Garden Volunteer Opportunities

Boy playing in creek
Dear Garden Volunteer,

Thank you for your interest in volunteering with us!

We look forward to working with you in our beautiful Ridgeville Park District gardens. We will be cultivating vegetables, herbs and fruit for donation, nurturing our pollinator and native plant gardens and beautifying our south Evanston parks. We donate hundreds of pounds of food to the community through the Evanston Community Fridges each year. We welcome you to be a part of caring for our neighbors while enjoying time in nature.

How it works: Please sign the liability waiver online, sign up for our weekly newsletter by emailing Laura (gardens@ridgeville.org) so you are up to date and then show up on days that are good for you! Keep reading to get more information on what to expect, what to bring and what we do.

We offer scheduled open garden hours, calls for help with special projects and (NEW this year) a weekly Weeding Club to kick off the season! If our dates and times don’t work for you, feel free to reach out to find out how else you can help. If you have a group that would like to work with us, we’d love to have you – please reach out.
 
Weekday volunteer hours at Elks Community Garden:
April 18 through May 30, 2026
Mondays 12:00 – 1:30pm
Fridays 9:00 – 11:00am
 
Weekly Weeding Club at Ridgeville Community House
May 6 – May 30
Wednesdays, 9:00 – 10:00am

NOTE: If you crave a good weeding session but can’t attend during this time, please reach out! We have lots of weeds at lots of locations all season long. Laura can meet with you to show you how we do things and you can set your own “schedule.”
 
Big Work Saturdays
March 21, 10:30am – 12:30pm Elks Community Garden
April 11, 10:30am – 12:30pm Elks Community Garden
April 18, Earth Day Celebrations! 1:00 – 3:00pm Elks Community Garden
(Sunday) April 19, 10:00am – 12:30pm Reba Park Native Plant Garden Installation
May 9, 1:00 – 3:00pm Elks Community Garden
June 13, 8:00 – 10:00am Elks Community Garden
July 18, 8:00 – 10:00am Elks Community Garden
August 1, 8:00 – 10:00am Elks Community Garden
 
Please check back later in the season for fall volunteer hours. Youth Grow Team takes over Elks Community Garden and supports our other gardens through the summer.
 
Volunteer Tasks
  • Weeding
  • Spreading wood chips on pathways in the community garden and pollinator plots
  • Planting seeds, growing seedlings and planting seedlings or mature plants
  • Watering
  • Harvesting and packaging produce for donation
  • General spring and fall clean up (ie trash, perennial preparation for new growth, pruning)
  • Composting
  • Caring for our worm garden
  • Organizing tools and supplies
Big Work Saturdays Tasks
Big work Saturdays are days where we need a large number of people for big tasks. Please invite your friends, RSVP and complete liability forms prior to coming over.
  • Our March Big Work Saturday will be the kick off of the volunteer season and the time that we prepare the Elks Community Garden in Elks Park for the season. Tasks include general spring clean up, laying cardboard and spreading wood chips on garden pathways, re-assembling our grow station, organizing our tools, gathering trash and other items from the garden.
  • April Big Work Saturdays will continue with garden maintenance and planting early spring seeds and seedlings
  • May’s Big Work Saturday will involve continued maintenance on the Elks Community Garden, preparing soil (as needed) and more planting! We may also be able to start harvesting some of our early plants like radish.
  • June, July and August Big Work Saturdays will include harvesting and continued maintenance at Elks Community Garden.
  • Additional Big Work days may be included for other big work projects
Caretakers Needed
We have a few spots that need caretakers! If you want to volunteer but our garden hours don’t work for you, please consider taking on a caretaker role on your own schedule. We have a couple of microgarden sites at Kamen East and the Children’s Nature Garden (near Kamen). We also need landscape/pollinator specific caretakers for the Ridgeville Community House and Reba Park. All training and supplies will be provided. The time commitment is 10-20 minutes per visit (or longer if you want to indulge) with one to four visits per week.
Garden Manager
  • Laura Downey (gardens@ridgeville.org) will be hosting volunteer hours.
  • All communications about garden updates, weekly plans and cancellations will be sent via email through our Constant Contact account with the email provided. Cancellations due to weather or illness will be by 7:00am on morning days and by 12:00pm on afternoon days, likely much earlier.
Elks Garden Location
We'll be growing primarily at our beautiful Elks Community Garden.
Navigate to the corner of Callan & Hull Terrace (in south Evanston, 60202). The garden is in the far Northeast corner of Elks Park: just east of the playground, & next to the alley. (Note that google maps using the park or garden name may point you to the wrong part of the park or even an entirely different park. There is no address for this location. Google maps will accurately bring you to the cross streets of Callan Ave and Hull Terrace).

Street parking is free (but read signs for morning regulations and street cleaning days).

On days when we are at a park other than Elks, Laura will email you with the park location in the weekly update that will be sent every Sunday (usually evening).

If you don't receive an email update, we're at Elks.

Weather
If the weather is unsafe, Laura will email to cancel at least 1 hour before the volunteer hours are scheduled to start. We will work in rain and heat but not thunder and lightning.

A few reminders for when you volunteer with us:
  • Bring a full water bottle.
  • Bring garden gloves if you need them. We have a few pairs to share but sometimes we are grateful to have more volunteers than gloves
  • Note that the bathroom closest to Elks is at Ridgeville Community House, a 3 minute drive from Elks. There is no bathroom or shelter on site!
  • Wear closed toe shoes.
  • Wear clothes that can get dirty.
  • Bring any extra clothing you may need to adjust to changing temperatures or light rain.
 
If you have any of the following & would like to donate to our program, we'd love to have it!
  • Fruit/veggie seeds (ideally packaged for 2024 or later but we can test older packs)
    • All types welcome. But we especially need: bok choy, mixed greens, collards, carrots, kale, fennel, arugula, nasturtium, green beans, sugar snap peas, herbs, green beans, wildflowers
  • Fruit or vegetable seedlings or mature plants
  • Bamboo stakes
  • Ferns, vining plants, hostas (or other shade or semi-shade loving plants) we can dig up/transplant
  • Organic potting soil
  • Plant stakes
  • Tomato trellising/cages taller than 3 ft.
  • Pitch forks and/or a broad fork (our sturdiest broad fork broke 2 years ago so this is a big wish)
  • Clean plastic grocery bags folded or tied
  • Clean plastic produce containers (like berry or tomato containers) or plastic dairy containers with lids (like cottage cheese containers)
  • Raised beds/planters and/or large sturdy (1.5' diameter or greater) planting pots, grow bags or containers that can be used for planting
  • Paving stones or bricks.
Liability Waiver
  • Please complete our liability waiver
  • We will also have copies for you to fill out in the garden but appreciate it if you're able to do it online
Share with your friends!
And please do share this opportunity with any friends, family, or colleagues who you think might enjoy volunteering with you.  It takes a great team to get the gardens awake in the spring and keep things running through the fall so everyone is welcome whenever they can hop in.
We look forward to growing good food, nurturing beautiful plants & serving our community with you!  
 
See you in the garden!

Laura Downey
Garden Programs and Education Coordinator
Ridgeville Park District
gardens@ridgeville.org
 


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