2: p.m. we calling the meeting to order March 28 2024 we call in this meeting to order did um the rest of the panel had a chance to check the minutes for February 21st 2024 any corrections I have a comment yes ma'am um because Liz you you said that um it was a great g day was a great event and that you said it was cold outside but I have learned that it can be held inside so I know that doesn't have to do with the minutes but just because it's on the subject we don't have to stand outside of the cold if we had an inside place to be just for next year okay okay and just to um just so we are open about it we knew it was going to be cold we just wanted to have it in a place besides the Women's Club because uh the Women's Club they told me that the only reason they had it there was because when they started this back in the no other facility was open so they decided to have it there but we think it's good to have it at the park it is going to be cold so I don't know if you guys have any other ideas but the Women's Club was uh happy that it was not being conducted there and um I thought I'm taking that responsibility that EV liance uh Historical Park is the right place to have this event and if it's um if it just happen to rain or uh be tremendously cold then uh maybe we do have to have a second place I have heard that in the past it's being um not done because it rained so I mean we just have to explain it to the public but I don't know if you guys agreed with me but the park is the right place to have it it's a beautiful part that we need to uh actually showcase okay ready to anybody wants to make a motion to approve the minutes I motion to approve minut second second new business the community flower Grant all I for that new business the community flower gr y'll see in your packet that hello can you hear me okay Miss P you all right um in the packet it says what we want do um but I need approval from y'all um the commission did approve the letter to go out to to see if we can actually get the grant um this is just a fundamental of what we're thinking about maybe doing you you all don't have to approve on that part but um the approval for the letter is important so that we can get it out to apply for the grant um Cynthia was thinking the butterfly because we are but mon butterfly city um so she was thinking that and I kind of agreed with her we were down there measured it and I took um Jean down there yesterday and show told her where we were going to place it and how we would actually painting on was that the orange spray paint that was at the park okay yes we Tri yeah we did we tried yeah the the orange the orange paint was um just there so we could see and take pictures of it um on actual like let's look at it you know um but they M it since then so that's why there's no it's not there anymore so if I could just get approval on that letter if you guys want to add anything to the letter let me know if you want to take something out let me know so that's what you're approving today is just the approval on the letter so we approve it before discussions or you can discuss it you can do it however you want to do it um Dean Dodge is here to speak on it as well okay so if you want to listen to him and then discuss it first makes sense okay Dan you can come forward thank you and I'm glad I'm give you your [Music] company so I'm Dan Dodge 218 South Bain Street and I'm here uh as a uh resident and also as vice president of the uh St John's uh River area Adon Society and let me start with that first uh well let me just start with I'm very excited about this project I think it's a wonderful thing for the community and um Le you and I have been talking for some for months now because the oton society is interested in um assisting with putting in a natural garden in Crescent City um I'm sure as you're all aware of uh the Aon Society will incorporate this area just over a year ago um and so prior of that there wasn't an Aon Society here and so uh our aabon society has had experience in putting in gardens primarily in in St Augustine uh and um so we're we're very excited with the possibility of of uh working with you on on this great project um and with that I have some thoughts that I'd like to share one is that given and I I understand this is probably very fimal yeah um it's just a concept yeah so my first response is that according to this is too much hard service Garden there's too much uh hard service and less Garden it don't looks 50/50 um the other is that uh Karen was kind enough to take me and show me the location I don't has that changed Karen it has not changed we hav I have concerns about the location because as it was pointed up um much of it is in the conservation area where where it slps down it's it's it's wet and um so uh and it doesn't belong there it should be pulled it should be be pulled East out of that area um and and that would give it a better flat flat area uh also there's no shade there at all so uh anyone we all know that during the summer um that you know the summer heat Burns plants in SE to Main maintain this in that location would take a great deal of care particularly irrigation but probably shade um I think it's going my opinion it's going to be too much sunlight um so I would recommend looking at another site Perhaps Perhaps closer to the beach for instance um I'm delighted to see uh benches um and of course the Autobon society would be interested in plantings that would attract birds um which is very important to us bear with me for a [Music] moment the we also I live on like like Stella and we're very fortunate that the breeze that we get is very pleasant but it's very strong I'm not sure that you know the this original location is ideal for body flies I don't think they'll stick around uh because of the breeze uh as well um so those are my thoughts on the on the garden again uh we at the Aon Society are very excited and um look forward to uh working with you on it if you accept our offer um we also have had as I said Specialists work with us to develop our our Gardens uh elsewhere um then uh I'd like to make some other General comments um the other concern that I have is that under under code now um um y s and lawns in the within the city must be mowed must be kept well the problem with that is that particularly this time of year uh after after the winter a lot of flowers well flowers are blooming and it's and of course which helps you know our wildlife and particularly in this day of concerns for for bees um it's a concern it's the wrong thing for us to do we ought to look at at providing uh an alternative that allows for some growth obviously we don't want um overgrowth but there's medium in between that I think would would work well for our city um and I'll give you another example so um we're fortunate to have s San o CR and we have them year round um and the ones we have year round have cols um and uh so I noticed last year that there was a pair in a cold and there was High Grass you know about that H it was perfect it was perfect for nesting for the safety of the birds of the Colts and the next time I went by went by it was all M so I think there's a responsibility too to to educate our our public on protecting our wildlife and again it it uh they might have been the property owner might have been requested to moow it so I think there's a lot of considerations that we should review and um and make changes to also um I am um um with the uh of course the Fruitland Peninsula historical society and I share I share the historic preservation committee um just recently in one of our meetings board meetings the board agreed uh my recommendations that um our goal is just not structures but it is also trees and the board agreed with me so um our organization is looking to for the welfare of our beautiful Heritage trees uh The Oaks the seeders and um we would like to work with this committee to make some recommendations in the future for their preservation that's all I have thank you any questions for me do you have any other members of theine society here as res in I do only no no they they quite a number here okay yeah and in fact Kevin Jordan is the director as well well thank you thank you thanks so my question to the board is um do we first approve the letter to send and then we can scout a location yeah we can do that then as a group we can invite these other groups to come with us and make a decision where we wanted to have this butterfly garden that uh it will be a winwin you know that we put it in the right place from the beginning uh when I was walking um when I was walking the trail I noticed the paint and uh it looked kind of cute but I thought that it was uh right there exposed to the Sun and that was a concern to me I don't know anything about butterfly garden so I I didn't know if it might be too hot if we needed a tree or something and I know right now it's like we really don't know where we want it so I think it would be a good idea to um go ahead and forward with the letter and then hopefully we'll get that application back but the letter is very specific can we revise the letter yeah we can revise and not put all the specifics in it um well specifics um we can revise it um because the rotary plub did the Monarch designation right so it seems as though they're probably going to do a butterfly Gard somewhere they have not said anything to us about it would that have been a criteria for the City or not necessarily Dan just apply and get approv he's aarian so he would you can tell we're small village because I'm also Sergeant at Arms take your other hat so um so yes it started uh with with our club and the club would be again delighted I'm sure to work with you to to um but they're not planning one of their own are they no no no but to get the designation that's not a requirement was don't think it was a requirement no no interesting not well again um I didn't leave this effort I supported it so I don't believe it was but uh it could be I came up with the idea I brought it to you I brought it to the Women's Club and when I spoke spoke to you in the Women's Club Tom from the rotary was there and he said he was interested if we ever did something over there so we started with the three of us so the rotary said they will come on board with us if we got something going yes you're correct and that's that's with finding a site for a the idea of of U having prent city as a butterfly by City stared with two of our members in r two ladies yeah who brought it and so that predated your meeting with Tom okay because and then of course um my other request is that it's just not a butterfly garden it's a natural garden so if we could do that in our labeling and public relations I think it would benefit it would tell a better story yes because my vision was seeing this lot behind the Women's Club that used to be a garden back in the day maybe 40 years ago uh that we was not being used I came let's Revitalize it and when I brought the idea the butterflies came to it and the rotary and the aan society it all come together so and and if you remember you and I looked at it yes several months ago and I I was in agreement with you yes then can we do something for everybody can we all the clubs join the tree and garden committee to make this a reality so so now we can go forward with that Union uh and um but I think it's also wise to work to look within the city where the best location is yes not concentrate on one part but the uh the others to come up with the best solution exactly could I just have a clarification um Lisa you said the three of us were willing are you talking about the Women's Club um that was rotary and I don't know the other third one is it was a tree and garden well what happened is I'm part of the tree and garden and because I'm part of the Women's Club too uh I decided that I will bring it to the Women's Club since it was their Garden if the tree and garden committee could come back there and take care of this little garden but then it came which which I'm new at this liability who cares if somebody Falls strips and break a foot you know and I even know that's so big but it is big I I have to realize that nobody wants to take responsibility if somebody breaks a foot or something so the women's said no who's going to be responsible for this Garden if we build it back here and for U the clarity the third was the Aon Society at that time yeah so that's why we we still have the idea but we going a different route with the city because the Women's Club uh they just don't want to be part of it so Jean you said you said to um because you thought it was you wanted to change something on it I don't yeah I think it shouldn't have a location specified okay the location we can I can put something else there so but everything else I think needs to be there um but the location we can change everything else you took from an actual letter the format to help us from from from what they're asking for m is what is on here okay so each section each highlighted section like the black section it needs to be on there so if we change on the project overview we can change that the recreation area a butterfly D so we can just take out Lake Stella Park yeah you know what I mean and everything else um the what else is it t um in the conclusion too we can just put butterfly garden and take out L Stella I think that's the only thing that that um is actually I have a question about maintenance I mean has anybody discussed who's going to maintain this what it be all the groups or the city if it's on city property I think it was all the groups that said they we going to maintain it including the C yeah including the city well my thing too my thing too was that I read and we had a Historical Society meeting where uh one of our members talked about the gardens in the past and um we are three and garden and we do not have any Gardens but back in the 60s there were many Gardens in town they had a flower shop they sold flowers and they have master gers and I thought it would be a great idea to bring at least one Garden start with one Garden back that's why I talk to I thought we as a tree and garden committee will take care of this little plot of land but I see that other people want to be involved too like the rotary the otan and I forgot the other group but we all decided that we will take care of