Garland Community Garden: Becky and Ed Browning installing their square foot garden.
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Buckminster Fuller
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This quote from Buckminster makes a lot of sense if you will use your imagination for a moment: What would have been the outcome if Henry Ford had ranted and raved about horses and horse carriages instead of building a car? The outcome, my friends, would have been the exact sum of nothing. Furthermore, Ford might have died as a pauper as criticism rarely translates into profit for the critic.
This quote also sums up the philosophy behind the establishment of Loving Garland Green and our stewardship of the Garland Community Garden. Instead of railing against multibillion dollar GMO seed and pesticide corporations, our approach is to get out there and grow our own non-GMO and pesticide free garden and invite others to the pleasure of walking through the garden and snacking from it as they go.
We believe in sharing what we've done with others as well as showing them how they can do it too. We explore new ways for people to experience the benefits first hand that an increase in urban gardens brings to their lives and to their community. The more urban gardens we have in Garland, the healthier our residents will be and the healthier our local economy will be. More people will thus become aware of this relationship and act in accordance. In the final analysis, our focus is on what we can do that will actually benefit us all--not on what another is doing that is wrong.
If we create a world where there is no viable market for harmful products, then they will eventually go away. The primary focus for any corporation is their bottom line and keeping their shareholders happy. If there is no market for their products, then they must either change or go out of business.
No message is stronger than "by example." We hope to be the example with our urban gardens and with our stewardship of the Garland Community Garden--which, by the way, like the city of Paris France, is a pesticide-free zone. Some may not realize this, but the city of Paris France has been a pesticide-free zone since 2000. Not only are its city gardens thriving, its bee population is healthier and more productive than its country cousins--by as much as 70% more productive.
Ironic, isn't it, to think that folks from the country may need to return to the city for their health. Indeed, we have turned our world upside down. Once the country was a place people escaped to avoid the pollution of the city. Today, much of the countryside in the USA is home to the unhealthy expanse of large GMO monocrops which are not healthy for insects or people--expanses which are only sustainable by increasing the use of more pesticides and herbicides and genetically engineered seeds. We are doing the same thing to our bodies that we are doing to our agricultural model. Since most of the food we eat is processed and has a low nutritional value, we are increasingly dependent on vitamins and pharmaceuticals to sustain us. It's a vicious insane cycle fueled by dividends paid to shareholders of pharmaceuticals and chemical corporations.
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Visit the Garland Community Garden--not your usual community garden
Visit the Garland Community Garden and you’ll see all kinds of things: A resident bluebird family; a children’s garden complete with a fairy house and a magic carpet; a Native American Medicine Wheel; a Three Sister’s Garden; a wishing chair; a loofah tunnel waiting for loofah vines; a keyhole garden currently stuffed with greens; a Blackland Prairie sampler; a Buffalo Grass lawn; two small butterfly gardens; a spiral herb garden; and lots of veggie seedlings all snuggled in their beds. If you visit near dusk you’ll hear our resident owl. You may be lucky enough to see our roadrunner taking one of his fast strolls down the winding garden.
Coming attractions include a watermelon patch, a black-eyed pea patch, a sweet potato vine, and several tubs of hops.
Loving Garland Green members are the official stewards for the Garland Community Garden. Membership is free and open to the public. We meet every Monday from 6:30 to 7:30 PM at 216 East Kingsbridge Drive Garland 75040. We would love for you to join us.
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Extended Opportunity to Celebrate Earth Day in Dallas
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
10AM to 6PM Fair Park
http://earthdaytx.org
TAKE THE DART. AVOID THE HASSLE OF DRIVING AND THE $10 PARKING FEE.