Ginkgo

Ginkgo Organic Gardens Every Saturday from March until November, I wake-up early and bike across Chicago to a small patch of land, tucked back from the street between two towering brick walls. I never oversleep, I never miss a week, and I love that little fifth-acre more than anywhere else in the city. On Kenmore Avenue, close enough to Wrigley Field to hear the roar from a homer, is Ginkgo Organic Gardens. This is a place where lightning bugs sleep, groggy in the daytime, under potato leaves. Here rabbits are semi-tame, and while they nibble the radish-tops discourteously, you cant help but be charmed spying their family among the raspberries. And even in the freezing rain or the scorching heat, you can count on a friend, or a dozen friends, showing-up on a weekend to lend a helping hand. Yes, I deeply believe in Ginkgos mission to preserve open space and feed those in need but any mission is abstract: a thought, a matter of understanding alone. It is not for this idea that I love this place so dearly. I love it for the bees and the monarchs, the yearly cycle of planting and harvest, the smell of soil, long shade in fall and soaring cumulus in summer. I love meeting and talking to the other volunteers. Occasional music and literary readings. I love it for its very presence, its placeness, this small point in a big city, one green freckle on Chicagos face that makes you love the whole thing more. Ginkgo Organic Gardens 4055 N. Kenmore, Chicago, IL 60613 www.ginkgogardens …

Tagged as: Gardens, Ginkgo, Organic

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