growing people newsletter - fall 2007 - part b
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8/4/2019 Growing People Newsletter - Fall 2007 - Part B
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On July 28, over 100 gar-deners, church members, vol-unteers, supporters, and spe-cial guests, Therese Ciesinskifrom Organic GardeningMagazine and Kaitlin Meiserand Rita Hale from AveenoSkin Care Products, proudly
dedicated Our Saviour Com-munity Gardens 2000 gallonwater catchment system, pa-vilion and new landscaping.
Knowing that communitygardens bring together peopleof all ages, ethnic back-grounds, and experiences tocreate beautiful green placesin their neighborhood andrecognizing the vital impor-tance of water conservation,Organic Gardening Maga-zinejoined forces with theAmerican Community Gar-
dening Association, AveenoSkin Care Products, and
Natures Path Foods tobring rainwater harvestingsystems to 20 communitygardens in 2007. Our SaviourCommunity garden was theonly community garden inTexas chosen to receive one ofthe systems. A 20x30 out-door pavilion was constructed
which serves the dual purposeof collecting rainwater from itstin roof plus serving as anoutdoor educational classroomand social gathering place.The addition of this systemmakes Our Saviour Commu-nity Garden serve not only asa flag ship community gardenbut also as a model for rain-water harvesting.
Many thanksgo to Tim BonnerofTim Bonnerand Associates,
Inc. who not onlydesigned and builtthe innovativepavilion but alsocompleted its con-struction in recordtime, and underbudget as well,thus allowingmore funds to bespent on land-scaping. We aregrateful that Matt
Karpenko AIA took an interestin the project and broughtGICD and Tim Bonner together.The 2000 gallon cistern camefrom The Rain Well, and wasinstalled by Greg Whitfield,who rushed to get it installedthe day before the ceremony.
The cedar posts used in boththe pavilion and our new vine-yard came from Sutton TreeService in Eustace, TX.
Many thanks go to theGrowing and Giving homeschoolers who made the festivebanner that wrapped aroundthe cistern. Also Blue MesaGrill catered a delicious Tex-Mex lunch.
Hardworking volunteerswho helped make the day sospecial include the Our Sav-
iour team who made thegrounds and construction siteready for visitors; volunteersfrom Heifer Internationalwho set up an informationbooth; BoyScout Troop 783and all the gardeners and at-tendees who helped with thepre-ceremony workday andplanted and mulched the land-scape areas.
Our Saviour WaterWorks 2007: A projectof Organic Gardening Magazine and Aveeno Skin Care Products
Gardeners In Community Development
Mission: improving the quality of life in neighborhoods through community gardening
Fall 2007Dallas Area Community Gardening
Gardeners In Community
Development
901 Greenbriar Lane
Richardson, TX 75080
www.gardendallas.org
Whats in this issue:
Hope Receives 2Certications
Fresh from the Asian 2
Garden
Reward Cards 2
GICD Classes 3
Letters 3
Fall Planting Times 3
Let Us Give Thanks 4
Report from ACGA 5
Conference
Salsa Class 6
Salsa Recipe 6
Ever Growing
Dallas Area Community Gardening
GICD WISH LIST:
garden benches
garden tool shed
new lap top computer
wheelbarrows
gardening tools
canning jars
Mantis tiller
Kubota tractor withloader and tiller
friends with trucks
volunteers
Dedication ceremony
Therese Ciesinski, Senior Editor
of Organic Gardening Magazine
Rita Hale, from Aveeno Skin
Care Products, helping to install
plants donated by Aveeno
WaterWorks 2007 Pavilion
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Hope Garden Receives Certifications
Ever Growing Summer 2007 Page 2Gardeners In Community Deve lopment www.gardendal las.org [email protected]
Grocery Stores Reward Cards Support GICD
tion Form at the Customer
Service Desk with GICDs
Tom Thumb account num-
ber 6714. Then just be sure
and use your reward card
every time you shop.
And, if you are a Kroger
shopper, pick up a Kroger
Share Card from Don Lam-
bert or Rebecca Smith, or con-
tact GICD at 972-231-3565 or
[email protected]. We will
happy to send you a card,
along with our many thanks.
Do you shop for groceries?
Of course!! Well, if you shop
at Tom Thumb or Kroger,
heres a quick and painless
way to support GICD at no
cost to you. Just link your
Tom Thumb or Kroger reward
cards to GICDs organization
and a percentage of your
purchase price will automati-
cally be donated to us.
To link your Tom Thumb re-
ward card with GICD, just fill
out a Good Neighbor Applica-
Fresh From the East Dallas
Fall and winter bring on new crops at the East
Dallas Community Market and Garden. Until the
weather cools, summer crops such as amaranth
greens, basil, bitter melons, eggplant, ivy leaf
gourd tips, lemon grass, long beans, loofah, Mala-
bar spinach, peppers, snake gourds, taro stems,
water spinach, and wax gourds are still available.
