Photographer: Joanna Jelenska. I took this photo of tulips planted by volunteers in a community garden in Elm Park, Chicago, on a sunny Sunday April 23, 2017. Elm Park was a neglected pocket park, overgrown and a little sketchy and there were rumors of converting it to parking lot. A group of volunteers formed the Elm Park Advisory Council and we converted overgrown flower beds to a community garden, created new flower beds and planted hundreds of perennials and bulbs over several years. I am one of the community gardeners. Now the park is very colorful, inviting, clean and safe. People come here to sit and relax, play with children, read a book or have lunch on a nice day. Children from neighborhood kindergartens and schools go on field trips to the park to learn about colors, shapes and life cycle of plants and nobody talks about parking lot anymore. That’s the power of plants! See more photos from Elm Park at https://www.facebook.com/Elm-Park-Advisory-Council-156172511071512/
Photographer: Joanna Jelenska, Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago
