Since 2018, Oak Park-based nonprofit Deep Roots Project’s collective mission has been holistically centered — to teach people about natural home gardening and lead them to feel empowered by the process of growing their own food.
With a combination of in-person mentorship, seed swapping and an online store selling worm castings and fish emulsion fertilizers, and custom-built raised cedar beds and planter boxes, Deep Roots Project serves as a local haven for budding green-thumbs, regardless of age, socioeconomic status or whether gardeners live in a home with lots of outdoor square footage or a small apartment.
And on Sunday, March 8, the group hosted a special garden planning workshop and seed swap at the Oak Park Public Library’s Main Branch to ring in a new season of planting.
The hands-on workshop covered practical garden planning for all experience levels, including designing layouts, selecting plants, building healthy soil, understanding sunlight patterns and effective watering.
Briana Villarrubia, of Oak Park, volunteers with Deep Roots Project and invites prospective gardeners to join the nonprofit.
Lindsey Rauba, an Oak Park resident and customer support/social media manager for Deep Roots Project, led the workshop, providing guidance through her own experiences of learning about edible landscaping and biodiversity.
“Planning your garden in advance is not only a fun thing to do when you can’t get into your garden yet because of cold weather, but it can set you up for success in a way that makes gardening more fun,” Rauba said. “Because our method makes gardening easier than other methods, we’ve come to understand that if you have success in your first year gardening, it is very encouraging and keeps you going, whereas if you start out with too many struggles, it can be discouraging and make you want to give up.”
Deep Roots Project was founded eight years ago, when Oak Park resident Estelle Carol teamed up with friend Will Schreiber to master natural gardening practices and pass on that knowledge to others. For Carol, growing food was always a hobby but morphed into something she wanted to pivot to learning more about following a professional career as a graphic designer and illustrator.
“Our whole mission and reason for existing is to make home gardening and growing your own food much easier and simpler than anything that people have ever found online or in a book, based on new discoveries in soil science,” said Carol, co-executive director of Deep Roots Project. “Nutrition, healthy food and eating differently from the rest of the population is the secret of being healthy and happy for the rest of your life, and I wanted to bring that on a whole other level to more people.”
Deep Roots Project’s core team consists of about nine people, with several others who volunteer on a regular basis. The nonprofit also includes a team of four skilled carpenters, led by Schreiber, and horticulturist Rafa Crevoshay who helps bring a wealth of scientific gardening experience.
Membership of Deep Roots Project reaches outside of Oak Park and River Forest, spilling into Chicago neighborhoods and other local suburbs. People from across Chicagoland come together with other members to garden and place orders online.
In addition, Deep Roots Project also partners with youth gardeners, including those at Oak Park’s Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, and senior centers, including Oak Park Arms.
To the team, being intergenerational is truly the key to success.
“On our Instagram page, younger people are directly messaging me, engaging with our posts and asking me how to get started with gardening,” Rauba said. “I’m also a Realtor and I’m seeing people who are buying their first homes and expressing interest in wanting to grow their own food, so that’s also given us an opportunity to help more people become aware of us and our methods.”
Deep Roots Project is also keenly aware of the positive impact gardening has on not just physical health, but mental health as well.
“We are seeing younger people who are becoming interested in not only just what they’re eating and how it can affect their health and their quality of life, but also those hands-on experiences of actually having your hands in the dirt and how that can impact our mental health,” she said.
Carol Olsen, an Oak Park resident and volunteer coordinator for Deep Roots Project, says sustainable gardening has not only helped people focus on their health, but also learn about how they can best support our local ecology.
“People are really interested in the ecology of gardening, and these types of gardens help support ecology in many different ways,” Olsen said. “A garden encompasses so many things — recreation, relaxation, ecology, feeding yourself, beauty.”
Oak Park resident Briana Villarrubia, who helps with fundraising efforts for Deep Roots Project, says what she loves best about the group is that its mission-based collaboration helps pass valuable information across neighborhoods and ages.
“There’s a beauty and energy you get from spending time in nature, and being intergenerational is key — when we’re all kind to the earth, the earth is kind to us.”
For more information about Deep Roots Project, including events and volunteering opportunities, visit deep-roots-project.org.
