Taylor Street Farms

A member of Taylor Street Farms tends to her soil bed on a hot Sunday morning in August

Founders James Weedan and Danielle Hrzic with Co-ordinator and Treasurer Sally Freeman under the Taylor Street Farms gazebo

Watering buckets show instructions in a variety of languages, to accommodate the backgrounds of all members

Taylor Street Farms, at Ada St and Arlington St in Chicago’s Near West Side

Educational signs are peppered throughout Taylor Street Farms

Hand-built soil beds and a central gazebo structure the lush space

Tall stalks of amaranth reach 6 feet tall in a curious planter’s bed

The compost area at Taylor Street Farms welcomes weeds - so long as they’re native, not invasive!

Soil beds at Taylor Street Farms contain a variety of plants and food from tomatoes to tulips, and from both Illinois and worldwide

	By Molly O'Mera, Reporter, The Real Chi

Taylor Street Farms was founded in 2010 in Chicago’s Near West Side when a group of neighbors had a vision of turning the lot of a former subsidized housing project and power plant into a shared garden that could bring biodiversity into their community.

Designed for an increasingly urbanized and concrete world, the space is ideal for apartment and condo dwellers who want to experiment with farming and gardening but may not have the green space to do so. It attracts both beginners and experts alike, who represent a wide range of ages, languages, and countries of origin.

“It becomes a meeting place and a neighborhood square. The energy is really magical,” said founder Danielle Hrzic. She and co-founder Jason Weedon were influenced by their upbringings in and around Europe (in Croatia and Britain, respectively) where they noticed “lots of piazzas, squares, and places for people to convene with their neighbors.” They hoped Taylor Street Farms would bring a similar sense of community and place to the West Side.

Operated entirely by volunteers, the soil beds are rented out to families and individuals who have autonomy to grow whatever plants and crops they like. Some products are donated but most go directly to nourishing the neighbors who grew them. 

While certain areas are designated to native species, like raspberry bushes and corn, you’ll also see unfamiliar and exotic fruits and vegetables. The biology in the farm is just as diverse as the team of farmers who work the land. 

Whether you’re interested in planting or not, the garden is open from dawn until dusk for pedestrians to enjoy some green and quiet and to learn about how food, native or not, is grown over on the West Side.