The Gardens Gate – August 2022

August 2022 The Gardens Gate Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens

Summer Passport Program

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ACE Volunteer of the Month Pg9

Out and About with The Gardens

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Upcoming Events

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2410 SE Westmoreland Blvd.

Port St. Lucie, FL 34952 Phone: 772.337.1959 Fax: 772.237.5952 Email: info@pslbg.org Web: www.pslbg.org

Pavilion & Gift Shop Hours:

Wednesday - Saturday 10:00am - 4:00pm Sunday 12:00pm - 4:00pm

Garden Center “Summer” Hours

Wednesday - Saturday 9:00am - 12:00pm FURRY FRIENDS ARE WELCOMED ACCOMPANIED BY RESPONSIBLE OWNERS. PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW YOUR PET TO RELIEVE THEMSELVES IN OUR GARDEN ROOMS. PET STATIONS ARE LOCATED AROUND THE GARDENS FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE. SKATES, BOARDS & BICYCLES ARE NOT PERMITTED ON THE WALKWAYS IN THE GARDENS

Suggested Donations: Adults $5 • Students $2 Free for FPSLBG Members and Active Military with family (IDs required)

Mission Statement...

Friends’ mission is to create and maintain a beautiful, serene sanctuary in the center of Port St. Lucie that is environmentally sound and naturally diverse and to provide educational, cultural and recreational opportunities for all who visit.

Officers & Directors...

President: Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: Directors:

Jeff Chambers Heather Furnari Mary Petrone Cathy Russo Mark A. Barnes John Erickson Brenda Gustafson Jeanette Kostival Laura Mehr Judy Nash-Wade Arthur Pearlstein

Standing Committee Chairs...

Election Committee: Finance Committee: Gift Shop Committee: Horticulture Committee: Membership & Volunteer Committee: Resource Development Committee: Strategic Planning Committee:

TBD Cathy Russo Laura Mehr Brenda Gustafson Laura Mehr Heather Furnari Arthur Pearlstein

Newsletter...

Editor & Design:

Mark A. Barnes

The Gardens is managed and operated by Friends of the Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3) public charity organization, that was founded to help support the daily operations of The Gardens. Friends volunteers provide hands-on daily oversight of the facility, including staffing to handle the many visitors year round. Please consider becoming a member of Friends. Friends' is a 100% volunteer organization. In all cases, donations are deductible to the extent allowed by law.

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Hello Everyone!

There has been a lot of activity going on at the Gardens. All of the underground installation for the new camera/security system is complete.

Next the WiFi and the cameras will be installed. This has been a long time coming, but finally it is here. The electric has been run to the Serenity Garden and the water is flowing. Lastly, the artificial turf will be installed on the amphitheater next to the Lilly Pad. The quotes for the paver project and the fence came in and the cost of was out of this world. So instead of individual pavers, it will be poured concrete with designs cut into it and tinted. The fence cost was almost tripled in price, but it still on to be installed. Also the additional kitchen cabinets should be installed shortly.

On August 3rd at 9am, there will be a ground breaking ceremony for the new Pioneer Park in the Port Project. Additionally, we are still on for BOOtanical Halloween (October ‘22) the Art Show (January ’23) and Botanica (February’23), as well as introducing our Holiday Arts & Crafts Festival (November ‘22). The City of Port St. Lucie is making the north Gardens entrance more accessible for larger trucks and trailers to get through to the Event Lawn. Sadly, we will be losing a Royal palm that has been here forever.

