He uses diverse, native and naturalistic plantings which form communities that conserve energy and resources. Families have responded to the beauty, serenity, integrity and security that this kind of landscape provides. Ron and his wife, Vicki, had the foresight, in 1980, to build a passive solar home in Downers Grove and surround it with a “no-lawn” landscape of vegetables, herbs, fruits, windbreaks, deciduous shade, native plants and more. Once a novelty, Circle GardenFarm is now able to supply an almost year-round bounty of “local”, organic food and the landscape itself a prime example of Suburban Permaculture. Ron is an author, a teacher and a devoted environmentalist.

Victoria Nowicki is degreed in Horticulture, Environmental Studies and Environmental Education from Knox College and George Williams College. She also has a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies from Aurora University. Her work with The Land Office is focused on Herbaceous Garden Design and installation. She also spends much of her time growing, harvesting and preserving the Circle GardenFarm vegetables. She co-founded in 1992 the first chapter of The Wild Ones outside of Wisconsin, a group devoted to using native plants in the home landscape with an eye toward saving energy and resources. This organization has now spread nationwide. Today, she is the president of the Downers Grove Organic Gardening Club, with a focus on growing vegetables in the home landscape. She is well-known for her prolific classes on growing vegetables, herbs, heirlooms and so forth and has done extensive lecturing both at The Morton Arboretum and The Chicago Botanic Garden. Her fondest dream is to see everyone growing some food at home and cooking it with their families! Vicki is an author, a teacher, a leader and a devoted environmentalist.

GardenFarming: A New Wave of Vegetable Growing at Home
Not since The Victory Gardens of World War II has there been such a need for home-grown food in the backyards of Chicagoland’s homeowners. Where once, long ago, stood modest, low impact, diverse family farms, today stand suburban home sites. These small sites are the perfect resource for growing food in a way that, in contrast to the big industrial farms, would save loads of fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, bring back biodiversity to our yards, conserve water and provide a richness of experience that money can’t buy. Pair these benefits with concerns about the current rise in food costs (no more cheap oil) and worries about food safety, and backyard vegetables are looking better all the time. As proof of the above, the story of Circle GardenFarm, the Nowickis’ alternative “no-lawn” landscape where they grow food instead, will be told as a journey of nurturing and cooperating with the natural patterns and systems that give life to us all. Growing food at home is a life-sustaining act that provides us with food security at no net loss to the environment, for as long as the sun continues to shine. We CAN become a part of the future of sustainable agriculture that we all want to see.