this Garden or when you say we are you talking about the tree and garden board yes four of us yes so we're going to hand out gardening gloves right yeah and water it it's a wonderful idea we tried it before was just a little garden out front and two people work there behind off and we see you know a little credit for it but they killed themselves I volunteered to do it once and now there might be a hose but it was horrendous and it's impossible for just the four or five of us to take on that responsibility it has to be probably Mr Harris and his crew and anybody else that likes to go and Dabble but it just can't be the responsibility of us and it should be worded that way on paper my feelings Mr Harris you have a comment main city the city's efforts in a community garden with their do what we can just I guess we have to make sure wherever we do it we have a sp or something that somebody can bring a host and host it you know not carry toughs like in the past and I'm I'm telling you out of the four of you I know you might be very busy I'm willing to be the one to go and check on this Garden every week well keep keep in mind the commission the commission will ultimately have to approve the location and the installation of the garden so then it becomes uh my responsibility to make sure the garden is maintained so whether it's through coordinating volunteer efforts or um putting a crew out there it'll it'll be maintained that's why I think having too many Gardens like this it's going to be trouble problematic maybe start with one I highly recommend that you put in irrigation system I mean that's going to be save a huge amount of Labor uh and you know the grants that's 25,000 there's certainly a room in a budget to put it in I I also ask you again not to refer to it as the butterfly garden but the butterfly a natural garden natural Gard yeah aches much more than than just the butterfly thank you so I think we we would look for a motion um to approve sending a letter with the changes as indicated making it more generic in location M and then um we have a couple months to figure out location and figure out if we get to apply for the grant we'll know that maybe a move point that point but we'll find out so we need we need a motion to be able to move this forward okay so I make a motion you can I can I for okay I motion to approve the letter with sing all in favor oppos hi I'd like to see the change letter before we approved it person but that's my thing I can send it to you once I'm done changing it I mean I'm just just so just to let you know that most of that has to stay in the thing that can change is the location and the new name butterfly and natural garden yeah that's it the location which is in the conclusion is the only thing and in the if you look on page one of your letter of the letter itself under project overview that's another change and it would be um Recreation Area butterfly and natural garden will'll say that there okay meaning so I'm getting confused meaning you're going to move it to the recreational area of the same Lake no no the I'm taking I'm taking it out taking Lake cell Park out okay okay I'm taking that out I'm taking Lake cell Park and out okay and then um community butterf and on the next line where it says project objectives Community butterfly and natural garden will go in there development and then um I think that turn to page two and under conclusion on the very last line of the um support for our butterfly and natural garden project is the only things that would be changing in that letter at all everybody else s that those are the changes [Music] that the next item on your agenda is um I had heard you were talking about Community Gardens probably the beginning of this conversation um that came to butterfly gardens and um Sean janess I've asked him to come and speak to you there's a lot of experience in Community Gardens he and his family run uh an anchor the anchor business in downtown Eustace the ped's wagon I've known for for actually all his life just about beautiful story I encourage you you go to downtown us go to the PED wagon it's amazing experience you'll give yourself hours to be in there and brow shop uh but Sean has extensive knowledge and experience in setting up and running Community Gardens and fact every time I go down and visit he asked me you guys have a community garden so uh when I heard you talking about this opportunity Sean come up and tell us how it's done show us the ins and outs the ups and downs of a of a community garden he's got some some pictures to go through it's the all load for us um and then he'll be happy to answer your questions hi everybody hi hi well thank you for taking me into a time machine I felt like 10 years ago when I was trying to create a pocket park everything you just said were all the same concerns everything was um here I'll go to the speaker for a little bit um so yeah my name is Sean janess um I'm a local activist in my community if you come to my town you start picking up rocks it might find me underneath one um I've been building in green spaces and uh public spaces in my community for about 15 years now right here is a picture one of the first this was the pocket park the park is called Alexander park um by looking at that picture just to guess how many times do you think we go out there and maintain that a year looks very nice and green just throw in a number at Lea once a week once a week okay once a week any other bids is it your uh it used to be actually it's no longer your so water has been turned off for about five years how old is it did you say 12 years okay it's a Pock Park it's it's a former building site the building burned down it was just an old slab till they converted we maintain that twice a year twice a year twice yeah that's what you get with good design and I'll show you the plants here real quick uh this right here is American Beauty Berry so especially for our bird friends that's a big winner right next door I can never remember the Latin name but this is what they call Moses in a basket this is not native however it is uh Florida friendly but this is creating here is that this is creating a moisture barrier to the soil it's creating a a natural um ground cover okay so we're having to irrigate a less and then also to adding an organic material back in the soil next that we have L behind that we have Walter ver Burna so anytime you have butterflies and critters and things like that they love multiple layers because multiple layers will create small uh microclimates and that's what you're looking for you want small microclimates so the butterfly or whatever the Critter might be depending on its life stage we'll find little areas that it's able to kind of fit in its Niche next door to that we have fire bush uh once again not a Flor native but this is from northern Mexico uh this is actually the uh DWF variety behind this all we have what they call Po carpus and poac carpus it's that little shrub you see amazing for lady beetles any type of beneficial insects wasps stuff like that you know a lot of people think of wasp and oh we don't want wasp when it comes to a garden Wass are very good okay so that's