illinois Extension and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. SOUL has reclaimed eight inner city lots in Chicago's Englewood community. Young people from Englewood have spent summers transforming vacant lots into community gathering places filled with vegetable gardens, flowers, trees and shrubs; thereby reducing non-point source pollution.
An Indoor Gardening School Program emphasizing hands-on growing activities for 8,000 Chicago public and parochial school students. Hands-on growing activities include growing lettuce in a bag, making a seed viewer, growing bulbs and plantenstein (plant propagation). Teachers' workshops for the Great Plant Escape Program are held in the fall.
Wormania has infected 20 Chicago public school classrooms. Worms are being raised in plastic worm bins by inner city elementary school classrooms. Kids love worms and worm composting shows recyling in action. Young people feed the worms lunch scraps and two or three months later they are harvesting castings - worm compost. Teacher worm composting workshops are held in the fall.
The Urban Programs Resource Network Website makes education from the University of Illinois Extension available without ever leaving home. With access to the World Wide Web, you can learn about lawn care, parenting, money management, pest control, nutrition, 4-H, school curricula and many other topics. Wolford has developed or assisted in the development of 16 websites.
A newsletter published six times a year providing up-to-date home gardening, nutrition and wellness information.
Chicago High School For Agricultural Sciences
University of Illinois Extension moved into the Ag High School in Spring, 1998. It is believed to be the only Extension office in a high school in the United States. Wolford works closely with Ag School Principal and teachers providing technical assistance and links to the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Wolford hires students during the school year as interns in a program funded by the University of Illinois College of ACES. Ag school students work every afternoon in urban garden projects such as school gardens, community gardens, and after-school programs.
Wolford supervises the Chicago Master Gardener Program. Master Gardeners receive 60 hours of training in horticulture, botany, pest control and related topics and in return give Extension 60 hours as volunteers. Master Gardeners answer consumer calls; provide technical assistance and teach others the basics of horticulture. Training starts in January every other year and continues for eleven weeks.
Media
Wolford writes articles and monthly gardening tips for seven weekly and daily newspapers in the Chicagoland area. He also writes monthly tips for the Chicagoland Gardening magazine and the Chicago Tribune.
