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We would be better served as a nation if more Americans would step outside the box of stereotypical thinking and take a look at the bigger picture when it comes to Arab Americans. Just because a person happens to be an Arab American, it does not automatically follow that this person is a Muslim. And of course, just because someone is a Muslim, it does not automatically follow that they support terrorists.There are Arab/Americans who are atheists just as there are native-born Americans who are atheists.

Using the City Council of Dearborn as an example, two of its Arab Americans are Shiite Muslims and two of them are Christians. All four of them happen to be Lebanese. The majority of the members of the City Council of Dearborn Michigan are Christians.

Another demonstration that seems to fly in the face of American stereotypes of Muslim women is Susan Dabaja, an Arab-American Muslim 36 year old lawyer who serves as President of the City Council of Dearborn. (Again as mentioned in a previous post, there is no Sharia law in effect in Dearborn. The Mayor's name is John B. O'Reilly. The majority of private schools in Dearborn are Catholic, not Muslim. An excerpt from their recent city council meeting shows an opening invocation by a minister from a Christian Church followed by the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance--not any different from most of the city council meetings here in the DFW area.)

Most of us need to lighten up, let go our suspicions and try instead to learn more about what we don't understand and then celebrate the diversity that makes our nation great. We need to stop judging the many on the basis of the behavior of a few.

How many Christians, for example, would appreciate being judged as a group on the basis of the behavior of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber? Yet McVeigh professed to be a Christian just like Scott Roeder who shot Dr. Tiller inside a church.

Does it logically follow then that the 2 billion Christians in the world support the evil these men did? No, of course not. No more than it would follow that the 1.57 billion Muslims in the world support ISIS. It's insulting to the larger bodies of these religions to suggest such a thing. We need to smarten up and stop generalizing from the behavior of a few to that of the many. ________________________________________________________________________________

DID YOU KNOW THAT LOCAL AMERICAN PATRIOTS MIGHT NOT HAVE FLAGS TO WAVE IF IT WERE NOT FOR A LOCAL PALESTINE-AMERICAN.

Here is perhaps the funniest and yet most revealing findings of all my research for this article:

Yes, and right here in Dallas. Fawaz Hassan "Tony" Ismail is the founder and CEO of Alamo Flags, the country's largest retail-flag enterprise that is based here in Dallas Texas. Ismail has 42 retail stores across the country. Positioned in tourist areas of cities like Atlanta, Boston, and New York, the shops sell not only flags from every nation but also hats, bumper stickers, T-shirts, and even bikinis with flag motifs.

Born to Palestinian refugees in Aman, Jordan, Ismail moved with his family to Mesquite, Texas, at the age of 9. He supplies most government agencies and all but a few foreign embassies in Washington. He is a huge Dallas Cowboys fan.

Although a dedicated Muslim, he does not allow politics or religion to get in the way of his business. In an article about him that appeared in Fortune Magazine a few months after 9/11, Ismail was quoted as saying that he fired one of his employees who was quoted in the Atlanta Journal saying that the Confederate flag was like a Nazi flag. Ismail said that after the American flag the Confederate flag is their second top selling flag. He even once installed a flag at the Jewish Embassy in DC.

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Arab-Americans have been contributing to and shaping American culture for over a century and their contributions are to be celebrated.

James Jabara - 1923 -1966

the first American and United States Air Force jet ace in history

 Jabara was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, of Lebanese American descent; his father, John, and mother came from Marjayoun, a town in South Lebanon.  He fought during World War II and also the Korean War.  During World War II he flew 108 combat missions.

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Ralph Nader was born in Winsted, Connecticut to Nathra and Rose (née Bouziane) Nader, immigrants from Lebanon. His parents were Antiochian Greek Orthodox Christians. They raised the children in their homeland's culture with both their native Arabic and English, telling them proverbs and stories they felt would encourage independent thought, appreciation of things such as wildlife that cannot be "measured by the dollar," plus instill traits such as perseverance and inner strength.

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Paul Anka (Father Syrian and Mother Lebanese raised in the in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church.

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Michael Ellis DeBakey -world-renowned American cardiac surgeon, innovator, scientist, medical educator, and international medical statesman. He developed an essential component of the heart-lung machine.The pump provided a continuous flow of blood during operations. This, in turn, made open-heart surgery possible. He was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Lebanese immigrants Shaker and Raheeja Dabaghi (later Anglicized to DeBakey).

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American geologist, Dr. Farouk el-Baz, born in Egypt, helped plan all the Apollo moon landings and later pioneered the use of space photography to study the Earth.    He was born in the Nile Delta in the village of Touqh el aklaam, El Senbellawein city, Dakahlia Governorate.

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So how did all these Arab-American Immigrants get here?

Most of them got here the same way that many immigrants arrive in the USA--by boat and legally.