twice a year twice a year that's maintenance kind of gives you an idea above that we have a tabya above that that's that little lead there that's on the far left side and then of course that just pops and yellow you know it was just absolutely gorgeous when that blooms um yeah that's is this a shaded area oh Lordy no this thing is deep down by the sun like You' never seen it so are we are we concerned here with things that maybe will not be the apocalypsis of a garden having it by the water on the sun oh well you do have certain things so for example um being by the water um this is by a lake but we're about a block away from the the location that you guys were talking about before I believe was close to Dexter right y Dexter I'll get to that later when you start gardening you have to start coming up with creative options you start looking at things differently you look at your neighbor you know pile of these and it's no longer something for a landfill you're not going H that's good ground cover okay so for example on your Beach what is it there's birds there Goose what do the goose have there's po that's rich nitrogen and you could actually be doing two different things so for example when I was in Fair Hope Alabama when I toured those CI with their parts actually they they have a entire Botanical department they have a Horticultural expert he was complaining he's saying yeah you know we have all these geese and they're and they're you know of course defecating what do we do I like you have this amazing Rose G use it you know you don't have to be using 666 on your roses take what the yeasts are leaving you and of course that's cleaning up their swimming areas and such so sometimes you just have to look at things a little different you have to look at things creative you know um the only thing I would say being alongside the water like that just keep in mind L of sight you know keep in mind the people who live there and especially when I do my main presentation is how to make these things happen uh one of the main points is yeah make sure you talk to the people who live there and make sure they want that there okay so anyway these are some pictures now anytime you guys want to shout out questions please do so okay um sometimes I am a bit of a rambler so if I start rambling just love me know um so a community garden first thing to have in Community Gardens you're talking about butterfly Parks you're talking about botanical gardens natural Parts all these are Community Gardens it takes both people and then it takes the actual physical location if you don't have the people all you have is a bar that's all you have so you really need these two things kind of working in the garden part itself is how people interact with the garden okay and that's one of the biggest things so you want to talk to the neighbors who are around this future location see what they want okay see what they need what they want for example before we planted our community garden or our vegetable garden youed there was a field uh that a lot of our members or committee looking at one afternoon I just went down there with my lunch and I notic children were playing this field and I'm saying if we built something here we're going to take away now what these kids will be playing so always just keep in mind what pre-existing activities are happening right now before you install something okay and it's always good to just walk around the town sit down have a lunch have a little dinner whatever and just see how these spaces are being used your largest impact for any of these spaces is about a half a mile okay so anywhere within a half a mile that's your largest impact for all of b um okay we'll go down the next pictures here fun so that's our vegetable garden right there in town um this couple here actually moved to Maine so they're no longer with us um but uh the community garden here was actually planted about yeah about 10 actually about eight years ago I'd say about eight years ago this this Garden was planted um our city was not very supportive of it um the only thing that really was was pushing forward with it was just a few folks that really wanted to see this happen um as well as just the local people that were around the area um the area that this Gardens in is pretty impoverished um a minority Community um we also have a lot of public hous in that area as well and so what was happening was that people who were trying to grow their food in their public housing the land I'm not the landlord but the maintenance guy would come in and just rip everything out um especially one one of my Puerto Rican friends actually he was trying to plant a what they called um It's tap yoka that's Yuka so he was trying to plant Yuka and of course they just kept thinking it was a weed and it was just ripping it out you know he's like stop pulling up my grandma's Yuka you know my A's Yuka um so we're able to kind of start planting it there is that city property or Schoolboard property it is yeah this is this is city property um and same thing as well you know there was issues with liability insurance Etc were covered under their umbrella policy for that I think cost wise it's I don't only think it's $10 a month $5 a month I think for insurance um and once again we do have it fed um so we had very little issues can you explain to me what's the umbrella policy uh it's a um it's a public liability insurance so yeah it's anything that would be you know covered someone trips and falls on sidewalk whatever so that's pretty much what's what it's covered for um if someone cuts their finger off from some shears I don't that's negligence yes ex sand cranes the s tail CR here um biggest thing especially with our little Community our vegetable Garden um is that we work with nature uh so we have bird houses bat houses um also two our SLE cranes will come to our garden they'll pick up the grubs Etc and that's one thing I'm always trying to work with my city is once again don't mow as much you know there's certain times of year just let things kind of go you also have amazing pollinator plants too things like Biden's pelosa Biden's Alba uh this is what our native bees as well as our European bees European bees is what you mostly find AP you say honey uh that's what they're now focused on for U for honey production since we've lost a lot of oranges and we're also losing a lot of our natural ecosystem with scrub uh our bees are now mostly dependent on these weeds so B pelosa and B's Alba it's probably in the sidewalk out here it's a little white flour you can eat it tastes just like a carrot yeah it's really good for you actually uh here's another picture cabbage uh some overgrown tomato uh some onions what have you uh this right here are just collar greens this was during the early days of the plot that's pretty big yeah yeah um has that divided up different people work different it has yeah at this point in time actually so we're looking about a year into the garden this is only two people this is myself and Mr so there's really only two people that are doing this um the rest of the initial wave kind of fell off and that's not unom at all you know you kind of have that