Tuesday was quite a day as gardening goes. . .  in fact, I gardened from 9 am to 6 pm.  

The Proof of Concept of Another Urban Garden Is Completed

The day began at Crystal Carel's home here in Garland where Charlie and I installed "Another Urban Garden".  We have thus far installed six "Another Urban Gardens" and we have two more scheduled to install.  After those two installations, we will have completed our proof of concept phase of this program--it can be done and there is a huge demand for the program in our community. The proof of concept phase has been paid for by members of Loving Garland Green. We now are ready to move on to the second phase of our program which requires funding from other sources such as the Neighborhood Vitality Program as well as other grant sources.

The second phase of this program involves local job creation.  Loving Garland Green will contract with local residents to construct and install the square foot gardens and perhaps later, also keyhole and modified Ruth Stout gardens.  A large part of our vision is job creation for local residents and stimulation of the local economy by moving it just a little closer a local plant-based economy.  

Another Urban Garden sponsorship for installing one 4 foot by 4 foot by 10 inch high bed is $170.00.  To sponsor a garden plot at the Garland Community Garden, the fee is $300 for one enclosed raised bed (per year) and $150 for a Ruth Stout Garden sponsorship.  Note:  the Ruth Stout Gardens are less expensive because these raised beds have no walls and thus a much lower initial setup cost.  For more detail on sponsorship, please visit the DONATE tab on the Loving Garland Green website.

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 Another Urban Garden Installation at Crystal Carel's Home

Below is a photo of Charles Bevilacqua, board member of Loving Garland Green, showing off his muscles at the installation of Another Urban Garden for Crystal Carel this morning in Crystal's back yard.

 Charlie and I really had a good time at Crystal's home as she is an enthusiastic gardener!  Not only did we build the walls for her bed and complete the soil amendment process, we assisted Crystal in planting all of her garden with the exception of marigold transplants that she was saving until her children got home from school.

One hour and 45 minutes after we arrived, Crystal had "Another Urban Garden in Garland".  Below is a photo of Crystal and me--watching as Crystal plants the last spinach seeds.  In her garden Crystal has:  One square foot of  bell pepper, four square feet of beans, four square feet of squash, two square feet of tomatoes, two square feet of carrots, one square foot of broccoli . . .  sorry, I forgot the rest.  The total square feet of this garden is 32 square feet--and that's a lot of fresh vegetables for her family.

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An Afternoon in the Garland Community Garden

After the installation of  Crystal's garden, I went down to the  Garland Community Garden at 4022 Naaman School Road here in Garland, Texas.

Down at the Garland Community Garden I dumped more leaves in the Ruth Stout mulch garden area and covered 192 square feet of the leaves with compost. Later in the afternoon two more members from our board--Anita and Robert joined me bringing more leaves to spread.  Note:  We now have twelve  8' x 4' beds--ten of which are open for Garland residents to claim.

In the photo below, the land to the left of the white marker is a 4' x 8' bed that I planted  a few days ago. To the right of the marker is the next 4' x 8' plot.  The rust colored blotches are cedar mulch surrounding  eight okra plants, a jalapeno pepper plant, two heirloom tomato plants, a rosemary bush, and some basil that I grew from seed.  The darker earth is wet soil where a few days ago I planted corn, Swiss chard, spinach and lettuce.  When those plants are a few inches high, I will mulch around them too.

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 More on the Evolution of the Garland Community Garden

Loving Garland Green members are staying flexible and making the garden up as we go. In a sense, it feels like our most important task is to make sure that we don't stand in the light of the development of this space which seems to have a serendipitous life all its own that carries us with it. 

Our Own Garland Adaptation of the Ruth Stout Method of Organic Gardening

The development of the Ruth Stout section of our garden is a perfect example of this serendipity.   Ruth Stout (1884 - 1982) is the organic gardener known as "the mulch queen."  At about the same time I learned of her I also learned of Keyhole gardens--a raised bed gardening format that creates its soil from organic matter such as wood, leaves and even old clothes constructed from natural fibers such as cotton and wool.

