Willing Helpers with Green Thumbs
Volunteers Tend Gardens at Neighborhood Metra Stations
Few commuters
scurrying onto or off the community’s Metra station platforms
realize that the gardens at many of these stations are maintained, not
by Metra, but by community groups and volunteers.
Pat Coffey has
tended the 91st Street Station garden for nearly 10 years
with the help of friends, neighbors and other helpers. One
volunteer in particular, Anthony Deprima, who began helping her as a
child, now majors in landscape architecture at the University of
Illinois at Chicago.
“Wonderful soil,
sunshine, water, and someone who loves and finds pleasure in it,” are
the prerequisites for cultivating a healthy, vibrant garden said
Coffey.
The 91st
station garden displays a splendid combination of perennials and
annuals and “has more flowers than the other station gardens,” said
Coffey. Perennials like the day lilies, coneflowers, rudbeckia,
columbine and irises she selected, live many years, dying back to the
ground each winter. Annuals such as geraniums, marigolds and
mums must be replanted each year.
Coffey’s comment,
“The garden is good for Beverly and the community,” was a common
sentiment expressed by the tenders of the community’s Metra
station gardens.
The garden on the
east side of the 103rd Street Metra Station along Hale
Avenue is the “pet project” of the East Beverly Association. “It
was a physical project that the association could point to and say
‘this is what we’re doing with your membership fees’,” said member Ed
Gabriel whose idea it was to adopt the garden in 1980.
After a period of
disrepair during reconstruction of the rail lines, the garden was
restored to its current resilient beauty with grants from Urbs in
Horto, a Green Net grant from the Open Lands Project, and help from
the Chicago Department of Environment and Green Corps staff. The EBA
garden features beautiful shrubs and trees, providing a very welcoming
space for waiting commuters.
When 103rd
Street received new streetscaping in 2000, the garden area was
provided with new sidewalks and decorative fencing.
Gabriel, a former EBA director, cares for the garden with help from volunteers.
“We get a pretty good turn out of volunteers,” said Gabriel.
Eighty percent of those who promise to pitch in during the “work
party” details that coincide with the City’s Clean and Green spring
and fall clean up campaigns actually show up.
The 95th
Street Station garden was tended by members of the Morgan Park Juniors
until they relinquished the weeding, watering and pruning to the 95th
Street Business Association. Contractors Judy and Mike Munro of
Munro Landscaping, 100th and Western, assist with the
upkeep of the garden.
“When Metra
renovated the 95th Street station, they did such a
beautiful job on the building -- that’s when Wendy Schulenberg
designed the garden,” said Lois Weber,
Director of the 95th
Street Association. A professional landscape architect and Beverly
Hills/Morgan Park resident, Schulenberg suggested planting annuals and
salt-tolerant, hearty perennials. “Wendy’s plants grew
beautifully and didn’t require lots of weeding,” said Weber.
Many other community
groups have benefited from Schulenberg’s expertise and volunteerism,
including the Southwest Beverly Improvement Association responsible
for the 103rd Street (west) and 107th Street
Station gardens.
“The 103rd
Street garden is in the worst shape due to the summer rain and weeds,”
said SWBIA Director Ellen Harmening early in the fall. “We’re
trying to overhaul the station by transitioning from annuals to
perennials that are drought tolerant and easy to maintain.”
SWBIA-sponsored activities, including beautifying the station garden,
are ways to “get neighbors together and strengthen the community,”
said Harmening.
The Beverly Ridge
Homeowners Association (BRHA) oversees the 99th Street Station garden
with help from dedicated volunteers Marty Wirtz, Matt Walsh and
Mike Kominarek. BHRA has written and received grants from Greencorps
to assist with the gardening. This station will be undergoing
restoration soon.
