The Richmond Education Gardens and Apiary appropriately had its groundbreaking Saturday , which happened to be Earth Day, and attracted about 125 visitors.
“Once completed, the gardens will provide a new place in our communities to promote education programs about natural and organic gardening methods and our environment,” said Dan Ungerleider, Clarendon Hills’ community development director.
A joint effort of Clarendon Hills and Westmont, the gardens and apiary is located at 1 N. Richmond Ave., on what was an unused 0.15-acre public road right of way between the Clarendon Hills public works facility and the Downers Grove Township Highway Garage.
Ungerleider said the gardens is being designed to include a hobbyist apiary surrounded by native vegetable, wildflower, butterfly, and rain gardens. The apiary will include four standard beehives and one observational beehive, which can be opened for viewing.
“Each of the elements will include a plaque with basic information and supporting website references describing the purpose of the elements and other relative educational information,” Ungerleider said, noting that it will be a 2-3 year process before the Gardens is fully up and running.
He said the facility would promote access to resources, community ownership of process and product, localization, empowerment and collaboration, healthy eating, and organic and environmentally sound gardening and landscaping practices.
“The very idea of sharing the beauty and usefulness of nature with the whole community will put us in the right spirit to truly understand, appreciate, and give back to the world around us as well,” Pranav Srividhya, a Westmont seventh-grader, said during opening remarks at the groundbreaking.
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