For the fifth year in a row, KidsGardening partnered with PT Holdings, a company based in Addison, IL, to build a school garden in the suburbs of Chicago as part of their Giving Back Initiative. One month ago, members of the KidsGardening team headed out to Oakbrook Elementary School in Wood Dale, IL, to install a dream garden with the help of over 100 volunteers. 

Despite a chilly and rainy start to the day, PT Holdings staff and members of the Oakbrook community accomplished an impressive number of projects. We built a large storage shed, an arbor, twelve benches, three tumbler compost bins, and six raised garden beds. These raised beds were filled with 10 yards of soil, topped off with compost, and planted with an assortment of veggies and herbs. We also installed 80 feet of fencing around the new garden space to deter any deer from snacking on students’ plants.

Beyond this fenced in garden, volunteers also createdanin-ground pollinator garden, weeded and mulched large sections of a pre-existing perennial landscape, and beautified the school’s entrance. All-in-all, it was a full morning of hard (but also fun) work!

Below you can see some pictures from this awesome event. Click the photo to see a slideshow of photos from the event.