Forget the passe gardening excuse "I've got no room."

If you've got a deck, balcony, patio or even a postage-stamp-sized yard, the Morton Arboretum can help you join Plant a Row for the Hungry.

The arboretum is teaming up with the Daily Herald to launch the 2004 campaign of Plant a Row, a program that sends fresh produce to area food pantries.

On Mother's Day weekend, May 8-9, gardening experts from across the area will conduct workshops designed for small-space gardeners.

Don't have any ground for a vegetable bed? Try a container garden. They work well with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, herbs and green beans.

"All too often, frustrated gardeners say 'I just don't have space,'" said Jan Little, manager of horticulture education at the arboretum. "All they need to have is a pot."

Participants in the seminars can even get the soil and the plants themselves right there.

By helping gardeners get started for the year, Little said she's hoping to involve more people in the Plant a Row campaign.

This is the sixth year that the Daily Herald has worked with Northern Illinois Food Bank to sponsor the program in five local counties. The Plant a Row idea is a simple one: Gardeners plant a little extra and then donate fresh fruit and vegetables to area food pantries.

In the past five years, people in Cook, Lake, Kane, DuPage and McHenry counties have donated just shy of 200,000 pounds of fresh garden produce to neighbors in need of assistance.

Last year, donations totaled 60,343 pounds - 15,000 pounds more than the goal for 2003.

Because of that response, we're raising the bar again - to a 2004 goal of 65,000 pounds. This year's campaign will start July 5 and continue until Oct. 1.

The demand for food from area pantries and food banks has continued to skyrocket in the past three years. Northern Illinois Food Bank, which provides food to social service agencies in 12 counties, distributed 27 percent more in 2003 than it did the year before: 14.3 million pounds compared to 11.1 million pounds. But even that's not enough to meet the increased demand.

"We're now seeing the result of people who have been trying to hang on and they've gone through their savings. Now their houses are up for sale. I think we're going to see a lot more of that," said Mary Hayes, assistant executive director of the food bank.

Little said she's wanted to get involved with Plant a Row, which is sponsored nationally by the Garden Writers Association, for several years. This year she found a way the arboretum could help through the seminars. And anyone with the ability to grow vegetables should consider taking part, she said.

"It's just so simple - if you're planting one tomato plant, plant two," Little said.

In addition to the weekend workshops, the arboretum is growing its first ornamental kitchen garden, or potager, where students in summer classes can learn about growing a vegetable garden.

Little said the bed will include peas, cucumbers, swiss chard, several varieties of spinach and lettuce, kale, carrots and ornamental flowers like nasturtium, calendula and viola.

Though vegetable gardening isn't the traditional domain of the arboretum's horticulturists, "we don't put any limitations on what we teach people about gardening," Little said.

And to that end, they'll be teaching budding container gardeners how to put their produce to good use.

If you go

The Morton Arboretum

What: Workshops on May 8-9 will help gardeners get started on Plant a Row for the Hungry. Registration is required for most sessions.

Where: Morton Arboretum, 4100 Route 53, Lisle

Cost: Admission to the arboretum is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors 65 years or older, $2 for children 3 to 12 and free for those 2 and under. Workshop fees vary.

For more information: Call (630) 968-0074 or visit www.mortonarb.org