I would like to thank the Volunteers who have showed up to work out in this extreme heat we are experiencing. Please keep hydrated and take breaks! You all have made this one of the best Gardens in the area! Some of you have given me some really great feedback and ideas, for that I Thank You! Jeff (aka the Captain)

Jeff Chambers, President

Friends of the Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens

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Date

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Event

Start Time

End Time

08/01/22

Restorative Yoga at The Gardens

7:00 PM

8:00 PM

08/03/22

Tai Chi @ The Gardens

9:00 AM

10:00 AM

08/05/22

Inside the Garden Gate Volunteer Orientation

10:30 AM

11:30 AM

08/06/22

Kids Yoga at The Gardens

10:00 AM

11:00 AM

08/08/22

NO FPSLBG Board Meeting For August

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08/08/22

Sunset Yoga at The Gardens

7:00 PM

8:00 PM

08/10/22

Tai Chi @ The Gardens

9:00 AM

10:00 AM

08/10/22

Fort Pierce Jazz & Blues Society Jazz Jams

6:30 PM

9:30 PM

08/11/22

PSL Anglers Club Meeting

5:30 PM

9:30 PM

08/13/22

Adult Education: Butterflies In The Garden

10:00 AM

11:30 AM

08/15/22

Restorative Yoga at The Gardens

7:00 PM

8:00 PM

08/16/22

KWVTCC 166 Meeting

10:00 AM

2:00 PM

08/17/22

Tai Chi @ The Gardens

9:00 AM

10:00 AM

08/18/22

Treasure Coast Rare Fruit Club

7:00 PM

9:00 PM

08/20/22

Kids Yoga at The Gardens

10:00 AM

11:00 AM

08/20/22

Inside the Garden Gate Volunteer Orientation

10:30 AM

11:30 AM

08/22/22

Sunset Yoga at The Gardens

7:00 PM

8:00 PM

08/24/22

Tai Chi @ The Gardens

9:00 AM

10:00 AM

08/24/22

Commemorative Meeting

9:00 AM

10:00 AM

08/24/22

Fort Pierce Jazz & Blues Society Jazz Jams

6:30 PM

9:30 PM

08/27/22

Treasure Coast Bonsai Meeting

10:00 AM

12:00 PM

08/29/22

Sunset Yoga at The Gardens

7:00 PM

8:00 PM

Are You Looking for Fun and Educational Children’s Activities?

The Gardens is the Perfect learning environment!!!

Our NEW Discovery Back Packs are available to the public inside the Pavilion, free of charge, for parents and kids to take an exciting adventure and learning experience through the Gardens.

Adults may sign-out backpacks Wednesday thru Saturday 10am - 4pm and Sunday 12noon - 4pm, with a Valid State ID, for use within our Gardens.

Scheduled Lessons are available to public and Private schools. Inquire at our front desk or email education@pslbg.org.

Thank You.

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What happens when you have 9 volunteers dedicated to helping children?

You get 651 Summer Campers visiting the Botanical Gardens to learn about local flora and fauna.

Funded by the Children’s Service Council and partnered with St Lucie Chamber of Commerce, the Summer Passport program brings local youths and businesses together for summertime fun.

With a Summer ‘Passport’, campers enjoy kayaking, cooking lessons, gardening, indoor sports, museums, sailing, theater, painting and more.

The

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Education

Committee

offers

Passport Campers workshops on birds, pollinators, gardening, Shinrinyoku (Forest Bathing), meditation, mindfulness and how to locate those shy fantastic creatures in the Faerie Garden. The Education volunteers are responsible for the success of this summer program. Several are now year-round and will help expand children’s program offerings. If you have a special skill or expertise in gardening, forestry or ecosystem managing or just want to join the fun, we meet every Wednesday from 10AM12PM, rain or shine. Help us touch the future one child at a time.

by Mary Petrone

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August Plant Sale All Plants for sale* Check out our $1.00 table *excluding plants in ceramic and clay pots

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and while most of us never see John at work, since he is here from 6:30- 9:30 every day, except Sunday, his effect on The Gardens is tremendous.

Besides maintaining the Orchid Garden Room, he maintains all of the areas throughout The Gardens that need work. He weeds and trims the roundabout area in front of the building, the areas in front of our gardens, the bulkhead, the areas around the royal poincianas. The areas around the Cactus Garden Room, the Rose Garden, Hibiscus Garden Room - really, the entire gardens.

John Erickson is our August 2022 ACE Award Volunteer of the Month. The Board is grateful and happy to see this award go to John. Brenda Gustafson, head of horticulture picked John from about 70 of her horticultural department volunteers.