However as fall arrives and throughout the winter,
look for many types of greens, including mustard,
lettuce, and green onions. Most of the greens are
freshly picked while still small, a size not normally
found in stores. These baby greens are exception-
ally tender and sweet.
The East Dallas Commu-
nity and Market Garden is
located at 1416 N. Fitzhugh
and is open every day. In
general, bunches of freshly
harvested produce cost $1.00
each. Saturday and Sunday
mornings are the busiest times, with some spe-
cialty produce selling out quickly.
Area Community
Gardens
Coppell Community Garden:
www.coppellcommunity gar-
den.com
Education Community Garden
at Dallas:
www.educationcommunitygarden.
org
Gardeners in Community De-
velopment:
www.gardendallas.org
GreenHill School Garden
Plano Community Garden
www.jlplano.orgclick on outreach
projects
UTD Student Garden
UTD campus
Know of a community garden?
Send information to [email protected]
Hope Community Garden
is proud to be certified as
both a Texas Discovery
Gardens Butterfly Habitat
and a National Wildlife
Federation Wildlife Habi-
tat. As a certified Butterfly
Habitat, Hope Garden pro-
vides the proper nectar
sources, host plants and en-
vironmental conditions for all
stages of a butterflys life
cycle: egg, caterpillar, pupa,
and adult. The front flower
beds, native wildflowers
along the alley fence, and
zinnias and cosmos in many
gardeners plots are a magnet
for many different types of
butterflies. Just a few of the
butterflies seen in the garden
include swallowtails, skip-
pers, commas, question
marks, Painted Ladies, Gulf
Fritillaries, hairstreaks and
Monarchs and, of course,
many, many cabbage white
butterflies (considered an
agricultural pest) whose cat-
erpillars feed on plants that
are members of the mustard
family. Host plants for swal-
lowtail caterpillars that havebeen planted in the garden
include dill, parsley, fennel
and rue.
In addition to being a but-
terfly habitat, Hope Garden
has also been designated as
a NWF Wildlife Habitat pro-
viding shelter, food, water
and nesting sites for wildlife.
Birdhouses and birdbaths
provide shelter, nesting sites
and water, while buckwheat,
insects, and many vegetables
(to the dismay of those gar-
deners who want the perfect
ripe tomato) provide food for
many varieties of birds.
Hope Garden has also occa-
sionally been the garden
cafeteria for neighborhood
free ranging chickens and
bunny rabbits as well as
hosting other assorted
creatures.
To have your own yardor community garden certi-
fied as a Butterfly Habitat,
contact Texas Discovery
Gardens at Fair Park.
To receive Wildlife Habitat
certification through the
National Wildlife Federation
go to www.nwf.org.
Upcoming Events at GICDClasses, Classes, Classes- see page 3 for details
Oct. 6Garden Party at East Dallas Garden and Market 3-6:00
April 19, 2008 Plant Sale at Asian Garden
April 26, 2008 Plant Sale at Our Saviour
Eastern Black
Swallowtail on zinnia
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GICD To Offer Three Classes: Starting a Community Garden,
Seed Saving and Master Composter Certification
Thank you so much for letting me know about all these great gardens. Saturday
I went to the Asian market and bought lemon grass, peppers, my Mom bought
eggplant, and something that looked like spinachI am not sure what it is ex-
actly. Late Sunday afternoon we went by and loved Hope Garden full of ripe
tomatoes, then to the Pleasant Grove garden. One of the ladies working in her
plot even gave me some basil. Their operation with the new cistern, the compost
pile with explanation and bee hive were also impressive. All in all a great garden
tour and very inspiring. I took along the newsletter and read it to my husband as
we went along.
Thank you again a great Sunday garden viewing afternoon.
Ann Lamb,
Dallas County Master Gardener Project Manager - Gardens
Ever Growing Summer 2007 Page 3Gardeners In Community Deve lopment www.gardendal las.org [email protected]
Letters, We Get Letters.
FALL PLANTING TIMES
FOR NORTH TEXASSEEDS:
Beans, bush and pole 8/01-8/20
Beets 9/01-9/15
Carrots 8/01-8/20
Collards 8/01-9/01
Kale 8/25-10/01
Lettuce, leaf 9/01-9/15
Lettuce, butterhead 8/25-9/10
Lettuce, heading 8/15-8/25
Mustard 9/01-9/20
Peas, English and snap 9/01-9/20
Radish 9/01-10/10Spinach 8/20-10/01
Squash, summer 8/01-8/20
Turnip 8/25-10/01
TRANSPLANTS:
Broccoli 8/25-9/15
Brussels Sprouts 8/25-9/15
Cabbage 8/25-9/15
Cauliflower 8/25-9/15
Then on Saturday, October 13, a Seed
Saving class will be offered at Our Saviour
Community Garden from 9:00 to 11:30.
This class will teach the basics of saving all
types of seeds collected in the garden.
Participants will help save seeds for GICDs
community gardens as well as being able
to take home some varieties of seeds for
their own use. The cost for this class is
$15.00 for an individual or a family.
The third class will offer participants the
opportunity to become a certified Master
Composter. A.L. Nickerson, Master
Composter and certified instructor (as well
as being a Master Naturalist), will teach
this nationally recognized program. The16 hour course, on November 1-3, will
enable the students to educate the public
about composting, vermiculture (worm
raising) and their importance to our soils
and environment. There will be two eve-
ning classes (November 1-2) that will be
held at Central Market at Lovers Lane
and Central Expressway from 5:30 to
9:30 as well as an eight hour class on
Saturday, November 3, from 8:30-4:00
that will be held at Our Saviour Commu-
nity Garden for hands-on experience.
Participants will make their own wire
compost bin and receive all written ma-
terial, including a book on composting.
The three day class costs $45.00 and
includes lunch on Saturday. In order to
receive Master Composter certification,
participants must volunteer as a Master
Composter in their communities for 40
hours within the following year.
GICD is very excited to be able to
offer these classes to the public and
spaces should fill up quickly. To sign up
for any of these classes, send a check
made out to GICD to 901 Greenbriar
Lane, Richardson, TX 75080.
GICD will be offering three classes
this fall. The first, Starting A Commu-
nity Garden will be held on Saturday,
September 15, at Our Saviour Commu-
nity Garden, 1616 N. Jim Miller Road,
from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. Led by Don
Lambert, who is the Executive Director
of GICD and has extensive experience in
starting and running community gar-
dens, and the GICD training team, this
class will include what should be consid-
ered before starting a community gar-
den, finding suitable space, recruiting
volunteers and leaders, sources of
funding, etc. The cost is $30.00 and
includes a stir-fry lesson and light dinner
from the garden. If you are thinkingabout starting a community garden, or
just want to learn more about starting
community projects, this is the class for
you.
Thank you for leeting us go see the garden. I like all the thing that
you all shode me. All the thing like the pumkin, squash, pepper,
worms, okra and all the stuff and thank you for the cake and juice.
It was good and I wish I went agin. I will always remember this day.
And one from a child who came to the garden during a school tour:
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Let Us Give Thanks
Let us give thanks for a bounty of gardeners, volunteers and supporters:
For generous ones with hearts and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
For feisty ones as tart as apples;
For continuous ones, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that weve had them;
For crotchety ones, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
For handsome ones who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn,
and the others, as plain as potatoes and as good for you.
For funny ones, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes,
and serious ones, as complex as cauliflower and as intricate as onions;
For ones as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill,as endless as zucchini, and who like parsnips, can be counted on to see you throughout the winter;
For old ones, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young ones coming on as fast as radishes;
For loving ones, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;
And finally, for those now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested,
and who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter.
For all these, and more, GICD gives thanks.
Ever Growing Summer 2007 Page 4Gardeners In Community Deve lopment www.gardendal las.org [email protected]
Garden Gleanings:
Author Unknown
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Report from the ACGA Conference
Ever Growing Summer 2007 Page 5Gardeners In Community Deve lopment www.gardendal las.org [email protected]
Gardeners in Community Development
A 501 c (3) Non-Profit Organization
Board of Directors
Cathi Haug, President
Amanda Brown, Vice President
Carolyn Bush, Secretary
A.L. Nickerson, Treasurer
Patsy Aguilera Azenath Wright
Don Lambert, Executive Director
Support Community Gardening
Your tax-deductible donation will support
GICDs community gardening programs. Any
and all donations are gratefully accepted!!
Please make your check payable to: GICD and
send to 901 Greenbriar Lane, Richardson, TX
75080
HARVEST
DONATIONS4231 Pounds
Donated to area food
pantries
Interested in volunteering?
East Dallas Community and Market Garden: contact Don at (972) 275-8473 or [email protected]
Hope Community Garden: contact Carolyn at (214) 328-0102 or [email protected]
Our Saviour Community Garden: contact Rebecca at ( 214) 564-5801 or [email protected]
GICD was well represented by Don
and Tiah Lambert, Amanda Brown, Re-
becca Smith and Nancy Wilson at the
annual American Community Garden
Association Conference held in Bostonfrom August 9-12, 2007. The following
is an article written by Nancy Wilson
about her experiences at the confer-
ence:
Our visit to the community gardens and
urban farming projects in Boston was in-
credibly eye-opening to a novice like
me. Listening to program directors from all
over the United States and Canada made it
clear that community gardening has broad
applications. Some of the most interesting
projects are ones inspired by and sustained
out of local need. Neighbors banded to-
gether to address neighborhood quality oflife focusing on eye-sore vacant lots and
vacant lots being used for illicit and illegal
purposes. Out of the need to find creative
solutions arose beautiful gardens which unite
neighbors and build a sense of commu-
nity. Gardens also provide safe places for
children to play and for cross-generational
and cross-cultural relationships to develop.
