FUN AT THE GARLAND COMMUNITY GARDEN ON ANNIVERSARY DAY!
Yes indeed! It takes a community to make a community garden--that and lots of persistence.
Our anniversary celebration was a success! We had volunteers from Keep Garland Beautiful outreach there to assist us and Neighborhood Vitality sent some very nice giveaways for our freebie table. Councilman Robert John Smith, a long-time loyal supporter of our garden stopped by to congratulate us. Scott Bollinger Garland Neighborhood Resources Manager came down for a tour. We look forward to working with Scott as well as with Matt Grubisich, Director, Parks Operations & Maintenance at City of Garland, TX
Long-Time important Garland Community Garden Supporter, Councilman Robert John Smith (8th District).
Scott Bollinger, Garland Neighborhood Resources Manager at the Medicine Wheel.
Many old friends stopped by. Among them was Linsey Gilbert, School Nurse at Parkcrest Elementary School here in Garland. If you have a chance stop by and see their beautiful school garden--one of the prettiest in Dallas County located at 2232 Parkcrest Drive, Garland TX. Linsey is the one who coordinated the development of this lovely garden. She brought her sweet little doggie with her. You may not know this, but dogs are welcome at the garden as long as they are on a leash and the owner pick up after them.
Linsey Gilbert, School Nurse and School Garden Innovator at Parkcrest Elementary School Garland Texas relaxing in the shade of an old native pecan tree at the Garden.
Speaking of Linsey and Parkcrest reminds me of Reba. Reba Collins was one of the members of the outreach team from Keep Garland Beautiful who assisted us. Reba is a certified Master Naturalist who designed the pollinator garden for Parkcrest Elementary. Members of Loving Garland Green also worked on the school garden project at Parkcrest. We assisted in the design and planting of the vegetables.
Reba Collins - Keep Garland Beautiful
Reba Collins, Master Naturalist was there from Keep Garland Beautiful to help us out. In addition to Reba, the Keep Garland Beautiful community outreach team for our event included Ken Risser, Daniel Segert and Darla Meek. Keep Garland Beautiful is committed to educating & engaging individuals to take responsibility for improving their community environment. Since their inception as a nonprofit, they have collected 873,779 pounds of litter and installed eight pollinator gardens--a great volunteer organization to join as they do so much for our community.
And of course, a garden party would not be a party without children. Here are two youngsters taking advantage of the freebies at the Neighborhood Vitality table.
Children's enthusiasm for Gardens is boundless.
Jack is a special garden boy. He was born on Earth Day, April 22--eleven years ago. Year before last he planted a Celebrity tomato in this pot. This year he returned to plant another.
Jackie and his Celebrity Tomato
No, they are not looking for Waldo. They are looking on the leaves of common milkweed at the garden for Monarch caterpillars. Four were found. They have been rescued and are now in my living room in containers with milkweed. In the wild it is estimated that only 5% of Monarch caterpillars make it to adulthood. When rescued, the odds are much better! We only lose about 5% of them. Members of Loving Garland Green have been rescuing caterpillars and tagging Monarchs for five years. The Garland Community Garden is a certified National Wildlife Habitat: Garland Community Garden No. 198,434.
Angelica (in the foreground) is searching for Caterpillars with Nancy, one of our faithful Loving Garland Green members. Nancy is our resident expert on herbs.
We made new friends too. That's the thing about gardens: You can meet and make all kind of new friends. Juan and Sandra from Mesquite who read about us in the Mesquite paper were among our first time visitors to the garden. I'm sure they will be back.
Juan and Sandra -First time visitors to the Garden but they will return.
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A special thank-you to Jane Stroud who has been our president since 2017 and Secretary of the Board before that. Jane is still very active in Loving Garland Green. We could never have put together our Anniversary celebration without all her hard work.