Many of them are second, third and even fourth generation Americans. Many Arabs came to America as part of the Great Migration from 1880 to 1924. Why Dearborn?

There was no Muslim conspiracy for them to settle in and about Dearborn Michigan. They migrated to this area because of the promise of good jobs in the boom of the automotive industry. A second wave of immigrants came in the late 1940's and early 1950's after Israel was awarded homes and land that had belonged to Palestinians like Ismail's family for generations. What are you going to do when your home is taken from you? The best answer at the time was to migrate to the USA, the land of opportunity.

Because of our ridiculous media (whose one primary goal, please remember, is to sell advertisements and not to educate the public) many of us have the mistaken notion that we are being invaded by hordes of Muslims.  This is not unlike the 1950's and early 1960's when they had us believing that we would soon be invaded by hoards of yellow people and that everyone better build and stock a bomb shelter.

The primary fuel that feeds our media is fear and panic. How long must the American public allow themselves to be jerked about by these fear mongers before we say enough? {Frankly, I think that time may be closer than many suspect. Many friends I know have stopped watching the absurd "news" channels altogether.]

Forget the Media Hype and Get a Grip on the Facts with Statistics on Arab Americans in the USA

The current USA population is 318.9 million (2014)

The current Arab/American population is estimated at approximately 4 million.

They will not be taking over our nation, people. There are not "hoards" of people from the Middle East in the USA.

Furthermore, the majority of the Arab-Americans are an integral part of the fabric of our great nation, just like me (native born) and Tony Ismail (Arab American).

Four million out of 318 million will overtake us?

I don't think so--even if by some implausible fluke they were to unite.  Statistically it just ain't happening.

From the Arab American Institute: Contrary to popular assumptions or stereotypes, the majority of Arab Americans are native-born, and nearly 82% are citizens.  These people are not radical terrorists.

While the Arab community in the USA traces its roots to every Arab country, the majority of Arab Americans have ancestral ties to Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Iraq.

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The more I see, the more I am coming to believe that our only hope/defense against terrorism is to increase our own education and understanding of the world we live in.

Yes there are passages in the Koran and the Bible that can be interpreted to advocate violence.  In fact there are likely passages in all religious texts that advocate violence of one kind or another against those who don't agree with the dogma.  Throughout the centuries violence against human beings has been carried out in the name of god.  The Catholic Inquisition of the Middle Ages is one outstanding example.

Scholar Philip Jenkins, a professor at Penn State University, points out in an article titled "Dark Passages" that appeared a few years ago in Boston.com:  "Most Westerners who have never even opened the Koran assume that it is filled with calls for militarism and murder.  They assume those are the texts that shape Islam.  But they are wrong."  Professor Jenkins even suggest the Bible contains more passages urging or praising bloodshed than the Koran.

The Biblical story of Phinehas (Numbers 25: 1-15) was the basis for the foundation of a white supremacist group.  in 1990, Richard Kelly Hoskins used the story as the basis for his manifesto "Vigilantes of Christendom." Hoskins advocated the creation of a new order of militant white supremacists, the Phineas Priesthood, and since then a number of groups have assumed this title, claiming Phinehas as the justification for terrorist attacks on mixed-race couples and abortion clinics.

The point here being:  Just because an individual quotes from an ancient religious text as being the basis for the formation of an extremist group, it does not follow that the 2 billion Christians on the planet have his back.  It is just as absurd to assume that 1.57 billion Muslims approve of ISIS and their interpretation of the Koran.  Those who know even a little about ISIS know this is true because ISIS is sworn to kill 200 million Shia Muslims because the Shia don't follow the ISIS fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran.  Therefore it is fairly safe to say that at least 200 million Muslims are opposed to ISIS.

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Terrorists Are Made--Not Born.   

Not all, but many jihadists such as the 9/11 are highly educated. It seems to me that what is emerging from the literature on the topic is that given a certain set of circumstances certain people are vulnerable to being recruited as terrorists, just as certain people, given certain circumstances, are vulnerable to being recruited by a cult--regardless how well they are educated. Most of the terrorists are young males between the ages of 20 and 30 years. Some are well-educated and some are not.  According to British Arnold Toynbee, contact with the dominant universal society is always the first step in the radicalization of Third World terrorists.  He even has defined the path:

1. Intrusive civilization (Western Society)  2. Intelligentsia (Expatriate Liaison Class)  3. Alienation, humiliation loss of identity  4. Voluntary sorting of Affinity Groups  5. Concentration of True Believers  6. Information Depravation 7. Radicalization 8. Terrorism.  Toynbee's steps for the making of a terrorist seem to make sense to me--whether the terrorist is born in the USA or not.  It also seems to be that at least through the first four steps that successful intervention would be possible.  

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We each must make our own important decisions.

Albert Einstein put it well when he said:  The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe."  Do we choose to believe that we live in a world filled mostly with hate and anger and hostility where people are out to do us harm; or do we choose to believe that we live in a world filled mostly with love and caring?  The choice we make will most certainly color the quality of  our lives, our health and our happiness and also to some extent that of the people around us.

I choose to believe that I live in a friendly universe.  I choose to believe that more people are out to help me than to attack me.  That is my choice.

I choose to believe that of the 1.57 billion Muslims and the 2 billion Christians in the world that most of them are more like me than not. They are good people with honorable intentions.  I choose to believe that the majority of them want all the same basic things from life that I desire--honorable work, a place to live that is safe for me and my family, and the chance to live a healthy, productive, fruitful life.

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 A Good Starting Point Might be to Stop Blaming Billions of People for the Insanity of a Few

Religion can be used as a tool by some to twist others into committing acts of terrorism. All organized religions down through the centuries have been used by those in control to manipulate others. The Christian religion and the words of the Bible have also throughout the centuries been used as an excuse for murder and mayhem.  It makes no more sense to blame the Islamic faith for a terrorist event that it does to blame Christianity for the likes of Richard Kelly Hoskins or Jim David Adkisson or Paul Jennings Hill or Eric Rudolph or James Charles Kopp or Fred Phelps or John Salvi to name a few.  In fact, all organized religion has throughout history been used as an excuse for hate and murder.

The Islamic faith is no different.  All religions of the world share that stage.  History tells us that Islam is no worse or better in that regard.

 

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It’s interesting and also can be frightening how myths persist in the face of facts but they do.

With the recent incident at the Garland Cullwell Center, once again I hear people talking about how “Sharia law is already implemented in the City of Dearborn, Michigan and it’s only a matter of time before it’s all over the USA.”  That false story is used time and again to raise fear and paranoia among people in communities. 

Sharia Law is NOT in effect in the city of Dearborn Michigan.

I wonder how many people who go around telling people that Sharia law is already in effect in Dearborn Michigan have actually gone to that city’s website and looked at all the various city departments and its government?

My guess is that not a single one of them has bothered to check out the facts.  If they did, they would learn that the Mayor of that city is John B O’Reilly, Jr.—an Irish American.    They would also learn the majority of Dearborn’s City Council are Christians as are most cities in the USA.  Although there are four Arab Americans on their city council, only two of them are Muslim.  The other two are Christian.  Not all Arab Americans are Muslims--another fact often overlooked by many Americans.

The population of Dearborn is 30% Arab American.  Out of its 10 private schools, two are Muslim.

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Yesterday (May 5, 2015) they voted down a state initiative to raise sales taxes.  It appears their voter turnout of about 20% is about typical—except for some cities like Garland where it is much lower. 

PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 50) . . . . . 50 100.00

REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL . . . . . 59,043

 BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL. . . . . . . 11,569 8,548 3,021

 VOTER TURNOUT - TOTAL . . . . . . 19.59

STATE PROPOSAL 15-1

Vote for 1

 YES . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,428 21.04 1,640 788

 NO. . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,110 78.96 6,902 2,208

 

Most of the same laws that govern municipalities all over the USA are also in place at Dearborn.  There is no Sharia Law.   If you look at the minutes from their most recent city council meeting you will see that it opened with a prayer from a local Christian minister and was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

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ORIGINAL SOURCE FOR STORY ON SHARIA LAW IN DEARBORN:  THE NATIONAL REPORT

Who is “The National Report?     Here is their own disclaimer for ANY story they write.  Don’t take my word for it.  Go to their website and see for yourself. Encourage others to stop passing around this ridiculous lie about Sharia Law.

National Report Disclaimer

National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental. Advice given is NOT to be construed as professional. If you are in need of professional help, please consult a professional. National Report is not intended for children under the age of 18.

[Accessed May 6, 2015  http://www.donotlink.com/framed?608857 ]

Below is the story as it appeared in their publication of fake news from 2013:

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In a surprise weekend vote, the city council of Dearborn, Michigan voted 4-3 to became the first US city to officially implement all aspects of Sharia Law.  The tough new law, slated to go into effect January 1st, addresses secular law including crime, politics and economics as well as personal matters such as . . . .

- See the entire joke at: http://www.donotlink.com/framed?615278 

But after you’ve read all their nonsense, be sure to also look at their disclaimer.  None of what they write is true and they admit it.

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Perhaps another part of this equation is understanding why there even is such a site as "National Report":  It's all about money, folks.


