Naper Settlement has been awarded $21,000 to help create a sustainable permaculture garden at the heart of its 13-acre museum campus.
The garden, set to be up and running by May, will serve as a hub for education and community engagement about regenerative agriculture practices, environmental science and sustainability, Naper Settlement said in a news release.
Awarded by the DuPage Foundation, the grant will cover most of the $30,000 project cost, a according to Naper Settlement President/CEO Rena Tamayo-Calabrese.
“We’re very excited for a few different reasons,” Tamayo-Calabrese said Monday. “First, the project is incredibly meritful. It’s a great project. But the second is when you receive money, you also receive the trust and the support from the (awarding) institution. … So the fact that (the DuPage Foundation) chose our project is also a reason for pride.”
Work has already started on the garden, the goal of which is to bring attention to the stories and people that predate Naperville’s founding. With a permaculture garden, the settlement will be highlighting native Indigenous farming practices, she said.
Permaculture gardens are designed to mimic natural ecosystems. The idea is to have diverse plants that work together to grow and regenerate without much human interference or pesticides.
Though the term permaculture — a contraction of “permanent culture” and “permanent agriculture” — was coined in the mid-1970s, regenerative agriculture is a concept that originated with Indigenous peoples, according to the international nonprofit Rainforest Alliance.
The settlement’s garden will specifically rely on what’s known as the “Three Sisters” method of farming, which combines corn/maize, squash and beans. It works as follows: maize grows tall and acts as a structure for climbing bean vines, while squash leaves spread along soil to suppress competing weeds, the Rainforest Alliance says.
Grown together, the three crops help regulate soil and deter pests as well as increase biodiversity by establishing a symbiotic relationship between one another, soil microorganisms, insects and animals.
The settlement will be starting out small with its permaculture garden but as time goes on, “there may be some things that change or that grow,” Tamayo-Calabrese said.
Beyond its standalone footprint, the garden also will help the settlement bring a larger-scale goal to fruition. In recent years, they have been working to establish an agricultural hub at its campus, Tamayo-Calabrese said. Part of that vision came to life with the opening of the settlement’s new 3,600-square-foot agricultural center in April 2023. The permaculture garden is another step in building out hub aspirations, she said.
Alongside the garden itself, the settlement is planning to make the new campus addition a part of its educational programming.
The DuPage Foundation’s grant will cover hard costs of the project, including site excavation, hardscape materials, purchase of plants and soil, and irrigation installation, according to Tamayo-Calabrese. The money will also cover the cost to hire an Indigenous expert to work with the settlement on project design.
What isn’t covered by grant funding will be provided in-kind by the settlement and OLI Gardens, a Naperville-based nonprofit founded in 2017 with the mission to create sustainable solutions for eliminating food insecurity. OLI Gardens is partnering with the museum to donate all viable crop yields from the garden to local food banks.
The settlement’s $21,000 grant is one of dozens the foundation awarded to area organizations in 2024. Through the foundation’s fall grant programming, it presented nearly $580,000 in grants to 56 nonprofit organizations across DuPage County.
Apart from the settlement, other Naperville area organizations that benefitted from the program are the Alive Center, which received $25,000 for free after-school drop-in program for teens, and the DuPage Children’s Museum, which was awarded $15,000 for its Learning Labs, Wonder Clubs and Museum Pop-Up programs. Morton Arboretum, Three Fires Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Naperville’s A.D.O.P.T. Pet Shelter and BrightSide Theatre also all received grants, among others.
Since its inception in 1986, the DuPage Foundation has awarded more than $100 million in grant funding.