When determining the format for any garden, one of the most important considerations is the climate of the area in which you live. Ruth Stout gardened in Connecticut which has a decidedly different climate from that of North Texas were the folks in Garland live. Ruth may have been able to throw her seeds into a pile of hay covered with a little bit of dirt and watch them grow, but such a method without a few adjustments is not likely to meet with great success in Garland due to our annual rainfall and lack thereof.

Loving Garland Green Gardening Format

1. Lay down wet cardboard on a 4 ' x 4' garden plot. (The brown corrugated cardboard is best.)

2. Put a layer of small twigs on top of the wet cardboard.

3. Put a layer of leaves on top of the twigs.

4. Put a thin layer of composted soil on top of the leaves.

5. Add another layer of wet cardboard. . . . Continue adding various layers of organic matter until the area is at least 8 inches high.

6. Water thoroughly.

7. Put a final layer of about 4 inches of garden soil and compost on top of the area.

8. In the center of the 4' by 4' area insert a cylinder you have made from chicken wire. This cylinder is about one foot in diameter and extends from the bottom of your mulch pile to about one foot over the top of your soil. You will need to stabilize the wire with about six small bamboo stick.

9. Put wet cardboard into the cylinder along with grass clippings and vegetable scraps from your kitchens (no meat or eggs). Make sure to line the cylinder that is above the soil with wet cardboard and cover with wet cardboard and garden soil to discourage critters.

10. Put in your plants or seeds according to the square foot method of planting.

Required ongoing maintenance.

Put new organic matter into the wire cylinder when the contents reach the level of the top of your soil. Since vegetables have high water content and contain nourishment, the roots of your plants in the garden will seek nourishment from this source. This also reduces the need for watering so often. To further reduce the need for daily watering: Once or twice a week wet cardboard, roll it up into small cylinders and insert horizontally in your garden soil (an easy task since the bed has no sides). Again this will reduce the amount of water needed to grow your plants.  No, it's not as easy as Ruth Stout's method, but I think if you want to go that route you will have to move to Connecticut.

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Our Lady of the Garden - We now have another scarecrow. This one was created from the roots of a discarded plant intertwined with wire that was found in a bag of leaves.

The Aesthetics of the Garland Community Garden

The City has licensed Loving Garland Green a 17,000 square foot area at 4022 Naaman School Road in which to develop a community garden. This entire area is a lovely space that is largely a meadow. We plan to leave most of our licensed area in its natural state as a meadow for a number of reasons.

First of all it is home to large patches of clover which are loved by the bees. Since of all, it is simply beautiful. And finally, there are many shady spots under the large pecan trees that are perfect for family picnics on blankets spread in the cool shade. We would love to see more people enjoying this peaceful beautiful spot.

The Garland Community Garden version of the Ruth Stout mulch garden is expanding.  We currently have twelve 4' x 8' spaces availabe for Garland residents to garden.   Call 972-571-4497 for details.

Currently we plan to develop two more 100 foot long four feet wide adaptations of the Ruth Stout mulch piles. These two piles will be about eight feet apart and will run parallel to the existing one we have created.  This area borders the north side of the garden near the wooded area.

In the southeast corner of the garden which is now mulched, we will continue to install raised beds as well as various types of container gardens to demonstrate the various gardening formats available to the urban farmer. The appearance of this area will be enhanced with the addition of two by fours laid flat at the edge of the mulch and then a sand path extended from the two by four out to the edge of our boundary for the licensed area. The path will be about 3 feet wide.

We also plan to make sand paths within the mulched area to facilitate an easy stroll through the garden. In the future we may create another mulched area, approximately 10 feet wide extending on the east side from the current mulched area back to the border on the north where the bamboo grove begins. This area we would devote entirely to plants native to our area.

The  blue rain barrel will soon be covered with reed fencing as well as the white bucket and red container which house the water for our olla system for a square foot garden.

Oh yes, the signs are coming. We have worked out a design that meets the requirements of our agreement with the City. Each sign is construction of two concrete blocks to form the base, a four foot PVC pipe, an elbow, and a 12 inch PVC pile to form an L shape. Our signs will be 8 x 11 laminated sheets attached to the PVC pipe with tie wraps. The holes in the concrete blocks will feature herbs.

