Melancholy

Bye for now Jess….the wilds of Florida will never be the same.

It is with heavy hearts that Kristen and I have to say goodbye to one of our own. Jessica Taft is a true Chick With Ticks….one of the fabulous five who began this journey many years ago. Jess would be pissed off to see us shed these tears and sob these sobs as we cry “It’s not fair”. We will share some amazing stories and adventures with her children – who need to know how strong and beautiful she will always be to us. Caio Jess – see ya later!

Kristen presents to Master Gardeners of Sarasota County!

Today I had the pleasure of presenting our stream classification study to a wonderful group of people – the Master Gardeners of Sarasota County, Florida. It turns out there are Master Gardeners all throughout Florida. The program is run through the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). Its mission is to train a core of volunteers to assist the county extension agent in delivering information to residents on how to design, plant, and care for their plants and landscapes in a Florida-Friendly way. Please visit their website to find out more about this AWESOME program:
http://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/mastergardener/about/index.shtml

I’m hoping I was able to inspire some Master Gardeners to get outdoors and enjoy our state’s amazing resources. Maybe they’ll even become Chicks with Ticks (since many of them were women)! The Gardeners definitely inspired me to turn my black thumb green, and even gave me a couple free plant clippings (I’ll let you know how that goes). Thank you so much to Bob at Sarasota County’s IFAS extension office for inviting our team to speak. Always a pleasure talking about what we do and love because…
“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.” – Baba Dioum

Buttonbush

Especially for Tom B – here is an example of Buttonbush flower!!