Today I decided to pretend the temperature is a balmy 60 degrees and install at least one of my potato towers.  I went to Home Depot the other day to get the lovely green wire that Mavis Butterfield of One Hundred Dollars a Month used for her potato towers.  Alas the cheapest I could find was $45.00 so I opted for some chicken wire I had on hand and some fallen bamboo that I had found to stabilize the sides.  Free is impossible to beat.  My potato tower does not look as fine as Mavis's, but I can live with that. (I hope my neighbors can too.)

Below is a photo of my potato tower:

I cleared away the compost down to the cardboard in the bottom of my raised bed and set the chicken wire cage inside.  Then I shoveled the soil back inside the cage and put straw on top of the soil and built it up about four inches all around on the sides to make a nest.

 Next, I shoved about 4 inches of compost on top of the straw.

Then I placed my potatoes on top of the soil as you can see in the photo below;

As a final step, I shoveled about four inches of soil and straw on top of the potatoes.  Now my potato tower looks like it did in Step 1.  When the potato plants are about 6 or 7 inches high, I will once again cover them in soil and straw just up to within an inch of their tops.  This process of layering with soil and straw will end when the potato plant begins to bloom.  At that time, some of the potatoes on the bottom level will likely be ready to harvest.

No one who has talked to a member of Loving Garland Green--that's for certain!

from my seedling greenhouse - Flamenco Tomatoes are part of my ongoing quest to grow a decent tomato in Garland.  These open-pollinated seeds I purchased from www.nativeseeds.org.  I also planted seeds I saved last year from a small, pear-shaped tomato that was prolific and delicious.

Our members are busy busy busy:  Starting seeds, installing beds for urban gardens in people's yards, working on the papers for our 1023 filing as a nonprofit with the IRS.  We completed and received notice of our certification as a nonprofit in the state of Texas last week and hope to have waded through all the required paperwork for the IRS by March 1.  In the meantime, we are also registered as a Neighborhood Based Group with the City of Garland.   This entitles us to apply for grants under the Neighborhood Vitality program and currently we are writing a proposal to submit on or before March 1 to help fund a program we are developing as part of our Another Urban Garden.  This program segment is designed to create square foot gardens for children ages 4 to 12,  adolecents ages 13 to 18, handicapped adults any age, and seniors.  [Square Foot Gardening is a successful gardening format that was created by Mel Bartholomew in the 1980's.  It is a revolutinary way to grow more in less space.]

Another Urban Garden Installation

My urban garden is registered as the first one with Loving Garland Green's Another Urban Garden program.  My garden was installed six months before Loving Garland Green came into existence.  We are hoping that urban gardener residents of Garland will also register their gardens with us and I did and share records of their crop yields and experiences with us.  Our ambitious goal is to have 50,000 urban gardens registered by the end of 2015.  We are convinced that increasing urban gardens not only reduces food scarcity, it also boosts the local economy by creating new markets and by supporting existing markets.

Part of the Another Urban Garden program includes helping citizens of Garland to create their own gardens.  To do this, a volunteer from Loving Garland Green meets with an interested citizen to help them plan their garden.  For beginning gardeners we recommend starting small the first year with a raised bed no larger than 4 x 10 (40 square feet).  We help the resident build the bed, plan the contents of their garden, set it up with some type of water conservation device, plant seeds, and monitor the garden throughout its first season.  Eventually we hope to develop this program into a local business that will support 5 to 15 new jobs for our community.

Last week, Charlie Bevilacqua, one of the founding members of Loving Garland Green, helped Ed Downing, one of our new members, to put together the frame for a raised bed (12 feet x 4 feet).  Charlie and Ed also selected large clay pots for Ed's container garden surrounding his patio.

Below Ed is watching Charlie put together the sides of the raised bed for his urban garden.

Below is a snapshot of what will eventually be Ed and Becky Browning's raised garden bed.  The sides of the bed were made with reused, found lumber.  The soil beneath the bed will not be tilled.  Instead, about 9 inches of amended soil (compost and vermiculite) will be placed right on top of the grass inside the box.  At the end of each growing season, a layer of compost will be added to the top layer of soil before planting the new crop.

Anita and Robert's three raised vegetable beds

Today I dropped by the home of Anita and Robert Opel who live in the Coomer Creek Neighborhood of Garland, Texas to drop off the proceeds from our Loving Garland Green yard sale yesterday.  Anita also is the Treasurer of Loving Garland Green.  Her husband, Robert, is a member of the board.  Anita and Robert, like all officers and members of the board of directors of Loving Garland Green will participate in one of our programs, Another Urban Garden.* Just eye-balling their yard, I estimate the Opels already have approximately 350 square feet of their back yard set aside for growing edibles.  In addition to the beds shown above in which they will plant vegetables this spring, they also have other beds in their yard that include a raspberry bush, wild strawberries, a butterfly bush, rosemary, and some type of perennial spinach that I'll have to learn more about.

Ed and Becky Downing, also members in Loving Garland Green, will work with two other members of Loving Garland Green in setting up their urban garden. Charlie, a master gardener, and I visited their home last Wednesday and worked with Ed and Becky to map out their plan for their urban garden.  Every garden is unique.  Ed and Becky will have one 4 x 8 foot vegetable bed.  Then in another bed they will have cantaloupe and watermelon along with an herb garden.  Their back yard is quite small and is dwarfed by a huge old native Texas pecan tree.