Many programs developed gardens as a
tool to teach teenagers about personal re-
sponsibility. Kids vie for these positions and
commit to them. The self esteem they de-
veloped from their garden experience was
amazing. The kids we met not only learned
about gardening, but they learned to work
with others, to supervise other kids, to de-
velop business plans, to market their vegeta-
bles, to take care of the earth and plants and
each other. They were enthusiastic and
articulateand their land had fewer weeds
than many of the adult gardens!
The things that made me most envious
of the gardens I heard about were that they
seemed to have plenty of workshops training
gardeners how to grow and how to cook the
food they grew. They also offered a lot of
socializationplaces to gather together totalk or to hold events like cookouts or musi-
cal performances. Many gardens spun their
sense of community into outreach to address
literacy issues, self esteem issues, and per-
sonal development issues. Over and over,
we heard examples of 90% community and
10% gardening.
I was surprised at the diversity of non-profit
organizations that center on community gar-
dening. Not only are these organizations
funded by philanthropic grants, they are
backed by city governments and citizen organi-
zations that care about quality of life issues like
green space, open space, air quality and the
mental and physical health aspects enhanced
by gardens. We heard several examples of city
mayors and city environmental departments
who supported and promoted the gardens not
only for the greening of their cities, but also for
the promotion of public health and safety. It
struck me that Dallas is an environmental Ne-
anderthal compared to cities larger and smaller
than we are.
Community gardens met the needs of
cities and citizens by increasing the safety of
neighborhoods by removing sites where crimes
happen, eliminating eye-sore trash dumps or
weed-eaten lots, providing nutritious food to
populations with little access to good food and
providing life changing out-reach to troubled
kids, ex-cons, struggling immigrants and oth-
ers. Gardens were able to span across cultural
and economic barriers through people sharing
common interests. Gardens were also the
catalyst for unusual partnering such as bringing
books and literacy programs to kids who came
to play or work in the garden and homework
mentors who met neighborhood kids in the
garden.
Neighbors in cities today dont much know
one another. We drive home from work, pull
into our garages, go into our houses and stay
there until we climb back into our cars. Gar-
dens offer a place to bring people out of their
houses and into a beautiful placewhat a res-
pite they offer!
Watch a video about donation
gardening at Our Saviour
Community Garden:
http://www.wfaa.com/mojo/
or
http://www.wfaa.com/video/index.html?
nvid=171935
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Gardeners In Community Development Ever Growing901 Greenbriar Lane
Richardson, TX 75080
Pass-a-long this newsletter: help sow the seeds of community gardening.
To subscribe or un-subscribe, or to offer suggestions, contact [email protected]
Ever Growing Summer 2007 Page 6Gardeners In Community Deve lopment www.gardendal las.org [email protected]
Salsa Class and Tiahs Special Salsa RecipeAbout twelve people attended the salsa
making class on July 6, learned about the
proper methods of canning and made
Tiahs Special Salsa and Sweet and Hot
Peppers with produce freshly picked from
the gardens. In addition to having a good
time chatting while slicing tomatoes and
peppers, each class member took home a
pint jar of salsa. The members of the
class also made three dozen extra jars of
salsa and peppers which will be sold to
raise money for GICD.
TIAHS SPECIAL SALSAIngredients:
4-5 lbs. tomatoes, chopped
1 lb. sweet peppers, chopped
1/4 lb. hot peppers, chopped
2 bunches cilantro, chopped fine
1 bunch green onion, chopped fine
1 sweet onion, chopped fine
2 Tbsp cumin powder
2 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp black pepper
1/4 cup brown sugar -or more for sweet salsa
3 Tbsp olive or canola oil
1 pint bottled lemon juice
Directions:
Heat oil in a deep stainless steel pot until hot
and saut the sweet onion for 2-3 minutes.
Add green onion, cilantro, peppers, cumin
salt, and black pepper, Stir for a few minutes.
Add in the chopped tomatoes and sugar. Bringto boiling point.
Lower heat and
simmer for 1
hour, stirring
often.
Get jars and
lids ready
(washed, steril-
ized and hot).
Put bottled
lemon juice in
each jar: for
one pint jar add
1 Tbsp or for
one quart jar
add 2 Tbsp. Fill jars with hot salsa, add lids
and screw on rings. Process in boiling water
bath: pint jars for 35 minutes and quart jars
for 45 minutes. Remove from bath, cool, and
label.
Slicing and Dicing
Tiah Lambert