Chicago community gardening hub offering education, workshops, and allotment plots at Skinner Park.

The Community Roots Demonstration Garden at Skinner Park in Chicago serves as a citywide hub for gardening education and programming. Opened in 2016, the garden features a small community allotment plot where neighbors can tend their own gardens, alongside demonstration plots designed for hands-on learning. It hosts adult and family workshops and provides field trip opportunities for youth participating in the Chicago Park District's Day Camp program. The site is part of a broader network of over 90 community gardens across Chicago's parks, which range from ornamental landscapes focusing on native plants to edible gardens featuring allotment plots, pantry gardening, and children's learning gardens. Additionally, the Harvest Garden program, established in 1999, engages youth in planting, tending, harvesting, and preparing food over 25 years. This initiative encourages participants to become caretakers of their gardens, themselves, and their communities by observing the transformation of seeds into vegetables, connecting children to their food and the natural world. The Harvest Garden program runs weekly during the summer, primarily within Day Camp sessions. The garden welcomes people with a range of interests and experience levels, offering various ways to volunteer or join existing gardens throughout the city.