Projects and Milestones 

Loving Garland Green projects are varied.  They include fundraisers as well as events associated with installation, maintenance and special educational events held at the Garland Community Garden.  The garden is open to visitors year round, free of charge from dawn to dusk.  Among our garden rules, those who farm the urban plots are required to keep and post records at their garden site of what they plant, when, why, expected crop yields, and actual crop yields.  In addition, we ask that 50% of the crops grown go to a local charity or to Loving Garland Green. We want visitors to be able to walk around the garden and learn from what they see.  We also hope visitors will be inspired to return home and start a garden in their own yard, patio or windowsill.

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CURRENT - 2017

2017 began with the inauguration of a new President--Jane Stroud

Past president and founder, Elizabeth Berry, now serves on the board as President Emeritus.  Current members of the board include Anita Opel, Treasurer; and board members Burgi Bartlett, Gene Rodgers and Margie Rodgers.

We currently have two important projects underway:  

CITIZEN SCIENCE EXPERIMENT 1:  

HOW MUCH DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?  We have partnered with students from the North Garland High School Environmental Club in a gardening experiment designed to find out exactly how much produce can be grown in a 100 square feet of urban vegetable garden space.  The duration of the experiment is from March 27, 2017 until November 4, 2017 with the harvest of the sweet potato crop.  During this time careful records will be kept regarding the poundage and market value as well as expenses involved of growing urban vegetable crops in this plot.  At the conclusion of this experiment, a report will be published regarding the results in the hopes that the result will encourage Garland residents to grow more of the food they eat.

CITIZEN SCIENCE EXPERIMENT 2:

POLE BEAN CONTAINER GARDENING AT THE GOOD SAMARITANS - The Garland Good Samaritans are a local nonprofit who serve those in our community who need a hand up by providing food, job skills training and other assistance.  Loving Garland Green donates 50% of all the produce from the Garland Community Garden to this group and we encourage Garland gardeners to share the surplus from their gardens with this group as well.  On April 8 Loving Garland Green members will deliver eight 27-gallon pots to the Good Samaritans home.  These pots will be filled with soil and trellises.  On April 13 Loving Garland Green members will hold a Pole Bean Container Growing Class.  During this class, clients of the Good Samaritans will learn the easy art of growing pole beans in containers.  At the conclusion of the class, the attendees will plant the beans in the containers and also some in the yard where 7 foot poles will be installed.  From the time the beans begin producing until they finish, those who harvest the beans will be asked to write down the poundage.  At the end of this experiment a report will be published regarding the poundage and market value of green beans produced from the pots and the poles.

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2016

This year passed by in a flash.

February 2016 

We held our first speakers meeting at the downtown Garland Public Library.  Roseann Ferguson, Master Gardener, spoke on the topic of native plants.

March 2016 

We installed the butterfly garden plot and held a yard sale at the home of Burgi Barnett.  On the 21st, Tom Wilton, Master Gardener, spoke on plant propagation.  On Saturday, March 28 we hosted a kickoff for Pollinator Mania down at the Garland Community Garden.  This event was in conjunction with our Last Saturday of the Month Garden Cleanup.  Members of North Garland High School Key Club assisted with the cleanup.

 April 2016 -

We hosted a plant sale and we successfully registered the Garland Community Garden and its surrounding riparian area as a certified wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation.

May 2016 -

We installed a hugelkultur at Watson Tech and we completed installation of plants in the butterfly garden plot down at the Community Garden.  We also installed a butterfly sign near the butterfly garden.  This sign shows the names and photos of all the common butterflies in the North Texas area.  Thus, if you are visiting the garden and see a butterfly that you don't recognize, take a photo of it with your phone and then see if you can locate it on our sign.  Also in May we planted a jujube tree down at the garden.

June 2016 -

June 8 .  We delivered 18 pounds of Okra, blackberries, stringless green beans, kale, and variety of fresh herbs to the Good Samaritans.   June 17 we made our weekly delivery to the Good Samaritans.  During the month of June we also delivered a container garden of sweet potatoes to the Good Samaritans. June 25 members participated in a garden cleanup.  Among other things, a trellis near the front of the garden was installed for a blackberry bush.  June 27 we held a speakers meeting at the downtown library.  CA Hiscock, Master Gardener, spoke on the topic of edible plants and flowers.

July 2016 - July 1

We delivered 23 pounds of produce from the Garland Community Garden to the Good Samaritans of Garland.  This included 8 one-gallon bags of kale, two pounds of blackberries 12 pounds of tomatoes, two one-quart bags of okra, a bag of grapes, and several bags of basil, mint and lemon grass.  We encourage all gardeners to contribute fresh produce from their gardens to the various food banks and charities in our community.  July 25 Janet Smith, Master Gardener, spoked on the topic of pollinators.

August 2016 - We took a rest from the heat.

September 2016 -  

Quarterly yard sale was held. We participated in North Texas Giving Day. September 24, 2016 -Go Green Expo at the Culwell Center- Loving Garland Green had a display table at this annual community event for healthy living.  The theme for our table this year was "Learn and grow with Loving Garland Green."  Our learn and grow demonstrations included a video of how to regrow the lettuce you purchase at the grocery store that is reinforced with a real-life example.  Other real life examples include caterpillars and pupas of several different types of pollinators; a container garden; native bee houses and more.  We hope to see you there.  This great local annual event features many exhibitors with great information and freebies to make it easy for you and your family to become healthier. 

October 2016   

October 21st at the Garland Community Garden:  Students and parents from a home-school group attended a lesson on taxonomy, native bees, loofahs, sweet potatoes and more. October 29, Monster Bash--a harvest celebration was held at the garden.

November 2016 -

November was our first November Leaf Awareness Month. Loving Garland Green launched a public awareness campaign aimed to encourage people to think about what happens to their leaves and then take action to enact what they believe will be the most environmentally sound way to deal with excess leaves in their yard.

In Garland people put leaves into plastic bags and then sit them curbside for their city workers to pick up.  These bags of leaves are taken to the landfill. This is not good for two main reasons. 1) We are removing what would eventually become soil and nutrients to grow plants in our yard and 2) We are using valuable and finite space in our landfill.  This is such a simple problem to solve. We had the faith that simply informing the people will change their behavior.  A lot of citizens mistakenly believed the bags of leaves they put curbside are recycled.  Members picked up over 725 bags of leaves during the month of November and displayed them in the front to the garden along with a large sign informing the public that leaves left curbside go to the land fill.  We believe the campaign has been a huge success because to date (January 4, 2017)  over 600 additional bags have been dropped off at the garden by citizens.

November 2016 also included the beginning of our Pecan Fundraiser--picking, cleaning and selling native pecans.  Also during the month of November we released  25 Monarch butterflies--10 of them were tagged.

Loving Garland Green presented its first Creativity for Community Award.  It went to Watson MST Second Grade Students for their participation in the first annual Monster Bash at the Garland Community Garden.  The second graders were also awarded $100 as first prize for their three original entries in this event.  The students will pass their monetary reward forward by using it to purchase gifts for children in the community this holiday season.

On the third Monday in November members learned from Anita Opel how to make Kombucha--a healthy fermented drink.

December 2016

December 2, 2016 We constructed the only Compost Christmas Tree in the USA.  By the time December rolled around, residents were beginning to understand the importance of recycling leaves.  They continue to drop off leaves and our members distribute the leaves throughout the garden.  December included our annual Christmas Party and concluded on December 31, 2016 with our last Saturday of the Month cleanup in the garden.  We spent the entire four hours emptying leaf bags that had been left by Garland residents.

2015 Projects and Milestones

 Down at the Garden:  We have almost doubled the number of garden beds.  Among these additions include the addition of a Children's Garden that is surrounded by flower gardens of bulbs and wildflowers.  Next to the Children's Garden is another garden plot (4 x 8 feet) that is reserved for a special demonstration plot for children.  In a new narrow foot-wide  new bed behind the Winding Garden we have added a trellis and planted 28 feet of snow peas, and 40 feet of onions, broccoli and kale.  The keyhole garden has been planted with leeks, onions, Walking Egyptian Onions, Kale, Broccoli and Kohlrabi.  We've added a bed to support a Loofah Tunnel build, a bed to support a Three Sisters project and much more.  In addition to our new beds, we have also amended the soil of all our existing beds.

Winter 2015

Urban Gardens for Kids - February 6. 2015 we held our first class for youth in our community.  This marked the beginning of an 8 week course held at Beaver Tech here in Garland, Texas.  
We are hoping to get other groups involved in supporting greenhouse related activities for this school. 

Sharing with City Commissions - Liz Berry, President of Loving Garland Green, spoke on Feb 11, 2014 to Keep Garland Beautiful on the topic of grant writing.  Ms. Berry has written numerous successful grants and proposal and also co-authored a book on writing successful proposals.

Spring 2015 

• We created the curriculum for and led a botany elective for Beaver Technology Center, a magnet school here in Garland, Texas.  It was titled "Urban Gardens for Kids."  It was a huge success.
• In early March we gathered alpaca manure and sold it along with our seedlings at our first ever seedling sale down at the Garden in April.
• We doubled the amount of garden plots in the Garland Community Garden.
• We began the process of soliciting bids for a water harvesting project.
• We implemented several demonstration projects:  Growing Hops in Garland; Remembering the Blackland Prairie; Growing Buffalo Grass--perhaps a native substitute for lawns;  Three Sisters--a permaculture technique borrowed from Native Americans; Loofah Tunnel--an experiment in practicality and entertainment; a Medicine Wheel; hugelkulturs; a spiral herb garden, sweet potato plots and containers and more.

We installed many more perennials in the garden.  Now the Garland Community Garden has 15 blackberry bushes.

We hosted a tour of the Garland Community Garden for 110 students from Watson Technology Center.

On June 21, because of the rain, we celebrated the Summer Solstice in the home of President Elizabeth Berry.

SUMMER 2015

Summer 2015 has been much drier than our spring.  At last our garden began to grow just about the first of July.  Because of the late start, due mostly to lack of sun and now the intense triple digit heat, the plants have not grown as well as they did last year--still we have had production--particularly beans, kale and tomatoes.