good old fashioned what clean up the barn and put on a show and you do it all and then no one shows up you know and uh it's just part of it it's it's part of the cycle you know um so yeah Mr Robert here he's planting a lot of his collar greens he's giving it to his neighbors um he's giving it to his friends um I've got got that little plot back there in the far left corner um you know I've got some carrots and cabbages and things growing uh these are bush beans with merry Golds merry Golds are very good especially to deter uh nemat um you know any Gardener in Florida NE um I can never remember Bach Choy po Choy it's one of thoseo B Choy yeah there we go po Choy it's a great plant a lot of fun uh very pretty to look at and same thing just kind of fun little closeup kids love it they just think it's the neatest thing ever that in carrots I've never seen kids eat carrots before and there's Mr Robert right there um he was really My Mentor in this um I was when I first started you know here I was college educated thinking everything very scientific and I'm spending hundreds of dollars in fertilizers and soil and he's spending four bucks and he's making even a larger yeld than I was um so same thing he was the one that kind of taught me look at what's around you you know if you find a bunch of leaves piled up use it um you know just use what you have around you that's one of the biggest things especially when it comes to Gardens um of any type it's always about the money you know where's the money coming from who's has the money when you do it right it costs very little very little um if you notice in the back he has some flowers next to him he's allowing his um greens there to bolt so he's producing seed for the next season a lot of gardeners they get rid of the flower because they think it's just not attractive but same thing amazing for pollination as well do you have a composting pile or B on site yes yes we do do you hold water too do we what do you have do you hold rain water no no we don't hold rain water um I would like to hold rain water but that just comes you have different issues with that you have special um you have issues with a mosquito it's aegypti yeah hang on AI egypti That's a species of mosquito um which is pretty nasty and especially in rain barrels if you don't treat it you don't kind of keep an eye on it it causes issue all this is just sitting water sit water yeah we're using sitting water um do you pay a bill for the city water or no no bill and also too even the folks who have the plas there's no that was one thing that I really pushed for especially when we started this no one pays it dime because the entire point of this is that you're really trying to get the folks who don't have the money for fresh food you know um you know and once again especially when you look at minority communities that's where you find the diabetes that's where you find obesity that's where you find all this stuff so we're just trying to get people to kind of start stepping away from more processed foods and kind of get back to the roots um same plot that's after Mr Robert passed away uh yeah so here go right yeah but it's okay it's okay so even though for me for a lot of folks they look at this and they go well this is unsightly this is a pollinator habitat this is what Sand Hill cranes love this is what other this is what just really drives myology um and one of the most valuable things in all of this is your volunteers your people don't ever underestimate your volunteers and your people okay um it's it's not an Infinite Source it's very finite um and just make sure you use them when this happens it's okay it's just the cycle repeats again you till that in uh actually didn't till no I just kind of just piled a bunch of pine on top and once again it does the trip during the summer months I'll let it just go to weed again um and as we kind of go through what what you're literally saying is just kind of 10 you know eight years ago and we're kind of moving forward in time so hi here we go uh this is our monarchs um now this is an interesting thing too especially when it comes to butterfly gardens please please please reach out to your county see where the spray trucks RS are okay that's one thing you kind of forget about is the spray trucks I actually had to stop planting uh milked we were actually planting about four or five different varieties of milked um in our pocket park I had to stop because the spray trucks continued to come in it was just a death sentence for um so I actually had to stopped planting milk weed I finally was able to talk with a few Commissioners County Commissioners and we were able to kind of limit the amount of spraying we were also able to kind of uh reroute um so we are replanting M beeds again uh but sadly the damage is already done to that local population but that was one thing that one night I was just walking the dog and I went you know no wonder the cat are done and the butterflies are done okay so those are just things to kind of reach out a lot of just connects you know connect with different apartments and all that uh this is another picture of our pocket park in the background actually you'll see the little sign that's on our was station as well as a a backyard habitat that's CTI that's an amazing plant almost uh went to Extinction actually that was uh the very first gluten-free Revolution that happened right after the Civil War um Cen City actually was one of the largest exporters a lot of people call it aabot so Arab flower um but uh yeah that was the raid for a lot of the uh a lot of folks up in New England was gluten pre flow back in those days and that's why we now plant that in our cities and uh also to our neighborhoods because the plant almost went to Extinction cool plant also really important as well for butterfly but I'm not that much of a butterfly expert what the name of butterfly is Rees this it's a just bir houses this was funny so my dad and I we plant these bird houses out there um these are mostly we have scrub JS um we also have there another bird but I can't think of it we popped about 12 boxes um this is really your first line of defense uh for any guard so your birds are like little fighter jets they're amazing sadly the city took them all out so they had no idea what they were and they took them out um and I know having to save them from the garbage and after a few uh talks with the commission we ended up reinstalling them again but we did lose about three or four so oh well that's one you can't see hey that's another picture um so you got onions kale uh eggplant um collar greens green beans a bunch of other fun stuff uh this right here this is a ladybug that's a ladybug Pupa so a lot of people don't realize what those are but that's what that is that's a juvenile lady Beetle uh zucchini cucumbers what have you um as you notice in the background I'm letting the weeds grow see all the little white flowers that's viten zva uh here's just a you know simple Harvest cucumber zucchini yellow squash green beans here's another plot as well there's another one there's a little sign this is actually the second wave now so our first wave of uh gardeners have