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The Social Potential of the Garland Community Garden as a Gathering Place

Because of its high visibility on a thorough-fare in our Coomer Creek neighborhood,  the Garland Community Garden at 4022 Naaman School road has great potential for becoming a gathering place for people to meet for a chat.  In fact it happened last night.  I had gone back to the garden at dusk to install "Our Lady of the Garden" when Robert and Anita saw me and stopped by to see what I was doing.  It wasn't a few minutes later until Gene and Margie Rodgers drove by on their way home from dinner at the Olive Garden.  They saw us and pulled into the garden too.  We had a nice chat and a few chuckles over our new scarecrow.

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What does the future hold for 4022 Naaman School Road?

First of all it holds some pretty nifty amenities that our City has planned for this area--a walking path up near Naaman School Road, a foot-bridge down by the creek, and a parking lot for easier access to the property.

What I can see for the future, even if some may not be able to at the moment, is the establishment of the Garland Urban Agricultural Center in the place of the shed that currently sits on this property.  Start thinking about it and it could happen.

I'll be sure to return here in June when the morning glories are climbing all over Carol and Daniel's fence.

It's a verifiable fact that urban farms are on the rise in Garland Texas.  Last year on June 12, I replaced about half of my front yard with my first garden of fruits and vegetables. Of course the factor of increase in Garland urban gardens is certainly more than a factor of my one.  Almost daily I talk to someone in my Garland community who tells me they have a garden.

However, few people do urban gardening as eloquently as Daniel Bell and Carol Garrison.  Charlie and I stopped by their home in Garland's Oak Ridge neighborhood this morning after the rain.  Margie and Gene Rodgers had told me about this home and I had to see it for myself.  Like the keyhole gardeners in Clifton, Daniel and Carol's garden also abounds with evidence of their creativity and imagination.  The only thing more magical than urban gardens are the people who build them.  For certain, gardens are a wonderful expression of the better side of humanity.

Ever the bold one, I got out of the car and was busy taking photos of someone's private property while Charlie waited respectfully in the car.  Following are a few photos I snapped before Daniel came out the front door.  I was especially thrilled to see their treatment of the curbside area as it mirrors exactly the plans I have for my own curbside.

Like many members of Loving Garland Green and the Garland Community Garden, Daniel and Carol's urban garden features a square foot garden modeled after the design made famous by Mel Bartholomew in 1982.

And then Daniel came out the door and the real tour began.  He told us the story of his garden and of course we learned some valuable gardening tips from him.  He even took us around to his back yard--what a feast for the eyes.   

The back yard is as interesting as the front yard.  One of my favorite items in the back yard was the "garden bed."  He and Carol purchased the bed frame at a yard sale for $25.

LIke Deb Tolman and other creative gardeners, Daniel and Carol create unusual planters from discarded objects.  Below is an old wagon that Carol has owned for about 30 years.  Daniel mentioned that if you tried to move it the wheels would likely fall off.

Sculptures made from colored bottles might be a requirement for urban gardens.  Almost all the gardens I visited in Clifton on Friday had bottle sculptures. HMMMMM  I better get busy and build one for my garden. 

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So are you still hesitant to start that urban garden?  What are you waiting for?  If it's courage you lack, I suggest that you come to a meeting of Loving Garland Green.   We meet every Monday at 216 East Kingsbridge Drive Garland 75040  from 6:30 to 7:30.  Our meetings are open to the public.

Attempting to write about Deb Tolman is a formidable task because there is a lot to tell. Dr. Deb Tolman holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences/Resources and Geography from Portland State University. With over thirty years experience in academic research and landscape design, she also has extensive training in plant nutrition, economics, and environmental education. She is currently owner of Avant Gardens, a multi-purpose business with the mission of developing sustainable approaches to landscaping, education, and sustainable coaching. She is also co-Director of the Silo Project, a Clifton-based educational facility dedicated to Sustainable Information and Learning Opportunities. Deb balances her time between research, education, writing, and sustainable community outreach. In her spare time, you can find her in her own garden!

