Earth Stewardship

Community Vegetable Garden

The FVPC Community Vegetable Garden garden is now up and running! Read more about our restored garden.

Several community garden areas are being used to grow vegetables to be donated to summer tutoring families, Community Dinner guests, and local food pantries. These areas need our help - weeding, watering, pest control as needed, and harvesting. If you wish to join the team of volunteers doing this essential work, please contact Jeff Mengler (email or 630-204-8377.)

David Jahoda’s Eagle Scout Project for the Community Garden

FVPC member David Jahoda and friends have now assembled and filled eight raised garden beds for the Community Garden as part of his Eagle project. The video at the left describes the details of his project.

EcoWalks

Our Earth Stewardship Team sponsors quarterly EcoWalks, led by a naturalist, in accessible locations in local forest preserves. Our EcoWalks are designed as intergenerational experiences and generally take place on Saturdays. The locations for our remaining 2026 EcoWalks are:

• July 25, 2026 - LeRoy Oaks Forest Preserve/Horlock Prairie for our Summer EcoWalk

• October 10, 2026 - McKee Marsh/Blackwell Forest Preserve for our Fall EcoWalk

The Earth Stewardship Events calendar button will take you to more info on these walks.

Styrofoam, Plastic Bag and Bubble Wrap Recycling

STYROFOAM RECYCLING INFORMATION

Our Earth Stewardship team sponsors a monthly Styrofoam, plastic bag and bubble wrap recycling event at FVPC on the first weekend of the month.

Clean plastic bags and bubble wrap are recycled. Please turn the bags inside out, to assure there are no receipts, etc., in the bag. Place smaller bags inside a larger bag. Remove any plastic shipping tape from bubble wrap.

Hard Styrofoam packing material (#6) and clean foam food containers are welcome. As the #6 Styrofoam breaks up easily, please break it down to make more space in the collection bin. No straws, plastic, paper, soft flexible packing foam, packing peanuts, or other materials, please. If you have questions about our monthly recycling, contact Jeff Mengler.

To see the monthly recycling dates, click on the calendar button at the top of this page.

PLASTIC BAG AND BUBBLE WRAP RECYCLING INFORMATION

The container just inside the front entrance vestibule for continuous plastic recycling is accessible whenever the church building is open. Check the poster on the front of the container for instructions. Questions? Contact Harrison Schneider.

Yew Renewal Pruning for Church Landscape

We are experimenting with the yews that were quite overgrown along the east side of the church office wing. Yews and boxwoods have dormant buds on their old wood. Typically, the older wood is shaded by the new growth so nothing grows there. However, when you cut back the shrubs and expose the old wood to light, the dormant buds may start to grow new branches.  Of course, this takes time….

The yews have been cut hard to their bases and fertilized.  They may be too old to sprout new growth, but we will see. We hope to see aa haze of green from tiny branchlets by the end of fall. Next year, those branchlets will grow into rejuvenated shrubs. If this doesn’t work, we will remove the stumps and plant this bed with locally native shrubs.  (Ornamental yews are primarily native to Europe and Asia.)

Developing Our Gardens

Check out the video of our spring workday to see our emerging front garden. If you are interested in helping with the church gardens, email Karla Lynch.

Landscaping Plan

Our congregation is moving toward a more sustainable and eco-friendly approach to the care of the church landscape. We are working on a five-year plan for landscape care that will reduce maintenance costs over time as well as be more eco-friendly. Opportunities for your input on our landscaping plan will follow a proposed series of landscape workshops titled “Sustainable with Style, ” planned for Spring 2026 at FVPC.

In our “Sustainable with Style” workshops, we will discuss how we can provide functional, outdoor spaces so that our landscape becomes a resource rather than a burden. We will be learning about how to conserve our natural resources, and how we can reduce air and noise pollution.

Some of our landscaping plan changes have already taken place, both subtle and more obvious. Click here to read more about this and see photos of our progress!

Questions? Contact Karla Lynch.

Pollinator Garden

Have you visited our Pollinator Garden yet? It’s adjacent to the Great Hall, at the east end of the building.

Begun in Fall 2023, our Pollinator Garden is a work in progress, with FVPC members, friends, children and youth making it happen. Pollinator insect populations are declining globally, so our Pollinator Garden plays an essential part by providing food sources for pollinators.

The Pollinator Garden was recently expanded, with children reseeding the garden during Sunday School. Watch them in action!

Click here to read more about our Pollinator Garden and what you can do to help our vital pollinators. Questions about our Pollinator Garden? Contact Jeff Mengler.

Green Tip

The Earth Stewardship Team regularly publishes a Green Tip e-newsletter full of helpful information. To be added to the mailing list for the Green Tip, along with other FVPC e-newsletters, please email the church office.