To the Dump! I mean Recovery Center..

The Field trip Lee County's Integrated Resource Recovery Center was very interesting! We learned that they received the award for #1 recycling county in the State of Florida. They also create energy power using their recycling center. It was really neat!

The Steps for a Better Future

We were also able to take a look at where the garbage trucks drop off their trash and how a giant crawl moves trash to the back and another then takes it away! The smell was horrible I felt like I still smelled weird once we left that area.

It smelled so bad!

This was the giant crawl it was so impressive!

This is a picture of our protective wear that we had to have on during our visit.

We also learned about this safety system they have. They use locks for reach employee, they must return that lock before they go home, or else them have to come back and lock it up.

 

 

Meredith:

 

I found the field trip to the Recovery Center to be a very eye-opening experience.  It was great to learn from Tom that the only drawback associated with opening the center was its expense.  It was neat to take a tour to see how the entire operation was set up.  We reviewed the process of the center collecting trash and then transform the waste into compost, recyclables, and energy.  There is a main control room that an employee named Bob ran to ensure that the operations ran smoothly in the building.  He watches cameras throughout the day to make sure all of the control rooms are working properly and that the other workers are following the correct procedures.  The center is also very focused on safety by making sure employees are responsible for their actions at work and return their lock at the end of their shift each day.  This field trip was a great one to end the class with because it displayed that committed people can begin to direct the environment to a more sustainable and positive future.    

April 9th- Presentations

In class we had a group present the top ten fruits. I wrote down the top 5 and Meredith wrote about the final 5.

Top Ten Fruits

1. Mango-

-Stone fruit

-Grown in most frost-free tropical and warmer subtropics

-They look like overripe plums and are generally very sweet

-The skin and sap on the mango is related to poison ivy.

2.Raspberry-

-Widely grown in all temperate regions of the World.

-Midsummer crop

-Well-drained soil

-Raspberry leaves can be used fresh or dried in tisanes

-They have an astringent flavor

3.Strawberries-

-Plant in fall and in full sun

-8 hours everyday

-Need sun in order to fruit

-Don't like competition

-Plant seedlings on an overcast day, you want to put them in rows.

4. Lychee-

-Now we are in the season for harvesting

-Addictive flavor

-Short self-life, sub tropical climate,

-They don't like wet feet

-They growth them in Centennial park, have a forest of them.

-Native of china and Asia

5. Pecan-

-Need at be at least 40 feet apart and need full sun. 30 feet away from any structures cause it needs maximum sunlight

-Needs good soil that has lots of nutrients

-It likes to have as much roots for the plant to grow

-Plant it in the fall

-Mature trees are never pruned, but when they are container plants you can prune them.

We learned how to keep our plants disease free! 

Disease:

How to Keep Plants Healthy

-Control insect population

-Good air circulation

-Well-drained soil

-Touch plants as little as possible

-Keep plants well fed

-Crop rotation

Meredith:

6. Peach-

-Plant in full sunlight

-Elevated bed

-Well drained soil

7. Nectarine-

-Plant in full sunlight

-Elevated bed

-Well drained soil

8. Plum-

-Plant in full sunlight

-Elevated bed

-Well drained soil

Fun fact: peaches, nectarines, and plums are referred to as the stone fruits!

9. Passion Fruit-

-Purple or yellow in color

-Can grow up to 40 feet

-Plant in full sunlight

-Easy to manage

10. Pomegranate-

-Ingredient used in juices, jellies, wines, breads, and vitamins

-Most often grow as shrubs from 6 to 10 inches

-Plant in full sunlight

-Great source of Vitamin A, C, E

We also learned about equipment needed to spray for bugs in your garden.

-1 quart spray bottle for small gardens

-hose and sprayer for larger gardens

-pump sprayer for specific applications in a garden

Baking soda is also a good resource to use to get rid of disease in your garden and if the disease has spread too far, then copper will eliminate the fungus.  It is important to remember that "an ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure." 

