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.
