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.