Kristin-
I unfortunately, was unable to be in class last Tuesday, but after reading my other group members post I feel like I missed some great presentations and very useful information. Although, I was unable to attend class I did want to write on the blog about something I saw over the weekend. I turned on the T.V. the other day and a show was on that was talking about ways that US citizens are taking initiative on their own to go green. They showed a group of people in a major city "gorilla gardening". I thought this was really cool, because we talked about it in class, but seeing these people in action and what they do what pretty amazing. Basically, they all get together in the middle of the night and go find a vacant patch of land somewhere, and overnight they rip up the land, put in plants, and turn the piece of land into a fully functioning garden. It was so amazing to watch. These people are volunteering and donating their time to make their city better. The show even interviewed some of the people and they said that it is illegal, but the police pretty much leave them alone, because they know that it is a good thing for the city. In addition, they said that the city mayor even came out one night and gave them hand wipes and donuts. They ended the interview by talking to the main guy that kind of started the whole group. He has been gorilla gardening for almost 13 years!!!! HOW AWESOME!!! They went to his house and his back yard was like a huge forest!! He planted and raised all of the plants that they used to make the gardens on the vacant lots! I thought their story was truly amazing and so inspirational that I had to share.

Christian-
In class we listened to presentations again. Groups talked about plants that do well in SW Florida. Some of them were mangos, pecans, raspberry, strawberries, plums and peaches. One group even brought in food they talked about in their presentation. They brought pecans, macadian nuts, mangos, and some others. Another group talked about plant disease and how to prevent it. I learned that copper can cure almost anything. However preventing these diseases is much easier than trying to cure them. Durning the second half of class Professor talked about staying healthy and what he does in his life to take care of his body. This made me realize maybe I should try a little harder to treat my body right.

April 2nd Gardening Part 2

Melanie: 

A few of the first few things I learned in class today was Jane Goodall's TACARE program, this is a very good program that helps with health, clean water, growing food and much more. It also provides scholarships for young girls who can't go to school.

I also leaned that Tanzania has the best coffee, green mountain roasters paired up with Jane Goodall to get a good market on these coffee beans that are hard to reach, since there isn't enough road ways. 

I was to learn that even if a radioactive bomb went off the land can still find it's way back and can grow so quickly to make that land reusable. 

Florida Tree Snail was our group animal; it helps to clean up the excess algae that grow. So it is very important to have.

Florida Tree Snail

Some fun facts about how certain fruits ripen that I learned were:

Leeches- ripens on the tree

Mango- ripens on the tree and it must be yellow and soft.

Papaya- doesn’t ripen well if it is off the tree.

Pineapple- ripen at the bottom, pick when the first color change occurs.

Strawberry- berry is fully red

The Ten Fruits are:

1. Avocado

2. Bananas and Plantain

3. Blackberry

4. Star fruit

5. Citrus

6. Fig

7. Grape

8. Guava

9. Jaboticaba

10. Jackfruit

The Four Seasons of South Florida are:

-Warm and Humid Fall

-Cool and dry Winter

-Warm and dry Spring

-How and humid Summer

Cristina:
                When we first started talking about gardening, a lot of what we talked about was how easy it is to grow food and how much better for us it is. So why don't we do it more often? The chapters we talked about today really brought to light that working on a garden is hard work, and almost a science. A lot of things need to go right: ph balance, climate, time, space, and you only need one thing to go wrong, i.e. over watering to make or break your garden. A garden is an investment. But the rewards are high, not only do you get fresh fruits and vegetables but  your self-esteem is higher, you get happier, you have fun, you build relationships all of which are benefits from having a garden. While a garden can require a lot of work there are certain types such a permaculture that can eliminate the amount of work needed. I am looking forward to learning more about what permaculture has to offer and how people can adopt permaculture into their lives. I believe permaculture is a more realistic way to get people to adopt a more sustainable way of life than organic gardening simply because of the amount of work necessary in an organic garden.

