Tell us about your background in gardening. What do you like so much about gardening?
My parents are the ones who turned me on to gardening at a young age. They grew up farming and gardening in Guatemala as a way of life they and brought those skills with them to Chicago.
We grew vegetables every year in our backyard and my parents still do in the same house! I love gardening because it reminds me that we have the tools to subsist on our own. We can grow and raise everything we need to survive. It seems like common sense but in this age of buying everything pre-cut, pre-washed and/or processed so that it doesn't resemble real food anymore knowing what a tomato plant looks like is lost knowledge - resource.
What is the Master Gardener training program like?
The MG training program is a semester long, online or in person, book course. In the course we cover everything from vegetables to house plants to lawns! Then MG trainees have to complete 60 hours of volunteer work to be full on Master Gardeners. After that we have to continue our work completing 30 hours per year as well as a certain number of hours in professional development.
What would you like to do at garden this summer?
I would love to help out novice and expert gardeners alike! There's always something new to learn with gardening. I would especially love to help children garden because I completely believe that children who know where their food comes from are more likely to make healthy choices when eating. When you've tasted a warm, vine-ripened tomato seconds from being cut there's no way you can say, "Eeew, tomatoes, I don't like tomatoes!"
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into gardening.
When I was growing up, my family always had a large garden because we didn't have a lot of money - 100 hills of potatoes, corn, sweet peas, tomatoes, etc. etc. and rhubarb. I didn't garden for many years until I bought a house 10 years ago. Mainly I have maintained flower beds, shrubs and a couple of trees including a peach tree (which my neighbors would be very sad if I chopped it down since we harvest lots of large delicious peaches every August). My garden contains a few container vegetable planters - tomatoes, basil and potatoes. This year I am sharing a small plot at the Monarch Garden. I have just completed the Master Gardener training through the University of Illinois Extension and am now considered a MG intern but I have a lot to learn - more
What would you like to do at the Monarch Garden this summer?
I would like to be of some help to future gardening generations in Chicago and want to learn as much as I can about what people need, what they know, how a community garden gets built through the years. Many gardeners at Monarch may know more than I do about gardening here, but I will bring my garden book and help whoever wants to know more, help to get started, whatever is needed.
What is your favorite vegetable plant to grow?
My favorite vegetable to grow as a child was sweet peas - my sister and I were sent out to the garden before dinner to bring in a bowl of shelled peas to cook, but somehow we ended up eating half of what we picked - so so good to eat right off the plant!
My parents are the ones who turned me on to gardening at a young age. They grew up farming and gardening in Guatemala as a way of life they and brought those skills with them to Chicago.
We grew vegetables every year in our backyard and my parents still do in the same house! I love gardening because it reminds me that we have the tools to subsist on our own. We can grow and raise everything we need to survive. It seems like common sense but in this age of buying everything pre-cut, pre-washed and/or processed so that it doesn't resemble real food anymore knowing what a tomato plant looks like is lost knowledge - resource.
What is the Master Gardener training program like?
The MG training program is a semester long, online or in person, book course. In the course we cover everything from vegetables to house plants to lawns! Then MG trainees have to complete 60 hours of volunteer work to be full on Master Gardeners. After that we have to continue our work completing 30 hours per year as well as a certain number of hours in professional development.
What would you like to do at garden this summer?
I would love to help out novice and expert gardeners alike! There's always something new to learn with gardening. I would especially love to help children garden because I completely believe that children who know where their food comes from are more likely to make healthy choices when eating. When you've tasted a warm, vine-ripened tomato seconds from being cut there's no way you can say, "Eeew, tomatoes, I don't like tomatoes!"
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into gardening.
When I was growing up, my family always had a large garden because we didn't have a lot of money - 100 hills of potatoes, corn, sweet peas, tomatoes, etc. etc. and rhubarb. I didn't garden for many years until I bought a house 10 years ago. Mainly I have maintained flower beds, shrubs and a couple of trees including a peach tree (which my neighbors would be very sad if I chopped it down since we harvest lots of large delicious peaches every August). My garden contains a few container vegetable planters - tomatoes, basil and potatoes. This year I am sharing a small plot at the Monarch Garden. I have just completed the Master Gardener training through the University of Illinois Extension and am now considered a MG intern but I have a lot to learn - more
What would you like to do at the Monarch Garden this summer?
I would like to be of some help to future gardening generations in Chicago and want to learn as much as I can about what people need, what they know, how a community garden gets built through the years. Many gardeners at Monarch may know more than I do about gardening here, but I will bring my garden book and help whoever wants to know more, help to get started, whatever is needed.
What is your favorite vegetable plant to grow?
My favorite vegetable to grow as a child was sweet peas - my sister and I were sent out to the garden before dinner to bring in a bowl of shelled peas to cook, but somehow we ended up eating half of what we picked - so so good to eat right off the plant!
