The All-Abilities Garden at Cheney Mansion grows copious amounts of vegetables every summer. The Park District donates over 500 pounds of fresh produce from the garden to the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry each year.

All 18 parks and 19 facilities have native plantings as part of their landscape. This practice reduces labor costs and improves food sources for insects and birds. The community has seen an increase in monarch butterflies based on a community-wide effort to increase milk weed and other pollinator plantings.