Permaculture Layout

Kristin-

I enjoyed the presentations in class once again. I am actually really excited about the information that is being presented in class. It is really nice to learn things that we can actually use once graduating college. In addition, the information that has been presented in class has sparked my interest in gardening and growing my own food, or at least buying at farmers markets to get fresh homegrown food. I would really like to try to grow some of my own food and at least now I have some basic knowledge to give it a try. This last week I must admit that there was too much information for me to retain. I think the groups did a great job keeping everyone's interest and trying to allow us to soak up as much of the information as possible. Although, it would be nice to have some of that information in chart format or something I could refer back to when needed. Another thing I really enjoyed last week was that one group brought some fruit in for us to eat. It was a pleasant surprise and the fact that we ate the fruits they were talking about helped me remember which fruits they covered. Overall I think it was another day of successful presentations and I was able to learn more facts that I didn't know previous to this class! :)


Meredith:

This class provided me with a lot of valuable information about gardening in Southwest Florida.  There are a total of four season in South Florida: warm and humid fall, cool and dry winter, warm and dry spring, and hot and humid summer.  The best practices to perform in your garden are to keep soil covered, maximize soil organic matter, minimize soil disturbance, rotating crops, and maximizing diversity.  As long as plants are healthy, there will be no room for disease to intrude and destroy the garden.  Alongside permaculture, which is a permanent garden that requires no work, an organic garden requires year-round attention because things may die and need to be started again.  Four to six weeks are needed until fruits and vegetables are ready to be transplanted and spraying worm castings is a good concentrated solution to assist with maintaining  the health of the plants.  There are four different vegetable garden designs to use, including, rows, beds, square-foot, and containers.  All of these details that Professor Segal spoke about during his presentation is going to help me tremendously when I create my own garden.


Christian:

Last class we had presentations again. They were about gardening in Southern Florida. The groups talked about what plants are favorable to the unique climate we have here in SW Florida, and ways to maximize your gardens bounty. Some plants that grow well here avocados, mangoes, citrus fruits, and bananas. One of the big challenges in Florida is having to find plants that will survive in the sandy soil that is lacking nutrients. One group brought in food for us to try and it was pretty good! At the end of class Professor Segal gave a presentation about his garden. It had pictures of before it was built, the beginning, the middle, and pictures of it today. Throughout all the presentations I felt like I learned a lot about gardening in SW Florida.
 

ECHO Field Trip

Melanie-
 This trip was really nice, I was to learn many new things. It also gave me the urge to have a garden myself. We were able to taste some nice fresh fruits! I tasted the strawberries and it was very delicious.

Fresh Fruits

Some of the cool things I learned during our trip were that macadamia nuts are the strongest nuts! In order to crush them they must be put in the oven in order to break them more easily. It also blooms all year around and is from Australia.

Macadamia Bush

I learned a really cool fact about Bananas, they are actually not trees, but the largest herb in the world!

They had cool little hand washing stations all around the farm which were pretty neat to have. You put your foot on the pedal in order for the water to come out. 

Cristina:

If you can't tell this pictures illustrates how people can grow plants on a hill as if it were a level field. We learned that you can easily assemble an A-frame out of three sticks, string, and a rock that measures whether something is level or not. Part of what makes ECHO so intriuging is that they take simple techniques and use them to get the job done.

During the last couple of weeks I have volunteered at the food forrest several times and each time I learn about how amazing the Moringa tree is and how helpful it can be. One example that is used frequently is how moringa can purify water for you and at ECHO they actually had an example. The left is water with Moringa and the right is the water for no treatment. To think all ou need to do is add powder to your water.

This is a table saw powered by a bike!

This is a water pump powered by an eliptical!

During our tour Vic (pictured above) talked about how we don't need electricity or fancy inventions to get water or to get things done, rather we can accomplish all of it with ease if we use what we all ready have. That is a powerful lesson. Instead of reinventing the wheel, use what you have!

Meredith:

Exploring ECHO on our past trip was a very eye-opening experience.  Our class was able to see how much a garden can develop without a lot of work entailed at all.

Above is the "Tabitian Butternut, which is also referred to as Tropical Pumpkin.  It was seeded on February 27 and transplanted on March 19.  They are spread out across a carpet like material, so it does not require any maintaining like soil or sand would.

Solar Pasteurization that our tour guide Vic informed us about can pasteurize five liters of water every 2 hours.  The "AquaPak" provides up to 15 liters of water per day and all you have to do is fill it up with water and lay it on a flat surface in the sun.  Then, a built-in "WAPI" indicates when the water has reached the necessary temperature of 66 degree celsius/151 degrees fahrenheit for pasteurization. 

Bamboo was also planted at ECHO and is a very sturdy, tall plant.  It is a diverse group of fast-growing, woody grass-like plants.  Bamboo provides materials for construction and many other uses to small scale farmers.

Exploring the various plants and foods that are available in the ECHO garden and nursery made me realize how easy it is to create a sustainable lifestyle.  As Vic stated, "culture is very slow and difficult to change," but if people want to adopt a healthier way of living, then the transition will occur and be very productive.

Christian
I really liked the field trip to ECHO. I was worried that this trip would be boring, but besides being cold it was very enjoyable. We got to try some of the fruits they had harvested. One thing that amazed me was the section with all the tools and devices that are used every day in some places on earth. It is hard to believe that stuff that simple is used. But it is and it is very effective. Another part of the trip I liked was the duck pond. I didn't know it was possible to get ducks to stay in a pond. I also didn't know that they were good for the water and that you only need a 1 foot tall fence to keep them in. Later on in the tour we learned how labor intensive rice is to grow that surprised me. Another thing that I was surprised about was how hard bamboo was. I thought it was more like a plant that got though when it dried, so I was not expecting it to be that hard when it was still growing. So in the end I enjoyed, especially because of our tour guide Vic, who was very funny and knowledgeable.

March 19: Gardening

Melanie: 

Biophlia design helps to understand that we as human beings need to include other living systems in our lives. When we design our cities we need to include the environment. Many people actually are bio phobic and don't actually do anything to help the environment, but they will donate money to organizations just to make themselves feel better. This is really cool if we would instill this concept more in our lives. The point of this is that we must be willing to change and take care of what we have, for people that are coming after us, without it we have nothing.

Growing Indoors:

Planting indoors is good; it helps keep plants away from all the harsh Florida weather that can happen. You must have the proper lighting, the correct pot. Don't get a pot that will collect a lot of water.

Seeds must b taken outside occasionally, they can get sun burns, which is next I never thought that seeds could actually get a sun burn. It sounds funny to even talk about.

Growing your our food can be empowering, many say it's a way to learn how to be self sufficient. Being able to grow your own food is the way to freedom and this can teach you important values. You don't have to rely on anyone beside yourself. 

Meredith:

By growing our own garden, we begin the journey of sustaining ourselves and maintaining a healthier lifestyle. If you have ever had fruit or vegatables from a tree or vine, you know that it instantly tastes fresher than foods you have purchased at a grocery store. Gardening should be fun and enjoyable and you will learn something new each year, whether that be a new growing technique, a new harvesting sign, or a new tool to use. It is important to make certain that you learn from your mistakes and begin to improve your garden every year because the more you grow, the more you will learn.

Beginning with a small, well-maintained garden is better than a large, unkept one when you start gardening for the first time. Keeping a garden journal will ensure that your garden continues to get better because one of the trickiest thing to do when living in Florida is knowing what and when to plant. Growing fruits and vegetables is all about location. It is importnat to choose a site where plants won't grow long and strectched to a point where diseases and insects will move in. Do not plant fruits and vegetables where there is competition for water and nutrients because you want to make sure they prosper. We grow by interacting with nature, so instead of cutting it off, we need to surround ourselves by it on a daily basis.



Cristina:
I really enjoy that we have reached a point in the class that where we are learning how to be proactive and can do it in a fun way. Over the last couple of weeks I have been doing service learning at the Food Forrest and have learned tips on how to grow  vegetables and fruit. My experience itself has been awesome and challenging in the sense that there is always something new to learn every time I volunteer. More importantly I loved being able to pick up the required reading and connect my experiences to the material. I enjoyed watching the video at the end of class because it highlights the success of someone who is applying the knowledge every single day.

Some tips I've learned along the way:
1. Plan, plan, plan: do your research
2. Start small: plant only what you'll know you'll use and what you have time to maintain
3. Stay optimistic: its a journey
4. Continue to do research
5. Have fun! & enlist help from others

Kristin: 

I learned alot in reading and doing some research for the chapter we presented this week. I don't know much about growing my own food and I have never had my own garden so I enjoy learning about how one starts their own garden. I think there were a lot of useful tips and I think that I could start my own garden with more confidence because I read this chapter. I think that the charts on when you can plant what could be very helpful. After reading this I see how important it is to plant at the right time n I really like having a resource such as these charts to help me if I decide to start my own garden. I like that our chapter wasn't so much focusing on the past and what has gone wrong but rather on helpful tips and information to help us move forward and become more informed on things such as growing our own food.

March 12 Colloquium Reader

Cristina-
        Louv talks about how nature has been taken out of students' lives, and how detrimental it is to them both short them and long term. It is crazy to think that students in elementary and middle school do not get to enjoy recess like I did, nor have time during the day to attend physical education. The best part of the day was heading outside to run around the playground as well as see my friends from other classes as we played on the swings or tell stories on as we layed in the grass. In my opinion, a vital part of a child's development stems from being able to spend time in the outdoors and building a relationship with nature. If your relationship with nature is one that only uses nature for its resources, you probably won't appreciate it as much as someone who enjoys hiking, fishing, or walks in the park. I think it is important to find a way to add nature back into education - but to also let it be one that forms naturally and not forcefully.

Melanie-

Today's class discussion was very interesting; it went from very negative views to a more positive outlook on our environmental future. It all started out with the collapse of our societies and how this has been something that is always occurring. This could easily happen to us if we don't change our ways. Then it went into ways that we could change, like it isn't the end just yet. There is still time for us to do something. Finally the book ended with some good information on Everglades Restoration and the types of animals, plants and flora we have in the everglades that make it so important to us. The Everglades is something that we need to take care of and make sure stays apart of our world. 

"There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth; remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them."

-Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Kristin
I have really enjoyed every presentation our group and others have given through out this class. I like that we give the "lectures" on the chapters, because when our group is assigned a chapter we really get to look into the concepts in the books and gain a better understanding of what they are all about. In our chapters this time I found the Attention-Restoration Theory for people with ADD very interesting. I know a good amount of people who are on medications for ADD and knowing that simply being outdoors could help them is amazing. At the same time it makes me a little upset that doctors are putting all of these people on medications right away without seeing if simply spending some time in nature can help. In addition, I found it very interesting how people are debating on who is to blame for our environmental "unawareness". I think our class had a great discussion on this and I agree that I don't think any one group or people from any certain time period are to blame. I think that over time people as a whole have lost their connection to nature and have begun to overlook how important it is. I think that overall last class all of the groups were able to teach us new and different aspects of the book and they were able to get the class into great discussions.

Meredith-
I found the Attention-Restoration Theory very interesting, which leads to an increased attention span of children, especially those with ADHD.  The Human-Environment Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois found that green outdoor spaces foster create play, improve children's access to positive adult interaction and relieve symptoms of attention-deficit disorder.  Families of ADHD children aged seven to twelve were surveyed about their after-school and weekend activities, which left their children functioning particularly well or poor.  Green activities included, camping and fishing and non-green activities were watching television or playing video games.  They discovered that greenery in a child's everyday environment, even views of green through a window, specifically reduces attention-deficit symptoms.  Encouraging children to play outdoors in green spaces, and advocating recess in schoolyards is a great way to help them benefit from fresh air. Learning this information was very interesting and I realized that outdoor treatment may be the best approach for doctor's to prescribe to children first before medication because it is a healthier alternative for them to adjust to.

February 26th - Estero Island and Canoeing

Cristina: I loved the first half of the trip! Jo is such an awesome person and I really enjoyed hearing about her experiences. It was also my first time trying sea grape jelly and it turned out to be quite good! I think it could be fun to make it or at least to learn how. I also wish we were able to talk to Jo about her personal experiences and ask her questions. I felt like our time was short with her and out of all the places we have visited this is the first time we were able to talk to someone knowledgeable and willing to share her knowledge. I also wish we had been able to look around the property before getting on the bus to the next destination. There was a lot of cool artifacts in the display cases that I was able to glance at quickly. Normally I am not a fan of canoeing but I will say I did enjoy canoeing on our own. I don't think we learned anything but we did have a pretty good time - I feel like it lacked purpose.