President Elizabeth Berry created the curriculum for a year-long botany elective for both Beaver Technology Center and Watson Technology Center.  We hope to assist with this course in the Fall Quarter of 2015--along with the installation of three butterfly gardens at three of our local schools.

Summer of 2015 also began our active involvement with members of the North Garland High School Key Club.  These students have attended several of our meetings and we are planning the installation of possibly two butterfly gardens at the North Garland High School in September.

Our meeting of August 30, 2015 ended on an interesting note.  We had planned to give members of the North Garland High School Key Club a terrarium with two Mexican Fritillary pupas in it but the butterflies eclosed about two hours before the meeting.  Thus, after the meeting, just long enough for the butterflies to dry their wings, we released them.   One flew off almost immediately.  The other one, however, stuck around to drink from the nectar flowers in my front yard.  The six students who attended the meeting were able to watch a butterfly use its proboscis to drink the nectar. 

On 9/11 Charlie and Liz assisted members of North Garland High School Key Club in baking 350 cookies for our Garland firemen.

The first weekend in September, thanks to one of our members, Nancy Seaberg, we were alerted to a fabulous plant sale at one of our local nurseries.  We were able to obtain over $1,500 worth of plants for only $50.  Most of these plants will go to the butterfly gardens at our public schools.

Fall 2015

Fall has proven to be "in like a lion" for Loving Garland Green.  On September 19, less than a week before fall officially began, we participated in Garland's Healthy Living Expo event.  It was our second year to participate in this great event.  One of our members, Dawn Peacock, and several members of North Garland High School Key Club made Stop and Learn presentations on various gardening topics:  Straw Bale Gardening; Lasagna Bed Building and Hugelkultur construction.

Following this event we worked with members of the North Garland High School Key Club to install a butterfly garden at their school.  Already the garden has received many visitors from the community and one visitor, Grace Barnett, an outreach specialist from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in Austin.

On October 19 we hosted a seed and plant sale down at the Community Garden which was another great success.  We earned $100 (at the rate of about $20 and hour) from the sales of our plants, seeds, and products such as pine cone bird feeders.  Thus, providing another example to residents of our community of the potential that a plant-based local economy can provide for supplemental income.

Archived Projects

Pecan Fundraiser Dec 2013

Spring 2014

Summer 2014 Projects and Milestones

Fall 2014 Projects and Milestones

Exploring Home and Community--Ways to live more Sustainably

Home and community are at the core of Loving Garland Green's operations and activities.  Our organization was founded on the premise that the more we love the community, the place where we live; the more prosperous, healthy and happier we will all become. This concept is being promoted all over the USA.

Currently a Loving Garland Green committee is exploring the possibility of working in our community to define home in different ways, more sustainable ways. Defining the "American Dream" as a four bedroom single family dwelling in a suburb with a mother, father, two kids, two cars is no longer the dream for all Americans--especially for two groups at either end of the age spectrum--the young and the old.

In 2013, multifamily housing accounted for fully 33% of starts. Data released in April of 2014 on housing starts in March reinforced that trend, with multifamily homes, a good portion of it high-rise apartment buildings, accounting for 40% of all new construction.

Chief economist for the National Association of Homebuilders, David Crowe explains this: “The 25- to 34-year-old age group is focused on living near their peers. They want be socially engaged and live near work. They want to reduce their automobile use. All of those things aim at high-density, urban-type living.”

Ellen Dunham-Jones, a professor of architecture and urban design at Georgia Tech explains the new trends in living style preference like this: “Unlike their parents, who calculated their worth in terms of square feet, ultimately inventing the McMansion, […] this generation is more interested in the amenities of the city itself: great public spaces, walkability, diverse people and activities with which they can participate.”

Then when we look at the other end of the age spectrum, we are beginning to see the trend of retired people. C0-Housing areas are now beginning to rise up all over the USA.

In Berlin is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, for example, you can purchase a $230,000, 700-square-foot home at Camelot CoHousing (and less expensive versions as well as this community mirrors a typical community but on a smaller scale--it contains the old and the young living in homes of varying economic value).   

Camelot is an enclave of 34 compact homes with welcoming front porches that sit clustered together in this rural town, about a half-hour drive northeast of Worcester, Mass.. The road and parking areas are off to the side, while pedestrian walkways wind among the houses. The development is engineered to encourage relationships with neighbors — and it seems to be working.

Passersby receive invitations to join homeowners for a glass of wine, or, for the kids on scooters, an offer of a Kool-Aid “for the road.” Those who want to can share communal dinners a couple of times a week at the complex’s common house, which also has been the site of dance classes, board game nights, and a workshop on falling safely, attended mainly by the sort of older folks who worry about breaking a hip.

The neighborhood of about 80 people, ranging in age from 80 to 8 months, is small enough that everyone knows everyone else, yet large enough to ensure privacy. That community size is by design, too, an element of co-housing since it was pioneered in Denmark in the 1960s and ’70s. Camelot, with both market-rate and affordable housing, opened in 2008 and sold its last available unit in 2012. Another co-housing development, Mosaic Commons, is just down the hill.

No Place Like Home