Community Gardens I've Visited

A Garden That Is Changing The World

January 19, 2019 by Cathi Leave a Comment

One thing I learned working at the farm is that I am glad I bought a wheelbarrow that has two wheels. Those one wheeled ones are too hard to manage!

Dallas Texas is a city normally associated with BIG. Big buildings, big hair, big personalities, big money. Everything is bigger in Dallas.

There is, however, a small forgotten corner of Dallas southeast of downtown. It’s called “Bonton”. Associated with high crime, sickness, with only difficult access to healthy food, this neighborhood has been the very definition of hopeless. Bonton is filled people impacted by generational poverty.

Recognized as a “food desert” by the USDA, people who live there can either spend all day on public transportation only to buy as much food as they can carry, or they can can buy whatever is available at “Big Daddy’s” or one of the other three small beer markets in the neighborhood.

As a result, people experience dire health consequences. They have more than double the rate of cancer, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and child obesity. Men in Bonton live 11 years less than average men in Dallas County. All of this as a result of a lack of access to healthy food.

Through a crazy series of events that you can read about in this article, Daron Babcock decided to plant a garden and change the world. Or at least change the world for Bonton.

Bonton Farms is an urban farm. Y’all, it is my idea of heaven. I got to volunteer there last Saturday and it for sure will not be the last time. I’m already signed up to go back in February. Through Bonton Farms, local residents have access to healthy food and much more. I think these words painted on the wall say it well:

If you’re anything like me, you’re wondering how you can help support the amazing work going on there. You can certainly sign up for a “Service Saturday” and come get your hands dirty. Bonton Farms also has a program called “Friends of the Farm” where you commit to a small monthly amount with which to support them. I just signed up. (Insert obligatory comment about how many Starbucks runs equate to the amount of money in question.)

You can also support the farm by eating at the cafe or shopping in the market. You can also visit their booth at the Dallas Farmers Market. At the very least, go follow them on social media. Facebook Instagram

Greenhouse at El Dorado Royale – Riviera Maya, Mexico

August 10, 2018 by Cathi Leave a Comment

We all know I love visiting gardens when I travel, and this one is near and dear to my heart. The greenhouse at El Dorado Royale is, I believe, the only place of its kind. I’m not aware of another hotel that grows so much of it’s own produce. If you know of one, please tell me in the comments because I will go visit!

This 75,000 square foot greenhouse provides produce for all of the Karisma hotels in Riviera Maya, as well as providing produce for staff members to take home for personal use. A fully outfitted processing center is onsite to prepare produce for use or for delivery to the other hotels.

The Greenhouse at El Dorado Royale is Rainforest Alliance certified. This is a sign near the entrance outlining what that means and the standards to which they must adhere.

As a Rainforest Alliance certified greenhouse, they must agree to the following:

We do not mix our own products with other products.
We preserve and protect the environment.
We respect the local flora and fauna.
We keep our water sources clean.
We are inclusive with our workers and visitors.
We do not hire workers under 18 years old.
All the greenhouse workers receive a salary above the minimum wage.
We always use the personal protection equipment for each laborer.
We do not cultivate genetically modified organisms.

Those all sound like things we can get behind, right?

The greenhouse is operated with an extensive system of tanks, water lines and computers that regulate the amount of nutrients and water that flow to each plant.

Here are the tanks in the control room that send the water and the nutrients to the plants in perfect proportion.

The control panel that regulates everything.

Here you can see the irrigation lines feeding to each individual plant.

The growing medium they use is coconut coir. This is an infinitely renewable resource, especially in this part of the world. I use it for my worm boxes. It’s perfect in this application since all of the nutrients come from the irrigation.

Workers are busy in the greenhouse every day harvesting, planting, working on keeping the greenhouse healthy and happy. In the big greenhouses they grow primarily tomatoes and cucumbers.

These Roma tomatoes are used primarily in sauces.

Growing cucumbers with no beetles spreading disease. Can you even imagine? A double door system is used to keep pests out.

The greenhouses themselves are only part of the growing operation here. They also have smaller greenhouses where they grow mint, basil, cilantro and other things.

Even abandoned bathtubs from a recent hotel renovation get into the act!

These papaya trees are only months old. Can you believe how big they are and how quickly they produce? I don’t even think I like papaya and I want to grow them!

If you’re staying at El Dorado Royale, El Dorado Casitas Royale or Generations Riviera Maya, you can go on a tour of the greenhouse yourself!

I love seeing different situations where food is produced. I love seeing people and organizations take advantage of their assets to produce food. This is a perfect example. The hotel has the land, they have the climate so they went for it! It’s been tremendously successful. The guests love it and it plays right into the other “green” aspects of the hotels. They also have solar hot water, and extensive recycling program and even a compost operation.

Loved visiting the El Dorado Greenhouses. If you’d like to arrange your own visit, contact Legacy Travel at 866-329-7157

Newport Oregon Community Garden

July 7, 2018 by Cathi 1 Comment

Hello from Newport, Oregon!

Every July I go to a conference in Seattle, Washington. I fly in a few days early to Portland, Oregon and drive down to my nieces house in Salem. I kidnap her and take her to the Oregon Coast. In prior year we go for one night. This is the first year in a few years when she was neither nursing or pregnant so we decided to take TWO NIGHTS. What a luxury to be able to sit around, drink copious amounts of Oregon wine, and just do whatever the heck we decide to do.

One of the things we decided to do was to visit the Newport, Oregon Community garden.

The Newport Community Garden is located at Frank Wade Park in Newport. It seems to be administered by the City of Newport. The nice lady we spoke to while poking around said that there is a person in charge of the community garden. This position is a volunteer position. The garden plots are without charge. There is a waitlist for the plots.

It’s just a lovely area. It’s so interesting to me what grows in different parts of the country that are different than what grows easily in Texas. Here is an overview of what we saw:

Del City Church of Christ Community Garden

May 21, 2012 by Cathi Leave a Comment

My nephew, Joshua, recently earned the designation of Eagle Scout. I went up to Oklahoma City for the Court of Honor. It was held at Josh’s dad’s church. While I was there, I learned that there was an amazing Community Garden hiding around back. Of course, I couldn’t resist going back and snapping a few shots.

The church uses what comes out of the garden for two primary purposes. The first is Meals on Wheels. They feed many elderly and shut ins every week, and many of the meals have amazing homegrown produce. Second, they use it as an outreach effort. They grow all of this amazing food, then they tell the surrounding neighborhood “come and get it”.

A few notes about the operation of the garden that I noticed:

1) It was set up well. The surface between beds was scraped down and filled with gravel. This keeps the weeds down and makes gardening easier and more of a pleasure. It’s also attractive.

2) The garden had great leadership. A recently retired gentleman spends much of his time overseeing the garden and making sure it stays looking great and producing. The more community gardens I see, the more I am convinced that leadership is vital for a well functioning operation.

Here are the photos:

no images were found

Farmers Branch Community Garden

May 20, 2012 by Cathi Leave a Comment

Today I had an opportunity to visit the Farmers Branch (Texas) Community Garden.

I’m always eager to see other community gardens, how they work and how they’re set up. Today when I visited the Farmers Branch garden they were having a work day. People were working on their plots and there was a crew of gardeners working on their elaborate compost operation.

Here are some pictures I took: