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Getting clean clothes is a challenge for the homeless.   [In Garland, the police talk with the homeless and help them out in small, but important ways such as telling them where to go to get food and other help from various agencies.]  Now the police of Garland are helping out the homeless in our community by distributing free clothing to them--clothing that has been provided by people in the community.

 

The Garland police have a drop off box in the lobby of their main station on Forest Lane.  You can go there and drop off clothing during business hours.  You can help the homeless in your community and you will also be contributing to building better community relationships between the police officers of our community and the homeless on our streets. We are all in this together. Being homeless is not a crime and it's good to see a police department who know this and are doing what they can to help the homeless in our community.

If you have clothing that you no longer need, drop it off at the lobby of the Garland Police Station during business hours. 

1891 Forest Ln, Garland, TX 75042
 
Phone: (972) 485-4840
 
 
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VISITORS TO THE GARDEN

This Monday Loving Garland Green hosted a tour for some members of the “We Love Plants” group from the Spring Creek Church:  Kathy, Kathy and Yadi.   It was rescheduled due to the rain on Saturday.  Thus, we had a small group since many of their members work.  However, their enthusiasm more than made up for their size.   It’s always fun to tell people about our garden, a randomly designed area where vegetables, flowers, fruit and people all come together. When you go down to the garden, you never know who might show up--a cardinal, a cotton tail rabbit, or an interesting person.  The space is not fenced and it is open to the public following the same schedule of our parks from sun-up to sun-down.  You are always welcome to pull unwanted grass at the edges of beds and pots.

 

FOOD DONATIONS TO THE GOOD SAMARITANS OF GARAND, TEXAS

 

 Also, we delivered food to the Good Samaritans on Monday.  In addition to our produce from the garden we also add canned goods. Jane, a recently retired virologist and former president of Loving Garland Green, keeps the records of our deliveries.  Being more the artist than the scientist, my record-keeping differs from Jane.  She carefully weighs everything while I weigh nothing.  Instead, I measure our gifts according to the number of people our produce donation can feed.  For example, five one-quart bags of green beans equal ten servings. 10 one-quart bags of Kale equal ten servings, etc.  Usually, Jane does the tracking but she has been out of town for the past three weeks.  It was great to have her back on Monday.

 

 

HERE ARE OUR FOOD DONATIONS ACCORDING TO JANE’S RECORDS:

Loving Garland Green’s donations to Good Sam’s June 14, 2021:

25 pounds of non perishables (canned goods and dining utensils)

6.8 pound of produce

Note:  if you order take out, you often get plastic utensils all wrapped in cellophane with a napkin. Most of us prefer to use our own silverware so these plastic utensils end up in the trash.  The Good Samaritans distribute these to the homeless who often have no eating utensils.

 

FOR 2020, TO GOOD SAM’S WITH LOVE FROM US TO THE PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY:

338.45 pounds of non perishables

138.15 pounds of produce

See!  Like I said, it adds up.

 

SPEAKING OF LOVE AND COMMUNITY . . .

I can’t give details because my fear is that he would receive a mountain of clothing and have nowhere to put it.  But I’ll tell you this much. I was told we have a policeman in Garland who keeps up with many of our homeless.  You may know that with the pandemic, our used clothing stores are closed. The homeless can’t order from Amazon. The policeman collects clothing from friends and distributes among the homeless.  Garland has a lot of nice people who care about others and do what they can to help them.

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SO MUCH HAPPENING AT THE GARDEN THIS PAST WEEK

Where to begin?  I’ll start with the pumpkin story.  Last Wednesday, June 2, I decided to start a Ruth Stout compost garden plot.  I rescued two pumpkins my neighbors had left by their garbage bins.  I threw them into a compost bin at the garden, then covered with leaves and a little soil. One week later they had sprouted!

 

So, I separated some and replanted them in the compost heap.  But there are so many! So, I transplanted some more to pots. And now we are coming to another Garland Community Garden story-- a sharing table.  We have 112 tomato plants already in plots at the garden and some are left over.  They look a bit peeked but with a little TLC they will thrive and give you tomatoes before the summer is over.  There are also a few jalapeno pepper plants, a cucumber plant and some watermelon plants  If you can give them a good home, come and get the ones you need.  The transplanted pumpkin plants are there too.  If you have plants to share, bring them to our table.