come and gone Here Comes our second wave um this is probably a fiveyear gap uh for about two years I was the only one there G name um it was nice it was quiet I enjoyed it um but second one during this time too you know I'm not necessarily in charge of it there's different groups that are coming in so we're having Church groups nonprofit groups come in they kind of get it and then they walk away from it and so this is just kind of wave after wave of folks kind of coming and going um but but as Mr Robert said just as long as you continue planting those beans that's all that matters just keep this thing going you know this is an interesting situation um so this is entering into the garden at this time this is now after the second wave I'm now still the only Gardener in the garden the 4 Garden used to be here so 4 came along and they said well you know we would like to have a PLT here and so they took all this here um was it used a little bit you know they used it a little bit but then they came along and they said actually we need our own garden so we now actually have two gardens next standing side by side to each other um I just thought it was a cool picture so it's not every day you get to go underneath a tractor uh there's Mr Horton that's Urban um that's one of our gardeners um sadly to say he just passed away not even about a year ago or so um but uh really an amazing gentleman and uh he would come in and he would plant watermelons and squash and zucchinis and things of that [Music] nature that's his dog Caesar so that's from a dog's perspective uh picture again these are just uh zipper creams Tomatoes you can tell my wife and I we really like collar greens so Sean go back one picture yeah so um this one yeah yeah Joe resident comes hey I want to I participate yeah they get like a square back there you do you do now if you look at the plots in the back there I did not create those I do not encourage those size plots the first reason that those plots are an issue is the paint that's a bunch of micro fooding in your soil you do not want that um the second issue too is treat Lumber you don't want treat Lumber okay um so those are all the kind of things that you know and once again this was just another group that came in that said hey you know we're taking over this thing that lasted for about a year um and then of course I've been throw I've been having to throw away and clean everything back up again so I have a question yeah like if you did um like bu gallon buckets is that an option you could um you could the only problem is you know you got to remember we are in the subtropics so anytime you have any type of vertical surface like that it's retaining heat okay so if I'm in marylands I'm up further north I want that that's warming my temp that's warming my soil but because I'm down here soil might get a little hot so it's just something to kind of think about but once again though let's say we're in the shade part shap it might be beneficial okay but yeah that's the great thing about elevated beds is that it helps retain heat that's what that is and Sean do you try to educate these people before they do these things yes no one will ever listen to them that's human nature you know we all go no no you know I watched a YouTube video but that's the joy of it there's no there's not there's not there's not a wrong way or a right way there isn't it's just what works for you you know um I get a little industrial when it comes to gardening I I find my inner Ford so I'm like okay how many tomatoes can I produce how much can I produce out of it um other folks you know it's just for fun you know so there is no right or wrong way that's the biggest thing do you sell the extra produce or do you give it away I give it away yeah I give it away um so I have a few folks uh locally um a few older ladies they're always you know hooting and hollering at me on the porch and of course I bring over the bags like here you go you know they'll usually give me like a glass of tea or something um but uh yeah no I've never sold it now no sir Robert he used to sell his collard greens I think it was 25 cents a bag um but he was on Social Security retired military Etc it was a little little p pennies and once again I never had a problem with it there was a few people let made a fuss he can't sell it I go he can't you know it's not a big deal and once again it helps you know once again you're looking at the local community you're helping you know kind of keep good that cycle um this is uh our friend Xavier in the background um he's the one that I was talking about the Yuka and the MinGa um that's the most amazing thing too so my background in college is anthropology and I have to say especially when I started gardening was very ethnocentric everything need to be in proper straight lines you know it's like I'm kind of thinking of this you know Mid-Atlantic New England Garden oh no you get folks from the Caribbean it looks like a massive just you know a box of weeds but what they're doing though is that they're creating shelter they're creating shade for the different plants that are underneath it um something that I might perceive as a weed or something that doesn't look attractive it's completely edible um so really this is a place where different cultures begin to merge you begin to share different uh foods and it's just really it's awesome it's really cool uh I never realized I would enjoy Yuka as much as I do and it's easier than growing a potato it's so amazingly easy and simple so Sean it sounds like the the the only thing that's been consistent has been you over the years so you feel like you know in hindsight it really does need a champion that kind of can stick through thick and thin yeah yeah I mean and even if you don't that's okay as long as you allow a piece of land to just go follow um just you know even if you don't have someone that comes it's okay you know once again you just have to kind of relook at stuff and you go instead of just being a field Full Of Weeds it's a pollin it's a pollinator Garden you know you're doing the same thing as you're doing with a butterfly garden it just aesthetically looks different and like you said the cyclical people will come and go people die off people come y yeah it's age in terms of the Aesthetics though this this is not in a park it's not downtown it's a little bit outside right so the park itself is a really it's a beautiful park I think it's one of the most beautiful Parks we have in town but it's a park that very few know about Festival yeah yeah right down there yeah right across from Kurt at the Kurt Center um and uh once again I mean you know it's one it was one way that we were able to kind of get in there it was a it was a a place that most people say cares about it you know but yeah beautiful Park it's my one of my and same thing the water there is just crystal clear water quality it's absolutely beautiful um so here's another plot as well um this is actually one of the most recent ones you can see Lake in the background it is yep that's Lake Willie um I actually had pictures here but the city had just actually gotten done we had this beautiful native vegetation all