Heirloom Peach Blossoms - Garland Community Garden: It's true. You will feel better after viewing things in Nature.
Philia is one of the four Greek words for love (philia, storge, agape and eros). Philia is brotherly love.
Biophilia –a term coined by psychologist, Erich Fromm, means “love of life” or “love of living things.” According to Edward O. Wilson who wrote a book in 1984 titled “Biophilia”, the deep affiliations that we have with life forms and nature are rooted in our biology. Thus, human preferences toward things in nature are the product of biological evolution and survival. It is suggested, for example, that our love of flowers is deeply rooted in our subconscious because flowers are often precursors to food.
A considerable body of research supports that being in nature makes people feel better emotionally and contributes to physical well being by lowering heart rate and muscle tension. Several studies suggest that spending time in nature can increase our ability to pay attention. Humans find nature interesting and can naturally focus on what they are experiencing in nature. Other research on children with ADHD shows that time spent in nature increases their attention span later.
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You Have Two Opportunities this Weekend to Join Loving Garland Green in the Garland Community Garden: 1) Saturday 10AM to 2PM and 2) Sunday 2PM to 4PM
Saturday is our month-end GARDEN SWEEP.
The last Saturday of the month members of Loving Garland Green, the official stewards of the Garland Community Garden, meet to sweep the garden clean, to water, to add plants and to admire. Like the garden itself, the public is always welcome. We don’t require that you work. You can come, experience Biophilia, and chat with us while we work. There will be lots to talk about as we will be preparing a project bed for planting on Sunday.
Sunday, March 26, 2PM to 4PM: Kickoff for a Citizen Scientist Project* with the Installation of a Vegetable Garden
On Sunday you can experience Biophilia AND learn about how to create a successful vegetable garden here in the DFW area.
[*Citizen Science projects are hosted by a wide variety of organizations. For example, today, March 22 is World Water Day as designated by the United Nations when folks all over the world support the Earth Echo Water Challenge in various ways such as by testing water. Results of these tests, taken by citizens all over the world are sent into the Earth Echo Water Challenge as part of an information-gathering process regarding the condition of our world’s water.
In the coming months, Loving Garland Green will participate in more of these Citizen Science projects sponsored by other organizations. For example in September and October when the Monarchs come through our area, we will be supporting the efforts of Monarch Watch by netting and tagging Monarchs for a monitoring program hosted by Monarch Watch.
Loving Garland Green is hosting this particular project on vegetable gardens to illustrate how much food can be grown in a 100 square foot urban garden plot during the growing season here in Garland. It is a joint effort being undertaken by members of Loving Garland Green and the North Garland High School Environmental Club.
We hope that by posting the results of the yield and dollar value of the produce we grow that we will encourage more people in our community to grow some of the food they eat.]
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In addition to planting 28 square feet of the vegetable garden plot, there will be a presentation of “The Simple Art of Pole Bean Planting”. Free Green Bean seeds and poles will be available while they last.