According to Wiki, stories from the National Report have been taken seriously by third parties such as Fox News Channel and the site drew criticism in October 2015 for running a series of fake stories about Ebola outbreaks in the USA, including the false report that the town of Purdon Texas had been quarantined after an outbreak.  The story led to a traffic spike of two million unique visiitors, and although the story was debunked by other websites, the original National Report story received six times as many "shares" on social media sites as the debunking stories did.  [See what I mean about folks and their love of myth? Lies seem to sell better than the facts.]

 

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A Pocket Neighborhood Community Created by Architect Ross Chapin

Last night I attended a lovely event in Oak Cliff with two members of the board of Loving Garland Green, Anita and Robert Opel.  Mayor Doug Athas who also attended had invited us to this event to spend a delightful and informative evening with architect Ross Chapin at the Bishop Arts Theater Center in Oak Cliff.

Pocket neighborhoods are small clusters of houses, gathered around a shared area, that foster community and yet preserve privacy.   Pocket neighborhoods are proven successes and these areas are absolutely beautiful.  You can purchase Mr. Chapin’s book, Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World on Amazon.

Chapin is an internationally acclaimed architect, land planner and author from Whidbey Island, Washington. He has designed dozens of neighborhoods across the U.S. and Canada and has been a development partner on six pocket neighborhoods, several of which have received national housing awards.

His first pocket neighborhood design was developed on four lots (2/3 acre).  It has 8 cottages located on it.  Density issues are solved by design.  These pocket neighborhoods provide an amazing amount of privacy.  No one has their neighbors looking into their bedrooms for example.  All houses are designed to have a view of the commons.  Thus you can see when someone comes into your neighborhood as the commons are visible to all the homes.  In addition, all the houses have front porches.  These are semi-private areas of the homes that look out onto the commons and at the same time are layered with landscaping from the walkway around the commons to provide a sense of separation.

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For the past year members of Loving Garland Green have been exploring the viability as well as how to best go about introducing the concept of smaller homes grouped on larger lots with common outdoor spaces and a common neighborhood garden.  We call this concept “Microvillages”

In addition, many of us have read about Mr. Chapin’s work and were excited for the opportunity to meet and chat with him regarding his highly successful experience at creating pocket neighborhoods.

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Pocket Neighborhoods have a long history.

While the concepts of pocket neighborhoods and micro-villages may seem like revolutionary new ideas of the 21st century, they are not.  In modern times this concept dates back to the late 1800’s when Ebenezer Howard published his book: To-Morrow:  A Peaceful Path to Real Reform and then built two garden cities in England.

Here in the USA we also have our own early versions of Pocket Neighborhoods with the establishment of Bowen Court in Pasadena California in 1909.  The court includes 23 bungalows arranged in an "L" shape and is one of the largest bungalow courts in southern California. Built from 1910 to 1912, Bowen Court is the oldest bungalow court in Pasadena. Arthur and Alfred Heineman designed the court and planned it around a Craftsman style courtyard. [Arthur was the inventor of the motel.  He opened the first one on December 12, 1925 in San Luis Obispo, California.]

The three main characteristics of these pocket neighborhoods include the following:

  1. Limited size – the homes are usually no larger than 1,000 square feet.
  2. Commons – much of the land within the neighborhood is a shared commons
  3. Parking is located on the perimeter of the neighborhood.  In order to get to one’s home they must walk a few feet though a commons area.

It’s amazing how much privacy and yet access to one’s neighbors that the design of these homes provides.  You can see from the photos in Chapin’s book that they are carefully positioned and designed to create the illusion of a much larger space.  One definitely does not get the feeling that the neighbors are on top of one another.  The feeling from these neighborhoods is more that of living in the middle of a large beautiful garden with best neighbors nearby.

Most of our homes now are designed to isolate us from our neighbors and even insulate us from them.  We drive into our garages, and walk into our homes.  Most of our backyards have six to eight foot high fences.  We can go weeks, even months without even seeing our neighbors.

However, all that is changing.  Pocket Neighborhoods are popping up all over – from Washington State to Carmel Indiana to Ardmore Oklahoma.

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Create Your Own Pocket Neighborhood Now

Increasing the neighborliness of your home and community:  In the final analysis change begins with you.

  • Plant a vegetable garden in your front yard.
  • Move your picnic table from your back yard to the front yard
  • Build and install a Little Free Library in your front yard http://littlefreelibrary.org/
  • Don’t replace your aging fence in the backyard.  Instead, use that money to enhance the existing landscaping.
  • Get active with the officials in your community and start work on establishing a pocket neighborhood code/cottage housing zoning ordinance for your city if it doesn’t already have one.  The building codes for most cities today need serious revisions to make way for neighborhood designs that serve the needs of more citizens.

Living in a pocket neighborhood is not for everyone.  However, it is becoming increasingly more attractive to a large segment of our aging population as well as to 80 million Echo Boomers who are the children of the Baby Boomers.  

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Three Monarch Caterpillars munching on a milkweed at the Garland Community Garden - April 25, 2015

Journey North reported that Monarch butterflies left their roosts in Michoacán, Mexico, on March 24 in what is one of their latest departure on record.  It's a good thing though, as the Milkweeds, at least in North Texas, are for the most part barely substantial to support the caterpillars in this important first stage of their journey.  The milkweed is the only plant on which the Monarch butterfly will lay its eggs.

At the Garland Community Garden we have two puny Tropical Milkweeds which I noticed yesterday are now host to no less than seven Monarch Caterpillars.  I know there is a certain school of thought who say the tropical milkweeds are not good and the people should not grow them, but I can tell you for a fact that if the Monarchs had to depend on the tiny two inch native Texas Green milkweeds in our community garden today, they would be sorely out of luck. 

It takes about six weeks for Monarch to develop from an egg into a butterfly. The ones shown in the photo above from the Garland Community Garden have about another month to go.  They should be butterflies about the second or third week in May.  However, survival rates are low. Only about 5% survive to become fifth instars. The others are killed by a variety of predators, including ants, spiders, true bugs, beetles, and lacewing larvae.

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LIFECYCLE OF A MONARCH BUTTERFLY

1.  Life for the monarch begins as an egg, laid underneath a milkweed leaf.

Three to five days later . . .

2. That egg hatches into  a first instar larva (caterpillar).

Over 9 to 15 days . . .

[Larva (caterpillar) increases its body mass by about 2000 times as it molts and shedding ti skin five times to allow for this increase in size.  The period between each molt is called an 'instar".]

At about two weeks or 15 days. . .

3. Caterpillar pupates.  They form a shell called a chrysalis or pupa.

Nine to fourteen days later. . .

4. Adult butterfly emerges from the pupa casing, pumps fluid from its abdomen into its wings and flies off to nectar, mate and if a female to lay eggs.

Adult butterflies that don't migrate live another 2 to 6 weeks.

 

More detail on Monarchs can be found HERE.

 

ADDENDUM TO THIS POST

Yesterday (Sunday April 26) I returned to look at the Monarch catepillars.  They have eaten all the leaves from both milkweed plants which were only about 15 inches high.  When I saw them they were munching on the stems.  I don't think the caterpillars are large enough to form pupas so my guess is they will die.  I'll report on Tuesday with an update.  I've called all my friends and no one has plants any taller than few inch seedlings.

I wonder if, due to our cold wet spring and the late arrival of the milkweed if we will experience a loss in the Monarch population as we did a couple of years ago.

The photo below was taken at dusk of the same day the photo at the beginning of this article was taken. All the leaves are gone.  In the bottom left you can see a caterpillar munching on a stem.  Notice all the green leaves in the bottom of the photo above.  These are milkweed leaves.  By the time I saw them in the morning they had already defoliated the top part of the plant.  By evening of that same day they had defoliated the entire plant--in the space of about six hours.

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Photos courtesy U.S. Library of Congress

Who needs the ocean when you have DDT?

 

Only years after the damage is done do we learn the truth about some chemical products sold for general use by the public.

Our government and chemical corporations told us that DDT was safe for humans.  Prior to 1972 when its use was banned, DDT was a commonly used pesticide.  In fact, children played in the “safe” DDT fog. Other parts of the world continue to use DDT in agricultural practices and in disease-control programs. Therefore, atmospheric deposition is the current source of new DDT contamination in our Great Lakes.

Even though DDT has been banned since 1972, it can take more than 15 years to break down in our environment. Fish consumption advisories are in effect for DDT in many waterways including the Great Lakes ecosystem. 

Today DDT is designated as a “persistent bio-accumulative and toxic (PBT) chemical, but only a few years ago children’s rooms were plastered with DDT laced wallpaper—“perfectly safe.”

 

AGENT ORANGE

Note:  Agent Orange isn’t around any more but one of its key components (2, 4-D) is still produced by Dow and sold in over 70 products including Scott’s Weed and Feed, Miracle-Grow Weed and Feed, Weed B Gone and others.

Agent Orange was a color-coded herbicide that consisted of a 50/50 mixture of two individual herbicides: 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T.  The herbicide 2,4, 5-T, which contained Dioxin, a by-product of the deliberately accelerated production of 2,4, 5-T, is a carcinogen that remains toxic to the environment for decades.  Its sale has been banned in the USA.

I suggest reading the NPIC 2,4-DTechnical Fact Sheet http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/2,4-DTech.pdf before using any of these popular herbicide products containing this chemical and then you can make an informed decision for yourself.  Don’t rely on marketing information from those who profit from the sale of these products—that is nothing short of stupid.

 

ROUNDUP

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup.  Regulatory and scholarly reviews of the toxicity of glyphosate found it to be relatively safe as an herbicide just as they did for DDT for years.

