If you’re interested in purchasing a tee shirt, you can find them at Repotted on Davis or fill out the form below to pre-order one. The tees are made out of recycle brown beer bottles and recycle cotton.  They are super soft and feature the very unique CGOC logo depicting the elements that make our gardens grow!  See a photo below:

All tee-shirts are $17 a piece, $10 covers the cost of the shirt and $7 goes to the organization.

If you want to order more than one size, submit a separate order for each size.  Thanks!

April 16th & 17th East Dallas Community Garden, 1416 N Fitzhugh
(at the “Asian Garden” next to Jimmy’s Food Store)

April 23rd Our Saviour Community Garden, 1616 N Jim Miller Rd

This year in addition to flowers and bedding plants donated by local growers, will have a large selection of herbs (especially basil, dill, fennel, garlic chives, mints, oregano, and others) and vegetables grown by our community garden volunteers, like peppers and eggplants.  We feature the famous Texas Wild tomato (usually these sell out early!).

WE need your votes!  Please vote daily and get your family and friends to vote too!

Please help us win money to use at the Center for Growing People (Our Saviour Community Gardens) to build accessible pathways and beds for gardeners with disabilities.

This contest includes 15 community gardens from across the U.S., and the five receiving the most votes will share $20,000 from DeLoach.  Winners will be announced in the October/November issue of Organic Gardening.

You can vote once each day from now until August 1, 2011.

Visit www.deloachcommunitygardens.com to view videos from nominated gardens.  GICD’s entry is next to the last, Center for Growing People.  Look for the picture below.

Weeding at the Center for Growing People, Just Greens pantry garden, at Our Saviour.

Thanks to everyone who has been voting and spreading the word. We need more support!  This has been very exciting and with just a few more votes each day we have a very strong chance of wining this much needed grant.  In these times money is very difficult to raise, and your simple act of going online to the DeLoach Community Gardens — Vote for Your Favorite Community Garden, website sponsored by DeLoach Vineyards and Organic Gardening Magazine, can make a significant difference in helping us build a more accessible enabling garden.

VOTE NOW

Visit Gardeners in Community Development at www.gardendallas.org

We’re looking for all interested parties to help craft a new board that will be charged for determining the future direction of CGOC.  If you’re interested in attending, please rsvp to

http://dallascityhall.com/committee_briefings/briefings0111/TEC_Combined_010711.pdf

The following are the provisions proposed and passed by the Zoning Ordinance Committee by a 5 to 0 vote on November 4th:

1. A community garden must comply with the regulations for the zoning district in which the community garden is located.
2. For a community garden in a residential district, the combined floor area of structures may not exceed 200 square feet and must be erected in the rear 30% of the lot.
3. Animal grazing and animal production are prohibited.
4. For a community garden in a residential district, signage is limited to a single, non-illuminated, flat sign of no more than six square feet.

Officially, the Community Gardens of Oak Cliff will not support these provisions, as they restrict the development of new gardens in urban areas where fresh fruits and vegetables are needed most by citizens on fixed and low incomes, as well as prohibits bee production which aides in the pollination and growth of all plantings in a garden.

The workshop is on January 15th and starts at 11:00 am.

Hope to see you there!

The agenda and docket material can be found at:

http://www.dallascityhall.com/meetings/plan_commission/CPC_agenda_120210.pdf

The community garden code amendment is case # DCA-090-003.

Thanks for your patience and input.

David

David Cossum

Assistant Director, Development Services

214-670-4216

Sizes: S, M, L, XL

Yesterday’s decision by the Environmental Quality and Transportation Committee to move forward on Option 6 for Community Gardens on vacant property was disappointing but not surprising.

It was clear that the members of the committee were ready to move forward with some kind of plan, but still obvious that this is not the Option everyone was hoping for. Option 6 carries an annual permitting fee of $215 to cover the cost of city staff examining a required site plan and contains provisions against sales and livestock. This is an issue of community, not one to be policed by recommendations made without a single bit of research and presented with photos from other cities.

If Option 6 manages to reach general council and become part of our development code we will lose, as a city, the opportunity to bring our communities together through food production. The inevitable truth is that we are all facing hard times. Our city needs to reexamine our plans for undeveloped vacant lots and an underutilized workforce. These lots are often tucked between two single family homes or near apartment complexes. Having the right to garden or farm these lots without added fees and regulations is the best way to encourage community revitalization, reduce crime and educate our next generation about environmental and social justice issues.

The field of Urban Agriculture including: School, Community and Church Gardens, Urban Farms and Microfarms and Agritourism is experiencing a reawakening. It has been estimated that much of our food travels an average of 1,500 miles from its source to our plates. By reusing vacant spaces to grow food we decrease our energy consumption. The idea of using a vacant lot to grow food is not a new one. In Dallas victory gardens once numbered in the thousands.

As Councilman Kadane pointed out during the briefing, a Community Garden is not for everyone but everyone should have the opportunity to be a part of one. To date there has only been a single instance in our city where neighbors were so divided on this topic and it happened to be in Councilman Kadane’s district. Typically Urban Agricultural spaces grow organically from the surrounding community. Few gardeners want a long commute to garden. Here in Oak Cliff we have some gardeners that come from Highland Park. We welcome them and in turn they take their experiences back to their own communities.

Also during the briefing, Councilwoman Medrano questioned staff as to the amount of gardens in existence within the city. At that point the room got so quiet that I could hear a cricket chirp. Staff did not know the answer. One of the reasons the number of gardens is unknown is because they do not create code complaints. Gardeners and Farmers are hard workers. Piles of dirt and mulch are needed for planting and are mostly used before anyone knows they are even around. Also, trash has no place in a garden. It is quickly cleaned up so as not to attract urban fauna. Nothing is worse for crops than a band of rowdy raccoons attracted by trash.

I invite you to visit our Community Gardens of Oak Cliff. Come and have some homegrown pesto in the garden. We won’t be selling it, but we are more than willing to share. Also, once you taste one of our sun warmed and ripened watermelons the one from the grocery store might not taste the same. If we were allowed chickens and bees, we might even share eggs and honey with you.

We look forward to your response.

Very truly yours,

Mariana Griggs

President, Community Gardens of Oak Cliff

An official Community Gardens Response to come shortly!

CGOC Board

Gardeners,
Find attached the new staff recommendation to the city Environmental and Transportation committee. This is option 6 and I STILL think they need to go back to the drawing board. In this option, chickens (and bees) will not be allowed and a permit and site plan will be required. The cost for the permit is $215/year. This is NOT the right option. We should not be charged for growing food. Please make you comments know to the following council members before Tuesday’s meeting:
tom.leppert@dallascityhall.com

Also, if you would like to speak at the meeting please include that in your comments.
Thanks,
Mariana

OPTION 6