Montrose Metra Community Garden is going into year 8 with high hopes, immense gratitude and more space to grow than ever before! Three cheers for Eight Years!

MMCG’s mission is to create vibrant, green community spaces that connect neighbors and foster a healthy sustainable environment for all. What began in 2016 as vegetable plots flowered into a natural sanctuary for the Ravenswood community. Our fruit orchard and oak savanna are home to wildlife and bees. Our plots (ALL 86 of them now!!!) host multiple neighbors and families growing their own organic produce. Not to mention how these spaces host local students conducting service projects and countless volunteers stewarding the land.

You, our community, kept us going through the pandemic and helped us build an expansion that now welcomes double the gardeners to our space (4 city blocks of garden space!) We live in gratitude to the many hardworking hands that keep us growing.

Last year, we added 40 more raised beds/plots between Montrose and Sunnyside. We welcomed an art project from local elementary schools. We built Rain Collecting roofs in our O.G. space and added real city water spigots to our 'Alphabet' plots, reducing our reliance on city hydrant permits and easing the load on our volunteers. And I'm so proud to say that through volunteer labor, community partners, grants, etc - we have paid off every dime of these construction costs!

We are headed into this next year with new projects on the horizon, including a Community Compost Pilot with the city that will allow our gardeners and neighbors to bring kitchen scraps to use for composting. More details to be announced shortly.

And we are building a nursery space with the Ravenswood Neighbors Association that will allow for more native plants to pepper our parkways and public areas.

We have ALOT of planting ahead as well as we focus this year on our common spaces, so they can give as much back to our local wildlife as members of our garden community.

The support of our neighbors is what truly keeps us growing. We're so happy to have you involved with our garden, bringing the community together and helping the environment one seed at a time.

It's time to process our renewals and plot reservations for the 2023 growing season (April 15-Nov 15). If you are renewing, make sure you email us a copy of your donation receipt.

If you are interested in gardening with us, fill out the survey at the attached form below. It will automatically add your name to our waitlist for open plots:

https://forms.gle/LY9kVgANkw3pcmLi9

If you want alerts about upcoming volunteer opportunities, subscribe to our email list through the following link: http://eepurl.com/htP6fT

If you have come to this page from our Facebook or other pages and wish to donate, you are in the right place. The funds raised through this page cover the operational needs of the garden itself, its water fees, composting service, tools, plants etc. This is a 100% Volunteer Run Garden. No one is paid administratively to its leaders.

Thank you to everyone for your continued encouragement and support. We are so proud to be a part of this community.

- The Organizers of Montrose Metra Community Gardens

Quick note about our fiscal sponsor:

Your donation, earmarked for MMCG, will show up on your bank or credit card statement as a charge from NeighborSpace, the nonprofit land trust that protects over 100 community gardens across Chicago. It is through NeighborSpace's non-profit status and fiscal agency that MMCG will be able to use your tax-deductible donation.