A meta-analysis published in 2014 identified an increased risk of NHL in workers exposed to glyphosate formulations.

In March 2015 the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer published a summary of its forthcoming monograph on glyphosate, and classified it as "probably carcinogenic in humans" (category 2A) based on epidemiological studies, animal studies, and in vitro studies.

 

SEVIN DUST

I can remember my mother and grandmother using this stuff in their gardens—especially on the tomatoes.  Sevin is highly toxic to bees, mollusks and aquatic invertebrates.  Resulting runoff from groundwater affects the entire food chain.  Furthermore, Sevin combines with 2, 4-D found in Scotts Weed and Feed and miracle Grow to increase the toxicity of 2, 4-D.  Continuous inhalation of Sevin dust can cause pneumoconiosis, more commonly referred to as “Black Lung Disease.

Carbaryl (1-naphthyl methylcarbamate) is the chemical name for Sevin.  It was developed in the 1950’s by Union Carbide. Carbaryl is a carcinogen and has shown to induce DNA damage in humans, animals and plants. Breakdown of this chemical in the stomach, coupled with ingestion of sodium nitrate, a common food additive, forms nitrosocarbaryl, a more potent mutagenic compound. http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/carbtech.pdf  

Note:  the problem with many of these tests that our government performs is that they are conducted in the laboratory and often do not take into consideration the interaction of a chemical with other chemicals that are often present in the natural environment where these pesticides are applied. More often than not only one or two variables are tested in a lab setting.

For one example:  Breakdown of Carbaryl, coupled with ingestion of sodium nitrate, a common food additive that forms nitrosocarbaryl, a potent mutagenic compound. [Sodium nitrate is a preservative that is often used as a preservative in processed meat such as bacon.  Thus if a worker has bacon for breakfast and then inhales some Sevin Dust while dusting tomato plants in his garden a few hours later, his risk is not the same as that of the lab rats who had no bacon for breakfast.  His risks are much greater.]

SO WHAT CAN WE DO?

We can look for healthier organic control for the pests and plant diseases in our gardens.  At least, as the current President of Loving Garland Green, that is what I advocate our members.  As stewards for the Garland Community Garden we are bound by our agreement with our city to not use pesticides and herbicides in the garden. We can experiment with organic solutions.

 

ORGANIC SOLUTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION AND EXPERIMENTATION DOWN AT THE GARLAND COMMUNITY GARDEN

  1. Instead of Sevin Dust, some say to use Self-Rising Flour that has yeast in it.  Insects supposedly taste of this and then swell up and die.  I’m not so sure about this.  I would have to see it to believe it.  Furthermore, I have enough common sense knowledge about flour to know that if it is applied shortly after a rain that it will form a paste on the leaves of a plant.  This in turn could create a great environment for mold.  I would need more first-hand experience before jumping on this bandwagon.  Until I have further information/education on this topic, I’m not subjecting our tomatoes at the garden or those in my garden at home to this test.  If someone else wants to—be my guest.  This one just doesn’t pass my common sense test.  I’m going with Sluggo for now.

  2. DE or Diatomaceous Earth – absolutely!  I would recommend DE to kill any fire ant mound on the planet.  I’ve done it more than once.  They are dead within a few hours.  For the gentler kinder gardeners who want to make fire ants their neighbors problem, you might try molasses granules, which you can probably get locally here in Garland at either Rhodes or Roaches.  Molasses granules are said to make fire ants pack up and leave—again I can’t personally vouch for this, but there are many claims to this effect.

  3. Vinegar instead of Roundup for herbicide.  I cannot recommend this, as I have not tried it—yet.  However, I do plan an experiment down at the garden using vinegar as herbicide.  Specifically I plan to spray two clumps of grass with vinegar and water (20% vinegar and 80% water) and see what happens.  I’ll take photographs and publish them in an article here in a few days.  Then, if the vinegar kills the grass, I’ll dig up one clump and plant a transplant where the clump of grass once was to see if the residual from the vinegar affects the growth of the new plant.  As for the other clump of grass, I’ll let it stay, wilted and dead to see how long/if grass or weeds grow in this spot. 

    Who knows?  Perhaps from this experiment we can recommend that our parks and recreation department stop using taxpayer money to purchase glyphosate laced herbicides and start buying vinegar instead which is no doubt MUCH cheaper and does far less harm in terms of pollution of our waterways.  Our City and Parks and Recreation Department do not use glyphosate indiscriminately; however, they do spray it around fence posts and the like to reduce the need for labor to remove weeds in these areas.