along the lake side um City came in they said oh that doesn't look attractive and they ripped it all out sadly to say that dispersed our our sandill cranes as well as our other native um animals um you know Lake lakeef fronts aren't supposed to be mowed and everything primed Ander that's that's not what Florida nature is um it will rebuild it'll regrow but it'll take some time and S to say when these kind of projects are done this way just an absolute just you know burnt Earth campaign if you will just you know kind of just destroying everything this is actually what leads to invasive plants um so it'll be interesting to see more sandill cranes you can see these are my buddies if you notice too they're getting closer and closer over the years are getting more and more comfortable um more uh gardening scenes like I said a lot of garden scenes I'm so sorry okay now this is cool um this is the Lower East Side of New York so one of the first things I did before I started gardening I went around and I asked people um I I visited other Gardens I I went to other places and especially the gardens who have been around for a while you talk to the leader or you talk to the founder and you go hi I'd like to more you know learn more about the garden they usually go what do you [Music] want um because like I said for these kind of projects it takes a lot of grit it takes a lot of grit and it's easy to get to kind of just lose Faith because same thing you're seeing the different cycles and you're going oh my goodness what makes this story so important here I'll speak in microphone again sorry um is that the people off the houseon street these were your original gorilla gardeners so these are the people from the 60s and the 70s and they took these sites of land that were just unsightly and they began to just you know throw what they call seed BS and and you just take these seeds you throw them in there you create wild flowers and trees or whatever and a lot of these plots that they had designed and created were for vegetal Gardens now that that Lower East Side has become Ginger fied over the last few years what used to be amazing plots Gardens are now completely shaded by the buildings so these Gardens led to the growth of this area of New York but Sly has also led to the fall of it and that was just one of those neat things you know but yeah that's one of the very first uh Gardens there New York City but that's important too before you do any of this you know go down to Sanford go to any of your surrounding cities Jacksonville you know has a few Community Gardens Sarasota pet St Petersburg and just talk with people and get insight from them um and uh a lot of times you know they'll be a little cold but it's okay you mentioned Sanford was going on in Sanford I was there for a long time yeah Sanford has a really nice Community bur there yes yeah so you know just ask and talk to the people look at it you know see what works for yeah uh more butterfly pictures Monarch there's our little bumblebees this is actually a European be this is from one of our local Apiaries um what's really cool is our our Apiaries they'll put a little do of paint under these and I'll actually keep track of them sometimes and I'll find the APS and I'll talk to oh yeah I saw some of your bees and this and that and uh they're they're really tickled to death because where we are we're kind of almost we we're close to the Ocala Forest so what's happened is that especially with the recent growth we've created almost these kind of urban corridors where there's really nothing there and what's happening is almost creating walls and so these and such and other poers aren't able to jump over These Walls by having screen spaces you're now creating islands and now these are able to kind of HP from Island to Island and now they're able to enter into Cal forest and create pet honey as such when originally they wouldn't um so just keep in mind too many spes like this can actually help out your local economy um and that was one thing that you know took about 10 years for me to to learn about that I was kind of cool I just was wondering you kept painting your beads fig that [Music] out um ah come on someone knows this what kind of butterfly is this long yeah there you go uh there's one of our um flower beds or flower pots on our street this is uh once again Alexander park yep and then all the other pictures won't work darn so you have to use your [Music] imagination um so yeah so we talked about you know talking to your neighbors assessing the land when your biggest thing about the assess of land too look at the history of the lands is it a landfill is it an old industrial site what have you these things will kind of dictate with whether or not you gr food there or what other stuff you can do um is there water is electricity very rarely do you need electricity but water is definitely a big one also to you know with the assessment of the land with the people around it so people want um make sure you hold it vents you know one of the neatest things you can do is you can have have like a sidewalk event and you just give people chalk and you go tell me what you want in the garden and let them draw it out on on the sidewalk or tell me the feeling you want from the garden you know do you want picnics do you want happiness whatever it might be and it just kind of gets people involved and also to there's a sense of belonging there's a sense of purpose and that's really what all these are Made for This is what it's all designed for um when you do have any Gardens your butterfly garden vegetable garden heck just planting a few trees make sure you log the volunteer hours track the hours not only does that give you more availability for grants in the future but then also too when the leadership roles when you're having to start making decisions look at the people who've done it whove actually spent the hours um you know you don't want someone who's doing the social media account to start you know designing and creating you know a plan for something you want the person who's actually down there eating planting stuff they'll tell you what works and what doesn't work okay um business support is a big one um you know get your local businesses to support it it can be just simply as you know hey um will you be friends of the garden will you just come once a week and just water it you don't need you know you don't need money just come on in and water it for us you know um come on over just make sure garbage is picked up or will you make sure the trash can's empty anything like that um and then also too you know with the garden make sure that you know whoever your supporters are that's where they have free advertisement so if the hardware store wants to help you out make sure that every other week you're doing a blast out there saying thank you so much hardware store thank you so much to this business thank you so much to that business um you'll be amazed what it creates finally um you've got three types of gardens especially vegetable gardens your first one is an allotment so allotment Gardens is where everyone has their own individual beds I'm a big fan of that okay like you