 

 

Today I delivered produce from the Garland Community Garden to the Good Samaritans.  Our delivery today included green beans, kale, Swiss chard, cucumbers and blackberries.  Next week we should be able to start delivering tomatoes.

TOMATOES ARE COMING! 

I ate my first tomato this year.  It was a beefsteak tomato and totally delicious!  There are more to come and to share.  Below is photo of the plant and a photo of one of the tomatoes.  This year I’m growing all my produce in pots.

IF YOU WANT THINGS TO GROW, YOU'VE GOT TO GET THE WEEDS OUT OF THE WAY

[That's a good metaphor for people too.]. We are so fortunate to have people who stop by to pull weeds, in addition to our regular gardeners.

 TOMORROW AT 9 AM WE WILL BE HOSTING A GARDEN TOUR FOR A GROUP FROM THE SPRING CREEK CHURCH.  You are welcome to join us.

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Many tend to think of world hunger as being “over there” across an ocean or two.  It is. But is also likely to be right in your own neighborhood, and certainly in the city where you live.  I was confronted with this reality myself when I went home for my 10th high school reunion years ago.  One of my classmates confided in me that she often only had bread for lunch--two slices of bread put together to look like a sandwich with something in between.  There she was.  I had grown up with her first grade through 12th and I never knew that she had hunger as a constant companion all that time we were growing up together.

I thought about her this morning as I delivered some produce from the Garland Community Garden and saw one of the volunteers from Good Sam’s.  I love the feeling of being connected to others who are playing a part in eliminating hunger. It helps me to quell that voice inside that tells me I may as well give up -- there is no point in trying because the problem of hunger in the world is so huge.

Around the world, 690 million people regularly go to bed hungry, according to a 2020 report from the United Nations food agencies. Globally, about 8.9% of the world’s population — 690 million people — go to bed on an empty stomach each night.  And no, as individuals we can’t single-handedly solve this problem, but working together, community by community, we can.

Those who garden at the Garland Community Garden donate 50% of their produce to Good Sam’s. This week our offering included 1 gallon packet of Swiss Chard, 8-quart bags of mint, 10- quart bags of kale; 4-quart bags of green beans; 5 peppers, 7 cucumbers and two-gallon bags of basil.  Next week we will likely be adding a lot of tomatoes to our delivery as well as blackberries.

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As we live in a chaotic, unpredictable world, it  may be helpful for us to build as many escape routes for ourselves as possible.

I have a few: reading, working in the garden and watching Netflix. I suppose you could add meditation. Most of the time I am in the garden, I am in a meditative state with a blank mind (on the weekends when a few people are around, not so much).

For the past three months, when it is not raining, I've spent 3 to 8 hours a day working in the Garland Community Garden which I founded with six other folks 7 years ago. It's a great space with no fences and many plots. It is surrounded on one border by a riparian area that ends in a creek. At the garden the edge marks the transition from the garden to the wild woods where creatures like an owl, raccoons, rabbits, possums.

I often think about the edge when I am at the garden. A lot has been written about the edge and its importance and meaning for human beings. The edge, the place where two distinct environments meet is a significant space that makes room transition, growth and sometimes the birth of new things. In the world of nature, it is at the edge of the forest and the meadow where new species of plants often emerge with characteristics that blend aspects of the plants in the woods with the plants in the meadow.

A couple of days ago I created a Ruth Stout plot. I've done them before but this is the first one I've made one for about three years. I was inspired by two pumpkins beside my neighbors trash cans that I picked up and tossed in the back of my truck. Now their pulp and seeds will produce pumpkins in the fall.

Ruth Imogen Stout (June 14, 1884 – August 22, 1980) was an American author best known for her "No-Work" gardening books and techniques. Stout moved to New York when she was 18 and was employed at various times as a baby nurse, a bookkeeper, a secretary, a business manager, and a factory worker. She was a lecturer and coordinated lectures and debates, and she owned a small tea shop in Greenwich Village and worked for a fake mind-reading act.

Ms. Stout planted her first garden in 1930 at 54 years of age. She gardened for the next 50 years--until she died at age 96. Her unique contribution to the gardening world was to grow her eatables out of her compost pile. “No work gardening” she called it. Just throw some hay and organic matter down, throw some seed in, and feed with compost from your dinner table. No weed pulling, no tilling.