  4. Sluggo for Snail, slug, earwigs, cutworms and pill bug control -  Sluggo is an organic pesticide.  The active ingredient is iron phosphate and Spinosad. http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/msds/sluggo-plus-0107-MSDS.pdf 

    As far as I’m concerned this product meets my requirements for safety. My consciousness is not yet so evolved that I have a problem with the murder of certain insects.  A little murder is OK with me—particularly when the natural balance of things is out of whack.  Our almost constant rain this past month has produced an over-abundance of pill bugs, slugs and snails. In case you haven’t noticed.  They will literally strip a plant of all its leaves overnight.

    Also I plan to set up some paper cups that I fill partially with beer (sorry Mayor Athas and Barry Swisher from our Parks Department but we will have some alcohol on park property) to see if slugs and snails are attracted to it.  I’ll also take photos of this experiment as well and report back to you.

FINAL NOTE ON “ORGANIC”

 Just because a product is labeled “organic”, it does not follow that precautions are not in order when considering its use.  You know this, for example, if you’ve ever had vinegar in your eye.  Therefore, when I perform my vinegar experiment, I’ll wear safety glasses and I will choose a day when it is not windy to spray.  I would not be happy if vinegar drifted over to one of our vegetables and killed it.  All the same precautions that apply for using Roundup would apply for using vinegar.

Before using any type of pesticide, whether organic or synthetic chemical, one should consider all possible ramifications and take all reasonable precautions.

A member recently suggested putting rock salt around the beds to prevent weed growth.   He was correct in the assumption that it would be good weed control, but I nixed this suggestion immediately even though rock salt is a natural substance.  The implications for such an act could be profound not only for harming plants in beds downhill from those uphill, but also for our riparian (wooded) area that is next to the creek.  In addition, it would pollute the ground water that would eventually make its way to the creek.  It is possible we could kill many of the wild plants and trees in our riparian area by doing such a thing.  We have over 3,000 square feet of garden beds so that would be a lot of rock salt.

Frankly, the more I learn regarding pesticides and herbicides, the more I think that the best control is to visit your garden daily and pick the pests off and drown them in a bucket of soapy water.  As for the weeds:  no better control than simply yanking them up.  Thanks to raised beds, this task is easy.  Down at the garden, due to our leaf layers in many of the walkways, the same is true.  Weed and grass are easy to pull up.

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What's worse than a grandmother who shows you pictures of all her grandchildren?

Answer:  an enthusiastic gardener with garden photos

The Mini Butterfly Garden -- a new addition (2ft square and 18 inches deep)

We want to demonstrate that it is possible to have a butterfly garden in a small space.  Our demonstration box features two milkweeds (host plants for the eggs and caterpillars) and several flowers for nectar.

 

Coconut Mint (from 2014) and Lambs Ear in Background

The resident bluebirds now have a place to take a bath.  

To the left of the birdbath is the demonstration plot for the Blackland Prairie.  The home for the bluebirds is featured in the background near the riparian area.

 

 

And the decorative gourds keep growing!  Looks like we will be making bird houses in the fall.

 

Strawberries in the Garden

More Strawberries in the Garden

Three Sisters:  Corn, Squash and Beans

Snow peas ready to pick--I'll put on my rainboots later today and go harvest them.

Colby's tomatoes.  Look like they will still be green this weekend when he returns from his vacation.

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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. 

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Tent Caterpillar Garland Community Garden - Morning of April 17, 2015 8 AM

It's confirmed!  They are everywhere--even down at the Discovery Gardens.  After finding no less than four in one area of the Garland Community Garden this morning, I attended the Texas Discovery Gardens plant sale and saw them all over the place in the butterfly gardens.  Below is a photo I took of two of them there today.  When I asked the tour guide what they were doing about them, he replied:  "Nothing."  The thought is that by allowing nature to take its course that the eco-system will be brought back into balance.  Apparently, even though tent caterpillars can defoliate entire trees, the  trees grow their leaves back and no permanent damage is done.  Birds, of course, love the caterpillars.

Tent Caterpillars have taken up residence at the Texas Discovery Gardens in Dallas - April  17, 2015 3 PM

More on Tent Worms (Tent Caterpillars)

Malocosoma americanum or tent worms do not pose a serious threat according to most experts.  They are sometimes confused with fall webworms but tent worms are active in the spring while webworms are active in the fall.  Tent worms make their nests in the forks of branches and webworms make their nests at the tip of branches.  Their favorite trees are ornamental fruit trees followed by ash, willow and maple trees.  They will also munch on nearby plants.

Remove them in the early morning.  They tend to be late risers--particularly if the morning is cool.  You can get them while they are still in their nest. 

If you feel the need to kill them yourself, this can be done by dumping them in soapy water.  Contact insecticides such as bacillus thuringiensis (BT) also work well when infestations are large.  Apply BT directly to foliage and to the insect.  This is an organic pesticide that does not harm other wildlife.

Tent Caterpillars (the larvae) turn into brown moths.

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LGG Members team up to sew Paca Poo bags for the Garland Marketplace.

Ready for the Garland Marketplace

Our truck is mostly packed for tomorrow morning--the first Saturday in 2015 for the Garland Marketplace--downtown Garland.  We hope you can make it.  In fact, we hope that we can make it as well.  if it keeps raining.   .   .

 

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The wildflowers at the Garland Community Garden are making an appearance.

In late fall of 2014, I threw out a bunch of wildflower seeds and now we are beginning to see the results.  Below are two photos I took on Friday, April 17, 2015.

 

and the potatoes keep growing--right out of the sack!

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Patches of wildflowers and clover are left for the bees in the meadow at the Garland Community Garden - 4022 Naaman School Road

Can you judge a community by how well its leadership supports Urban Agriculture?

Members of Loving Garland Green think so.  Garland Texas has many community gardens scattered throughout our city and even more citizens who are growing edibles in their yards.  However we have two gardens that I believe will become the two hubs for demonstrations of what citizens can accomplish in rebuilding the physical health of their bodies and the economic health of their local economy by growing edibles.  A plant based economy is a secure economy as it provides one product that will always be in demand--food.

Come see the Spiral Herb Garden built Saturday April 11, 2015.  We will soon be installing herbs in this garden.  Spiral herb gardens were built by monks in monasteries as early as the 14th and 15th centuries.  They are still today an efficient permaculture design that cannot be improved upon.

Garland Community Garden - 4022 Naaman School Road in north Garland

The one nearest to my home and heart is, of course, our Garland Community Garden which is stewarded by Loving Garland Green in partnership with our great Parks and Recreation Department who can give lessons in budget stretching and doing more with less as evidenced by their budget and the great parks and parks programs offered by our city.  This garden just celebrated our first year anniversary on April 12.  In one short year the garden has grown from one garden bed of 28 square feet to a total of 3,200 square feet of garden beds.

Just last night I got the OK from the Mayor's office to allow two beekeepers to install a few hives on the property.  This summer, when the weather allows, we will feature various outdoor gardening classes--most for children--down at the garden.

The  garden has many interesting features:  A Three Sisters Garden; a Loofah Tunnel; a Medicine Wheel; a small Butterfly Garden; a Spiral Herb Garden; a Children's Garden, complete with a magic carpet and a fairy house; an experimental lawn of Buffalo Grass; A Blackland Prairie Sampler; a Wishing Chair; and more.  Please come and see for yourself.

Last week Loving Garland Green had our first plant sale down at the garden.  Selling plants at prices ranging from $1 to $3, we made $412 from 9 to 2 on Saturday April 11.  Again, by doing, Loving Garland Green illustrated to our community the potential offered by moving to a stronger plant-based economy.  These were all seedlings grown by our members.  Entrepreneurs on the Internet report earning as much as $25,000 in annual supplemental income by growing and selling plants from their driveways.  Growing edibles is not only good for your waistline and health, it's also great for your wallet.

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Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agricultural Demonstration and Agricultural Research Project - Located behind the County Commissioners' Building on Rowlett Road in South Garland-  Plants are awaiting a new home in the garden.

Agricultural Demonstration Garden Located in South Garland

I guess I'll have to stop referring to the Garland Community Garden as "nearly new."  Our latest nearly new urban agricultural project in Garland is the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agricultural Demonstration and Agricultural Research Project which is located behind the County Commissioners' Building on Rowlett Road in South Garland.  This is a great space that also has a large building that will be put to great use for gardening and hands on classes. The construction of this garden is less than two months old.  

Both of our Garland public gardens will require the support of community volunteers and donations in order to survive and thrive.  For the past few weeks I've dedicated my Tuesdays to working with Duddly Hargrove and Linda Barnes who are the two leaders for this project. Believe me, you will get back more than you give--just from the knowledge and experience offered by Duddly and Linda.  I always go away from a work session with much new knowledge that I can apply to my own personal garden as well as to our Garland Community Garden.

Linda Barnes at the Garland Community Garden Anniversary Celebration April 12, 2015 - That's the thing about gardens and gardeners:  we support each other in concert and not in competition.  Linda took time from her busy schedule to honor us at the Garland Community Garden by bringing us plants from her garden--beautiful iris and a pear tomato plant.

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PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY BY SUPPORTING OUR TWO GREAT PUBLIC GARDENS!

Write to Elizabeth Berry at eebemma@yahoo.com for more information about urban agricultural opportunities in Garland and how you might support them.

Note:  Loving Garland Green is currently seeking a large unused warehouse type building (about 1000 square feet) that we can use to create a Fallen Fruit Gleaning Program similar to those already successfully established in other urban areas such as Portland and Toronto.  This program would be designed to grow into a local cooperative that could eventually support perhaps up to 10 paying jobs in addition to the volunteer force.