Second Greater Houston Urban Garden Festival

For Immediate Release



April 1, 2012 – Houston, TX



Divine Leaders Incorporated and Shrine of the Black Madonna is proud to host “The Second Greater Houston Urban Garden Festival”. This historic event will be take place Saturday, August 18, 2012 at the Marcus Garvey Liberation Garden (MGLG); 5317 Martin Luther King Blvd, Houston, Texas 77021.


As a part of the festival there will be a Tour De Hood Bike Ride, Hands-On Gardening Tips, Ujamaa Marketplace, Community Small Business Awards, and The Black August Concert. There will also be community awareness activities and presentations on healthy lifestyles & emergency preparedness strategies for families. The intent will be to encourage parents and children to make an adjustment to a more sustainable and less stressful way of living. To aid in this goal there will be an emphasis placed on exercise, conservation, better eating habits, and more cooperative living amongst Houstonians.

The Black August Concert is a phenomenon sweeping across the country in minority neighborhoods encouraging support of locally owned businesses, and to raise awareness of legal injustice against members of minority communities. Presentations of how to circulate funds within low income communities will be made along with acknowledgement of successful minority businesses, and business owners in the Greater Houston Area.

Lastly, this event is to celebrate and raise funds for the harvests of the “Marcus Garvey Liberation Garden”. This is the third full season the garden has flourished enough to benefit the community through the growth and distribution of organic foods to both the volunteers who assisted as well as local community households in need. The MGLG is not the only garden that will be acknowledged during the course of these activities. Information on how to participate in gardening organizations across the city will be distributed to patrons as well as information
on how to start a home garden. This event will also mark the official beginning of the 10,001 Home Garden

Challenge. This is a challenge to influence 10,001 households to install or expand home gardens within the next 2
years.

Your attendance, participation and support of this event would be greatly appreciated. We are excited about this upcoming festival, and we look forward to you being a part of the experiences. For more information please contact a Divine Leaders representative at divineleadersinc@gmail.com or 713-396-0001.



www.mglg.net

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Summer Gardening Class

Saturday, May 12, 2012 from 9am to 12pm  Divine Leaders and Prairie View A&M Cooperative Extension will be conducting a summer gardening class at the Marcus Garvey Liberation Garden. Lessons will be given on how to build raised beds, grow sweet potatoes & receive tips on how to care for your crops through the Texas heat.

Other topics that will be covered:
 How to organically grow summer vegetables
 Varities of vegetables that do well in Texas
 Water Use and Saving Techniques
 Season Extension

Join us at this event. Visit our facebook event page for updates.

#MGLG on Great Day Houston

 
Check out Cavanaugh Nweze speaking about Grub Not Grass @ 11:40
 

 
Cavanaugh Nweze speaking about The Seed Swap @ 4:30
 

Grub Not Grass

Divine Leaders Inc. has launched a program to help eliminate food deserts in the greater Houston Metropolitan Area. The mission of the program is to increase sustainability of low-income communities by taking grass lawns and developing them into ecologically and economically sustainable urban gardens and edible landscapes.

Purpose
Grub Not Grass was created to economically develop private land in neighborhoods with ineffective land use practices and poor access to healthy produce in Houston, TX. Divine Leaders will use the advantage of large landscaping areas of personal homes, businesses, schools, and churches to cultivate urban gardens and edible landscapes.

The goal of Grub Not Grass is to organize open land that is attached to personal property, business, and institutions to cultivate and grow food in areas used predominantly to grow grass or other inedible plants. A team of growers, pickers, packagers, and retailers will work together to grow and distribute fresh produce in areas presently known as food deserts.

By administering the project Grub Not Grass, Divine Leaders Inc. will:

• Improve the efficiency of land use by grow and distribute food in areas known as food deserts.
• Demonstrate, consult, and teach how growing gardens can revitalize low-income communities.
• Use a communal growing space to sustainably employ low-income individuals.
• Increase the supply of quality produce and agricultural products in food deserts.
• Create and operate “Open Markets” for local growers to supply food directly to local consumers.
• Improve the overall quality of life (economically, psychologically, and physically) for individuals in food deserts and low-income communities.

Grub Not Grass is a program that will cultivate and grow food on the property of participating land owners. A gardening agreement will be made between property owners and Divine Leaders Inc. to grow a particular group of crops over a period of two years on their land. All participating land owners will have an option to participate in a food sharing program. After food is picked from separate locations, excess food will be shared with other food sharing participants. The remaining produce will be sold in our own community, farmer’s markets, open markets, and vending booths at different events and locations. To find out how you can participate in this groundbreaking project contact Divine Leaders at 713.396.0001.

#MGLG Mixtape

                                        

Marcus Garvey Liberation Garden: The Mixtape

The Marcus Garvey Liberation Garden and Food Co-op Program (MGLG) is a joint venture in Southeast Houston, TX operated by Divine Leaders Inc (a nonprofit organization) and The Shrine of the Black Madonna. The purpose of the MGLG is to liberate residents of "food deserts" from the inefficient and unhealthy food distribution system that exists in neighborhoods of the lower economic class. This task is accomplished by growing locally sustainable food and distributing it directly to residents of our own "food desert". A "food desert" is any community where there is an abundance of unhealthy processed foods and fresh organic produce is scarce or completely unavailable.

The administrators of the MGLG have recently decided to create another aspect of feeding the community. We are currently preparing to feed hungry souls through the ministry of music. In June 2012 Divine Leaders Inc will release The MGLG Mixtape. This Mixtape will be a compilation of songs by independent artists from across the country. It will be packaged along with educational facts of why it is important to grow your own food or simply support/start your own local garden. As the founder of the MGLG and Divine Leaders Inc it is my pleasure to complete the trinity. We are now offering healthy food for your body, action provoking thoughts for your mind, and beautiful melodic tones for your soul. All this is being done to raise funds to continue to expand our operations in a community and "food desert" near you.

 

One Love! Full Time!

                    

Plant of the Month: Red Clover

Red clover

We grow red clover in the MGLG for two reasons, it is a living mulch and healing herb. Mulches are important when growing food in Texas because of the long hot summers. Any type of mulch helps conserve water for your crops because it prevents the soil from receiving direct sunlight. When direct sunlight can not reach the soil, it allows the soil to remain moist for longer periods of time. In addition to covering the soil, red clover is a legume seed. Legumes are important because rather than depleting nitrogen from the soil in your garden, they add nitrogen to your soil! Not to mention that red clovers invasive tendency also helps keep other harmful weeds from growing prominently. In short, as living mulch, red clover protects the soil from direct sunlight, conserves water, and puts nitrogen into the soil.

In terms of a healing herb red clover is known as a blood purifier. Red and pink flowers from red clover plants can be dried and used as teas or taken in pill form.




The uses for red clover are:

• Hot flashes/flushes

• PMS

• Lowers cholesterol

• helps prevent osteoporosis

• reduces possibility of forming blood clots and arterial plaques

• can limit development of benign prostate hyperplasia

• Breast enhancement and breast health

• Improve urine production

• Improves circulation of the blood and secretion of bile

•  They also act as detergent, sedative and tonic

Red clover has the ability to loosen phlegm and calm bronchial spasms. The fluid extract of red clover is used as an antispasmodic and alternative.

Source: http://www.herbwisdom.com/herb-red-clover.html