Weighing in

We've got to hand it to you.

You came through with a whopping 60,343 pounds of fresh produce during this summer's Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign.

That's more than 15,000 pounds over the 45,000-pound goal we set this year.

And just to get an idea of exactly how much zucchini, tomatoes and peppers this adds up to, picture five full-grown elephants on a scale - and add a baby elephant, too.

For those keeping track, this year's total is about 18,000 pounds more than was delivered to participating food pantries during the 2002 campaign, when vegetable gardens suffered due to drought.

We had a much better growing season this past summer, but that's not the only reason for the surge in donations.

"I think people are more conscious of the problem," explained Mary Hayes, assistant executive director for the Northern Illinois Food Bank, which co-sponsors the local campaign with the Daily Herald.

And that's a good thing because the need for food assistance is growing. The regional food bank, which serves 12 counties, is reporting nearly a 50 percent rise in requests for food over the past year. Though the food supply overall is increasing somewhat this year, it's not even close to matching the need.

Most area agencies participating in Plant a Row have said their own client requests are up by 20 percent or more over last year. Hayes said the food bank estimates the 300-plus agencies it serves are getting food assistance requests from 250,000 people per month.

Folks sometimes have a hard time realizing the need is so great, she said, and they don't understand it's only increasing.

"That's our focus this year: to make them more aware of the problem and how bad it's gotten - not just to get food in here," Hayes said.

As part of our Plant a Row campaign, we told you over the summer about a number of people or groups who signed on to Plant a Row. We thought you might like to know how some of their projects progressed.

Hope springs eternal

With Mel Zuehlke's garden, there's always one more element he thinks will send his harvest over the top.

Sometimes it's more rain. Other times, it's more sun, or more heat, or fewer beetles.

This summer the mix needed to produce a good crop for the St. Charles gardener was apparently just right.

"It was the best ever for cucumbers and wax beans. It was the first year I've ever had that much success with wax beans," the 78-year-old retiree said.

Zuehlke had enough, in fact, to deliver them to Northern Illinois Food Bank, though the bulk of his donations were tomatoes and summer squash.

Zuehlke's already looking ahead to next year.

"Now we need rain for my spring crops: strawberries and raspberries," he said.

Great beginnings

For a newbie, Julie Schwartz didn't do so badly with her vegetable garden this year.

Sure she'd seen her mother's garden grow at home. And yes, she's a horticulture major who has worked as an intern at both the Chicago Botanic Garden and Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.

But until this year, she'd never actually grown a veggie garden herself.

"It was really fun to dig in the soil," the Palatine native said. "It was so satisfying that most of what I planted was from seed."

Julie's garden this year was at Longwood, where she's completing a one-year internship. She first learned about vegetables, and Plant a Row, from her mother Susan, who donated her excess produce to the program for several years.

Her mother reached her own goal as well this year. Susan Schwartz wanted to donate at least 25 pounds to food pantries participating in the program and said she hit that goal and went right past it.

In past years, Julie served as a courier for vegetables from her mom's garden - driving them from the family's back yard to a participating drop-off site. This year, the two kept touch about their weekly victories and periodic garden woes via e-mail.

Learning curves

College students might complain about too much coursework, but a group of students in one class was all about abundance - preferable overabundance - this summer.

Every week since early summer, College of DuPage students in "Seed, Soil and the Soul" packed four boxes of fresh produce from the garden they built on campus and delivered it to the People's Resource Center in Wheaton.

"Some weeks we had that many boxes twice a week," said teacher Shamili Sandiford.

The class embodied the spirit of the Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign even though it was designed before any of the participants ever heard of the program. And the class is a classic example of why Plant a Row works: Gardeners love to share what they grow.

In this case, the students shared literally everything they grew.

Students this fall are working on prepping the garden for 2004 classes.

"Someone has offered to work with them and build soil fertility," Sandiford said.

Garden of plenty

Judy Grimes wanted to donate more food than she grew in just her own home garden, so she presented the idea of building a garden to her friends at South Church Community Baptist in Mount Prospect.

Even Grimes - a die-hard optimist - is a little surprised at the group's inaugural effort.

"It was a far greater success than I ever imagined. From my count, I think we have (delivered) 1,100 pounds," she said.

And that half-ton of food was delivered to about six food pantries, though the bulk of the fresh vegetables went to the CEDA Northwest Self-Help Center in Mount Prospect, which provides emergency food assistance.

Clearly, the deliveries helped the agency. In 2002, the center received 109 pounds of produce from Plant a Row gardeners. This year, that jumped to 1,755 pounds.

The garden adjacent to Lions Park also attracted a loyal following - and from more than just the folks participating in sporting events there.

"We had all kinds of goldfinches and we even saw a hummingbird," Grimes said.

First of many

The only thing better than a beautiful garden is a bountiful one.

Plenty of people got to check out gardens fitting both those descriptions on Aug. 3 during Plant a Row for the Hungry day at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Plant a Row devotees sampled seeds for next year's gardens, got advice on ways to plant container gardens, found out how to care for their tools and learned how to eliminate pesky bugs.

Both Northern Illinois Food Bank and the Greater Chicago Food Depository were on hand to point people to food pantries in their area.

And as if that wasn't enough, Mike Nowak from WGN's "Let's Talk Gardening" radio show joined Bill Aldrich, publisher of Chicagoland Gardening, to dish out advice on the trusty tomato.

The only uninvited guest was rain, which arrived just after noon.v "Even with the rain people still came and we were still able to pass out the information about Plant a Row for the Hungry," said Sue Markgraf, Chicago Botanic Garden director of public relations.

And the event established a foundation for the future.

"We started a relationship that will continue into next year," she said.