 Kristin and Cristina canoeing

Kristin:
         I had so much fun on this field trip. I enjoyed listening to Jo talk about growing up on Fort Myers Beach. It meant a lot hearing about her personal experiences and how the island has changed over time. She was so knowledgeable and you could tell she really cared about the island. In addition, I enjoyed getting a chance to try her homemade sea grape jelly. I really enjoyed it! I agree with Christina that it would be fun to learn how to make it ourselves. I also agree with Christina that it would have been nice to have more time with Jo to ask her questions, see more artifacts that they had there, and look around the property. I felt like she had so much more information that she would have shared with us is we would have had the time. On the other hand I am really glad that we got some time to go canoeing. I almost wish this field trip was split into two. One that we could spend more time talking to Jo and one where we went on a group canoeing trip and had a guide or something. I really enjoyed canoeing and getting to spend some relaxing time in nature, but the time on the water went so fast. Also, due to the fact that I had never been on that area of water I didn't really know where we were supposed to go or what we were supposed to be looking at/for. It took Christina and myself a little while to get the steering down while canoeing, but we were able to get it down before we returned to dock! Overall, I really had a great time on this field trip!

Melanie:

This field trip was very enjoyable. I really liked hearing Jo’s talk about how life was back when Florida was untouched. It was neat hearing how they had to protect themselves from mosquito's using DDT and spraying it around the windows or else it would just be this dark cloud of them over all the screens. It was also funny how they walked around with broom like objects to swat away the mosquitoes. It was very sweet of her to provide us cookies as well J

             I had a great time canoeing down the river. It was very peaceful and we got to see an anhinga that was drying its wings on the mangroves. We tried going into the mangroves, but that failed. Then we found a spot that we could tie the canoe to a mangrove. This was really cool. We were able to walk through them and find fiddler crabs and snails. The dirt in the mangroves is so rich; it’s almost like burnt red brown kind of color. I had a lot of fun during this trip.

Meredith:
            Finally being able to hear someone else's perspective on life in Southwest, Florida before our time made this field trip very eye opening.  Jo lived in a much simpler time, but she enjoyed every minute of the small town.  Having to protect themselves from mosquitos by using their own makeshift repellents to place on screen doors and seeing the various wildlife that was around then was neat!  I would have liked spending more time with Jo to learn more about her years growing up near Fort Myers Beach, but it was still a nice time.
            Canoeing was my favortie part of the trip!  I was surprised at first that we were able to just grab a canoe and go onto the water with our classmates with few guildelines.  It was cool to explore the mangroves and enjoy the peacefulness of being out on the water.  The soil was so rich there and you could easily see that from the bright, green vegetation.  I was in a canoe with Melanie and Christian and they paddled first, and then paddled with Christian on the way back to the dock.  It was my first time canoeing, so it was a great experience, and I appreciated colloquium a little more as we headed back to school.

Christian:  I really liked the first half of the field trip. When I think of Fort Myers Beach I think about the Lani Kai, the beach and spring break. It was nice to hear the history of the area. It amazed me that they did not have electricity for that long! It must of been a total different world to live in. I also found the story about the German uniform during WWII, as well as the stories about the local air bases pretty interesting. Overall I enjoyed listening to Jo's stories, she was very knowledgeable. I like history and think that it is very important for the future generations to know what the island used to be like so they can respect the way things used to be.  The canoeing part of the field trip was fun! It reminded me of when I used to go fishing with my Grandpa when I was younger. It was nice to see the mangroves and the estuary. It went surprisingly well, I was expecting for us to have more trouble maneuvering around, but we managed pretty well!

   Christian helping with the canoes                                         Dirt from the Mangroves

Christian and Melanie in the Mangroves

Meredith and Melanie canoeing

Trying to go through the Mangroves