were saying before sometimes you'll have just two or three people that are die hards but everyone wants to be there for the photo op or everyone wants to kind of take you know credit for the project when you have allotments like that people are able to trade with each other but then also to you reap what you sow okay your second one is communal um that's where everyone shares in the Bounty however you're only going to have two or three people that do most of the hard work everyone will will come out and actually G come out for the food and the third one is what I like to call the Anarchy Garden Anarchy Garden is really no one knows what's happening no one knows what's going on it's just kind of freefor all you'll come across this especially a lot on college campuses um don't be afraid that any type of project you have it will go through these three stages okay it's okay just go with the punches roll with it um um because you'll find that you know you'll have this great structure this great organization to begin with it kind of starts failing off you'll now start having more just you know a handful of people doing it and it just becomes complete Anarchy it'll come right back around again in the cycle um my I hope that helps out and I hope I didn't scare you so you're welome do you have any questions for me all there any just process yeah processing sorry it's a lot so so but I'm very excited for you thank you very much you have a beautiful Community um yeah I'm I'm very impressed with this community coming in I was just death and I hope you grow even a better one in the future thank you thanks what is the name of your place that the ped's wagon ped's wagon FL it's beautiful home deor 37 years this year we've survived Amazon the only business I was aware of that grew during the recession and grew during Co yes yeah we' actually we' grown thank you all so much that was awesome thank you thank you so if the Women's Club is interested in in having a garden space But as insurance questions I can talk to them about that yeah I think as Sean pointed out important to see if there are actually people who want to dig the dirt a lot of people say yeah I love Comm let's have one will you dig the dirt and and a lot of them are very old so you know that's part of that yeah this is wrong people don't want to Garden they don't you know they don't Garden at their own home then they may want to Garden as you mentioned you know in our we have three public housing areas and they have desire but no location so that's a different story we want to get out there we just need to provide a space for them um and understand that it may go through aesthetic cycles of yeah now what he explained yeah okay anybody has any comments [Music] yes on April 14th uh starting at 4:30 the aine society is going to have a for Tour by kayak or or canoe and we will be meeting at Dexter Beach um at 4:30 Ming South uh on on Lake Stella uh at the the little park there then walking up to and observing the Eagles s so please join us 14 the 14 yes I think we have six spots left but again we we have the Cano and kayak thank you thank you D welcome okay this meeting is adour no do you have something Pat that you need to say are we going to um form some kind of meeting with people that want to help with this community garden are we going to make Arrangements set up a meeting so we can go find the site whether we have the money or not the RO and the on I think the money is very important we have to have that Grant before we go walking around I you know I think that time move is moves along I would go recommend we walk around think we recommend we walk around the sooner the better okay I mean I can still send in a letter and you can still walk around and see what happens I we don't have to have the area I'm pretty sure we don't have to have the area set in stone okay so um those changes that I told you you can just do that and then and as the letter goes out you can go to each part or you can figure out where you want it and make an adjustment to it okay so we will have to get with these clubs to see if they will want to join us to walk around so it's not only the tree and garden it will be a rotary Aran and what was the other group I forgot the three of us so I'll take care of two okay two of them yeah so just let me know and uh okay I'll be available we could do a survey monkey so we send you a survey of dates and you you pick okay what you what when you're available and then she'll be able to see okay we got everybody on this one day okay my thing and I'm going to be up front about this my thing is I just don't want to make this to be confusing a bottle uh people don't want it here don't want it there I just wanted something simple that's what I brought the idea and I just wanted to keep it simple with not a lot of back and forth of Home flakes so I just want to be straight up that's my only requirement there's no reason it can't be a positive effort I wanted to be positive uh and the the great thing with exploring around and starting early is that well maybe we won't get the grant but maybe we can put in another type or smaller Garden elsewhere and the C here to help us the city is here hand on hand to help us and I just want to make that clear too and also Sean just gave a great presentation on Gardens that take uh you know after their EST very little care I mean I think we all like that idea my mind twice a year yeah exactly question um the new school that's going to be built couldn't we do their stuff children to see it as well it's in the county but we after to the school board I don't know Community Home school just try to bring everyone together we're [Music] Notting my my concern with that is sometimes schools are so strict with who can come in and out and then the rest of the community might not be able to go in if old man yeah I'm [Music] just I don't I think it's an excellent idea however uh if you'll notice new schools today have minimal landscaping for security reasons but I think it should be explored we'll look at be Keith at a quick update yeah I just want to let y'all know that they will be removing the trees on Main Street April the 13th which is on a Saturday per Mr Li's recommendations this the two next to commiss broke off tops broke off so will be removing the 13 for Mr lippy's recommendation are Hollow and they need to come down that's and also also when you're out looking for this site please let me know because depends on if we can get water there we don't want to have to spend a bunch of money trying to run a line to the Garden so it has to be somewhere that I can get water there fairly easy not with a big expense so are you gonna walk with us sorry just s pict so he did bring up a question though does the city spray I mean I know the mosquito bers County right the county they don't spray in town anymore they don't even already spray out in the county okay um so and you can also we can make it in no spray Zone you can whereever it's going to be you can put signs up and make sure it's anpr that's what they did out there when skip had his grow that was no spray Zone back when they did spray for mosquitoes okay we don't [Music] can