Today I attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the first Certified Organic Rooftop Farm in the country located right here in Chicago atop Uncommon Groundrestaurant in Edgewater. 

Midwest Organic Services Association (MOSA) certified this organic rooftop farm and a representative was at the ceremony today to discuss the certification process as well as the importance of urban agriculture and organic gardening methods.  It’s nice to know we’re doing our part by growing some of our own fruits and vegetables in this urban garden right in our own village.  I think MOSA would be proud!

Dead tired

OK – can I just say that building raised beds is WAY easier than filling them with dirt? At some point I really thought I was going to faint. This was made worse by Nick’s seemingly limitless energy when it came to hauling dirt. At some point we were all just sitting at the picnic table watching him and feeling like losers.

We did finish all 10 beds but there’s still dirt to haul. We planted a few flowers at the entrance of the garden then we all hobbled home.

It was a busy, rewarding day.

Thank you to all the volunteers, McAdam Landscaping, Good Earth Greenhouse and Larry at the Park District of Forest Park.

Finished Beds

It took us about two hours to build all ten raised beds which I think is pretty darn impressive. We had a handful of volunteers and we even rented two plots to a guy who lives in the area.

Community Garden before breaking ground

Today we finally broke ground at Forest Park Community Garden. We arrived around 1:00 to find the dirt and all the cedar wood we needed to make ten 4×8x12 raised beds.