It will be interesting to track the produce throughout the season from all our gardens as well as from the gardens of other residents who participate in our "Another Urban Garden" program.

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Another Urban Garden is a program that Loving Garland Green is offering to the residents of Garland.  This program is designed to increase the number of urban gardens in our community by making the setup easier and more affordable and by increasing community awareness of the benefits of urban gardens.  The program has many levels of participation and will evolve as we learn from our successes and mistakes. 

1.  One level of participation includes those who already garden. These people can register their urban garden with Loving Garland Green. The garden must be located in Garland.  The urban gardener measures the total square footage of the garden and provides information regarding what is planted in each plot.  The gardener then agrees to keep records and report regarding the plant yields and estimated market value of the yields.

2. Another level of participation includes those who do not garden, but who would like to garden.  These people can contact Loving Garland Green (a nonprofit corporation).  We will work with the resident to create one raised bed in their yard for the first year. For those who prefer to get started by themselves, we recommend  http://www.smartgardener.com/  for great online assistance.  If you prefer to work with a person, we will assign a Loving Garland Green volunteer to work with you.*  Regardless your choice, we hope you will keep records of your crop yields and market value of your harvests and that you will participate in our program by reporting this information to Loving Garland Green.  Together we can promote a healthier local economy as well as a healthier populace.

*Note:  Loving Garland Green will be applying for grant money to help us fund the establishment of gardens for anyone living in Garland who wants a garden, but who doesn't know how to get started; anyone who does not have the physical ability to set up a garden; and/or those who may not be able to afford the initial set-up costs for the garden.  If urban gardens are set up properly, almost anyone can manage one.  After the first year most gardens can operate at a profit for the urban gardener.  (Often this is possible even in the first year.)

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In late May of this year, Loving Garland Green will sponsor a tour of Urban Gardens in Garland.  Gardens connect people and bond them to their community and to their neighbors.  Gardens also strengthen local economies.  We hope to eventually see many urban farmers markets springing up in neighborhoods all over Garland--places were neighbors can gather to share and sell from the bounty of their gardens.

Urban Gardens Stimulate Local Economies

Loving Garland Green continues to grow.  Last night we had a surprise visit from our mayor--Douglas Athas.  The Mayor has been very supportive of our group and its efforts to establish a community garden here in Garland.  Our goal is to encourage citizens of Garland to plant gardens in their yards and to grow gardens on their patios and windowsills.  

We are currently developing programs to assist in stimulating our local economy by increasing the number plant-based products created in our community.  For example, there is the potential that bamboo offers Garland.  You may not realize this, but we have large bamboo groves growing all along every creek within the 57 square miles that we call "Garland."

Last night we offered Mayor Athas a drink of iced bamboo tea which he enjoyed as did other members who also had their first taste of bamboo tea.

Imagine this:

Garland is not limited to bamboo as a source for plant-based products. Look at all the possibilities shown in the chart below.  Remember, these don't even include the potential revenue to be gained from cultivated urban crops.  The chart below represents the potential to be realized from food in our community that is currently not being fully used.  Over the coming year, Loving Garland Green hopes to rally local groups to join us in establishing some of these companies/cottage industries in our community.

Urban gardens save families hundreds even thousands of dollars annually.

As far as cultivated urban gardens are concerned, savings to people who grow at least some of their own food can be significant. In 2008, Rosalind Creasy, author of "Edible Landscaping" conducted an experiment in which she planted an organic garden in a space 5 x 10 feet (100 square feet).  

She kept close records of her harvest and found that from April to September of 2008 she produced $700 worth of food.  According to the Garden Writers Association, 84 million U.S. households gardened in 2009. Ms. Creasy reasoned that if just half of them (42 million) planted a 100-square-foot garden, 96,419 acres (about 150 square miles) would no longer be in lawns.  Thus there would be no need for the tremendous resources used in keeping them manicured. If folks got even one-half of the yields Ms. Creasy obtained, the national savings on groceries would be about $14.35 billion. [Source] 

Bringing those statistics on home to Garland

What if 50,000 5 x 20 foot gardens were established in Garland Texas that saved each person approximately $700 in groceries?     The total savings would be $35,000,000.00 in our economy.

Loving Garland Green's stated goal is to see that 50,000 urban gardens are planted in Garland by the end of 2015.  "Another Urban Garden" is a new program that we will be launching this spring to support us in meeting this goal.  In fact, we already have our first participant.

And why I've ordered this poster from the YES store.

Kale will be among those that will be featured at the Garland Community Garden which is being supported by Loving Garland Green--a nonprofit that you can join if you want to be part of a grand experiment to show the residents of Garland that adding urban gardens to your community will also add dollars to your local economy.

These eight lifestyles (not diets) are designed to prevent chronic health ailments and degenerative disease.  Guess what they all have in common?  Kale.  I've read many places on the Internet where kale is indeed a "super food."  

The diets shown are 1. Vegan  2. Traditional Asian  3.National Institutes of Health TLC diet  4. Raw Diet   5. Mediterranean Diet  6. Ancesteral Diet  7.Glycemic Index diet 8. Anti-inflammatory Diet

Visit Yes Magazine to order your copy of this poster and to read the entire article.