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Deb Tolman sponsors the annual Keyhole Garden Tour that I attended on Friday--and no wonder since she is the person who has promoted keyhole gardens in Clifton and the surrounding area in Bosque County Texas. Deb is to keyhole gardens what Ruth Stout is to mulch.  Deb holds classes and teaches people how to build keyhole gardens.  In fact, she has recently released an entertaining video that  you can purchase and D.I.Y.  Thanks in great part to Deb's efforts, there are no less than 60 keyhole gardens in and about Clifton, a small town in the Texas Hill Country.

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If you wonder why the non-profit she co-directs is called "The Silo Project", you will no longer wonder when you visit the place out in the country where she lives.  One of the main buildings, soon to be her home, is a converted silo.  Currently she lives in a nearby 10' x 10' room, complete with an outdoor kitchen and outdoor shower.  Deb grows all the food she eats.  In addition to keyhole gardens, a few of her other sustainable projects and experiments include building a Trombe cob wall from straw and clay that will enable her to grow her lemon and lime trees outdoors year round; building an outdoor toilet with a composting toilet; designing large and beautiful Thai jars for collecting rainwater; creating art objects such as an outdoor wall hanging of high-heel shoes tied to an old bed spring;

Left is a view of the side of the silo.  The door shown on the right is the door to her current 10/ x 10' living space that is a few feet away from the silo.  Below is a view of the front door to the silo.  The cylinder to the left is the shower.

And in her spare time, Deb cooks gourmet pizzas in an outdoor clay oven that she made herself.  The oven can reach up to 900 degrees F and thus can cook a pizza in one minute.  The photo on the right below shows one of her elegant Thai designed rain barrels that she makes from ferrocement.

Below is a photo of a 15' x 15' greenhouse that Deb built from cob and straw for a mere $50.  The glass is reused patio doors.

Art and style are interwoven into all her demonstrations of sustainable living.  However, once in a while my eyes caught site of certain objects constructed by Deb that are pure whimsy and fun.  For example, her outdoor wall sculpture of high-heel shoes.  Also some of the walkways around her areas were paved with sparkly recycled tumbled glass.  The edges are smooth so one can walk on it barefoot.  Additionally on the property, visitors can see a garden planted in boat that has not seen water for decades, and then there is the truck garden which is planted in an old rusted-out truck.  Throughout the wooded grounds there are places inviting visitors to sit amongst cedar trees.  While I was there I took a rest in one of the wooden chairs in the photo below. It is very peaceful there. Her place reminds me of Georgia O'Keefe's Ghost Ranch--not so much the way it looks, but rather the relaxing way it feels.  It has a very similar feeling--relaxed and yet with a very strong underlying current of energy flowing beneath everything like a steady river.

About Deb's Keyhole Gardens

Most of the food that Deb eats comes from her gardens.  Because she is in competition with critters such as deer, armadillo and opossum for her food, all of Deb's keyhole gardens feature designs to prevent these unwelcome neighbors from crawling into the garden and chowing down on her food.

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CONCLUSION OF VOL. 2

Keyhole gardens are indeed a revolutionary way to garden.  These gardens are particularly suited for drought conditions and urban dwellers.  This series of articles on the 2014 Keyhole Garden tour will conclude tomorrow with Vol. 3: a visit to Leon Smith of Keyhole Farm.

If you are curious about keyhole gardens and how they are built, be sure to come to 4022 Naaman School Road, Garland Texas 5040 on Saturday, May 3 at 1PM.  Members of Loving Garland Green are building a keyhole garden from a kit that Leon donated to us.

(The darker brown area is the part that was covered for a week)

Remember last Wednesday (April 16) I reported that I was trying a concoction of equal parts of beer, ammonia and coca cola poured over leaves and vegetable scraps?  Gene Rodgers, my neighbor had read on the Internet that if you pour that solution on organic matter, then cover and wait one week to turn it, then cover again and wait one more week and you will have soil.

The photo above is what my pile looked like yesterday when I uncovered it.  Some of the organic materials had already turned to soil.  I stirred up the pile and then covered it back up.  I'll let you know what happens next Wednesday, April 30.  I meant to ask Gene today what his pile looked like but I forgot.

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Speaking of Gene Rodgers, my neighbor, the eternal inventor, tinker. . .