In asking Brenda about John, she told me that John has been involved with The Gardens for many years, and has been instrumental in developing our Orchid Garden Room, and has been a prominent member and past president of the Orchid Society. In recent years, John has taken on the maintenance of the entire gardens,

Jeff has said in the past that we would be in big trouble without John Erickson. If you love the way The Gardens look, it is because of John. He also helps to lead the trustees every month in major clean up work, and was instrumental in the clean up and revitalization of the Bromeliad Garden Room and the maintenance of our sable palms.

Johns great attitude, his willingness to take on any job, big or small, and his 'can do' mind set, make John the perfect ACE award winner for July.

We are more than grateful for his work and dedication at The Gardens.

By Laura Mehr

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3 Space-Saving Backyard Vegetable Garden Ideas When it comes to a backyard vegetable garden, ideas are easy to come by.

There are plenty of pictures of elaborate gardens with rows of sun-ripened tomatoes, entire sections devoted solely to peas, raised beds for root vegetables, and, of course, a fountain and seating area. We don’t all have gigantic yards, though. As nice as it would be to have row after row of heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers, it’s just not realistic when your backyard garden is a two-foot by four-foot rectangle between your driveway and the foundation of your house.

The thing is, you can create a really nice garden in that small rectangle of space. It’s a simple matter of timing, design, and plant selection.

Backyard vegetable garden ideas that save on space but don’t skimp on the bounty Let’s set the stage here. The best space-saving backyard vegetable garden ideas won’t help you one lick if you don’t have good soil. You can work with limitations on sunlight. You can plant herbs like rosemary that don’t need a ton of water. But if your soil is compact and devoid of nutrients, you won’t have a whole lot of luck with your garden.

There are plenty of easy ways to fix that. A little tilling to loosen the soil and a bit of compost to add nutrients might be all you need to bring new life to your garden. But that has to be first on your list. Now onto those spacemaximizing ideas…

1. Timing your vegetables. One of the most long-standing backyard vegetable garden ideas is succession gardening. To do this, you plant vegetables that you can harvest at different intervals. One approach is to plant early season and late season vegetables in the same space (peas followed by eggplant, for example). Another method is to plant different vegetables with different maturity rates in the same space at the same time. Radishes, for example, go well with carrots.

2. Look up. Another way to get more out of a small garden is to go vertical. Beans, cucumbers, peas, and other vining vegetables don’t take up a lot of ground space, but will happily climb a trellis. That can give you a lot of free space for other vegetables and herbs, plus it looks pretty when you have a six-foot-tall vine growing from your garden.

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3. Choose high-yield varieties. The thing about backyard vegetable garden ideas is that when it comes to the plants themselves, it’s easy to overlook which varieties we want to plant. A tomato is a tomato, right? Not exactly. There are so many varieties of heirloom and hybrid tomatoes. Not only can they taste very different, but the amount of fruit they produce can vary wildly. Larger varieties like the “Big Boy” won’t produce as much as the bite-sized “Yellow Pear” tomato plant (which, incidentally, are mouthwateringly delicious). And that’s just tomatoes. The same can be said for most vegetables. By choosing high-yielding varieties, you can get more out of less space.

This is just a sampling of space-saving backyard vegetable garden ideas, but there are plenty more. Hanging vegetables, multi-level raised beds, starting seeds indoors, and taking advantage of space on your patio or balcony for a container garden are some more ways you can enjoy a bountiful harvest without a lot of space.

Gardening doesn’t have to be a big, expansive undertaking to bring the benefits of fresh, tasty herbs and veggies into your kitchen.

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Summer Hours: Wednesday thru Saturday 9am - 12pm Closed Mondays & Tuesdays

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Visitors to the Garden Center

Military Veterans Tour the Gardens

Rio Lindo Garden Club recently won an AmesNGC Tool Grant. from left to right Joyce Rosselli, Kathleen Colando, Karen York, Mike Becker, Anne Nourse, Joanne Dualsky, Marilyn Zeller & Virginia Waters

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