I stopped over to visit with Gene and his wife Margie today and Gene has yet another handy gardening apparatus that he has built for Margie--a self-watering plant container.  It is made from two five-gallon buckets that nest inside each other. The bucket on the bottom is the reservoir that holds the water and the bucket on the top holds the soil and the plant.  To  fill the reservoir, water is poured down a PVC pipe that is attached to the side of the barrel with a tie-wrap.  The pipe extends down into the second bucket where the water is stored.  A large hole is drilled in the center of the top bucket and then small holes are drilled all around the bottom of the top bucket.  A plastic cup, with holes drilled in its sides is placed in the center hole.  The buckets are nested inside each other and the top one is filled with dirt.  The dirt in the plastic cup acts as a wick to suck up the water from the reservoir.

Buckets nested together and waiting for the soil

The photo above shows the bottom of the top barrel.  Notice the PVC pipe is notched to allow for the flow of water into the bottom bucket that functions as the reservoir for the water.

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This water barrel means the gardener does not have to water half as much as usual because so much less water is lost to evaporation.  Heavy mulching on the top soil will even further reduce evaporation.

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Tomorrow bright and early I'm leaving for Clifton, Texas to visit no less than 20 keyhole gardens.  You can expect a full report from me on Saturday.  Until then. . . Happy Gardening. 

Returning to the Garland Community Garden on Easter Before the Rain

It's no secret:  I love the Garland Community Garden.  I like to be there.  The air of the garden is filled with hope and promise of good things to come.   It's not much to look at now but if you close your eyes and imagine, you can see the vision to come.  In a month it will be lovely and perhaps already feeding people.  I hope you'll stop by and have a look.  Bring a gallon of water with you.  If one of the plants looks thirsty, please give it a drink. Soon we will have a mailbox at the site where you can leave a note if you like.  Also, sometime within the next two weeks we will have small signs on the bed providing a little information about the type of bed, the assigned stewards, and the expected yields.  Thus far we have 70 square feet planted.

Easter Sunday I stopped in at the garden to view the cement block bed we put in on Saturday. Someone (probably Gene Rodgers) had stopped by and filled the bucket currently serving as the reservoir for the ollas in our first bed.  The plants in the new bed looked droopy so I went home and filled three five-gallon buckets with water.  As I was filling the buckets in my driveway, I looked at two empty pots (recycled trash bins actually) in my driveway.  Last year they were home to a prolific eggplant and my one producing tomato plant.  The rest is now history:  I went to the store and purchased two Marion heirloom tomato plants, loaded the pots and installed them (along with two ollas in each pot) in front of the cement block raised bed we put in on Saturday. 

Each pot contains two ollas filled with water before I left home.  They are buried in the pots and the hole in top is covered with a shell.  Unlike Gene's more sophisticated system, these pots will be filled manually via the little hole in top that was once the bottom of a flower pot.

Below is a photo of the ollas submerged in the pot with shells covering the holes.

After the Easter Rain at the Garland Community Garden

Below is a view of the bed with its two container gardens this morning after the Easter rain.  All the plants looked perky and happy.

 After the Easter Rain in My Urban Garden--First Harvest for 2014

Last year in June I planted strawberries in the beds where I planted blue berry bushes.  This morning, when I was out and about in my garden. . . Low and behold. . .  and yes I promptly ate it.  The joys of perennials are great--year after year.

And I basked in the beauty of my little rose bush that I planted last year alongside one of the raised beds for my blueberries.

Don't say you can't do it. You can.  Don't say it's too late to plant this year.  I began the first real garden of my life last year (2013) on June 12.  I didn't know enough to realize that it was "too late" to plant Swiss Chard and Kale and carrots.  I planted them from seed and enjoyed them from July through November.

Two big secrets are 1) soil amendments and 2) raised beds. And this year, I expect ollas, along with mulching, to reduce the need for water by at least 50% in my urban garden.  I'm also looking forward to building the keyhole garden on May 3 and installing it with other members of Loving Garland Green at the Garland Community Garden.  

As I sometimes attend meetings of the good intention club, I lean heavily toward perennials.  They come highly recommended for the lazy gardener. In addition to all my berry bushes, perennial flowers, and fruit trees, last year; I planted a rhubarb and this year I've planted asparagus--both of which are perennial vegetables.