City Hall green space becomes Florida Friendly

Photo by Danielle Dodder, special to the Eagle

City Council Chariman Frank Recker cuts the ribbon on the demostration project with others who worked on the project. From left: Mike Ramsey, Water Symposium of Florida (ecologist); Alan Brown, Island Gardeners; Allan Krinsky, Shellscape Florida; Shawn Sundall, Shellscape Florida; Recker; John Vaughn, SFWMD Big Cypress Board member (from Marco Island); Tim Nancy, Water Symposium Florida (horticulturist); Yvette & Al Bennoroach, Affordable Landscaping; Clarence Tears, SFWMD Big Cypress Basin; and Bryan Milk, Parks & Recreation Director, City of Marco Island.

The City of Marco Island has partnered with the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and the non-profit Water Symposium of Florida, Inc. (WSF) to pioneer Florida Friendly Landscaping practices on City Hall grounds.

Florida Friendly Landscaping goes beyond simply selecting a drought-resistant plant. In the case of the city’s demonstration project, it turned 900 square feet of water wasting Bermuda grass and foxtail palms into an attractively landscaped space that preserves water and native plant species and saves money.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday evening brought together SFWMD executives and city leaders along with city staffers, volunteers and the local donors who made the project possible. The landscaping project was completed at no cost to the city. Water Symposium of Florida, Inc. received a grant from SFWMD and then Mike Ramsey, the project lead for WSF, pulled together donations from local nurseries, landscapers, horticultural consultants and a landscape architect.

At the ceremony, Ramsey outlined Florida Friendly Landscaping Practices for the audience, adding that it would be the method of landscape design for the future. “It’s maintenance-free with ecological and economic benefits.” He discussed the plants used in the space: Sabal palms, saw palmetto and zamia floridana (coontie). Shellscape, small shells used in the place of mulch, “stays in the ground, doesn’t need to be replaced ... and fits Marco Island’s personality.”

Alan Brown, a member of the city’s Beautification Advisory Committee, said that his company, Island Gardeners, was thrilled to donate to the project.

“My job is to help beautify this island and this is part of the process. We are educating people and teaching them to be water-wise. This location gets a lot of foot traffic.”

The project is marked with a plaque that outlines FFL practices.

Affordable Landscaping installed the large sabal palms. Yvette Benarroch, who owes the company with her husband Al, said, “We live here, we work here. We were just happy to help. This was a great project to work on.”

Nancy Richie, Environment Specialist for the city explained the changes’ impact. “We found out that by watering this space 30 minutes a day, three times a week we were using 65,754 gallons a year, just in this space. The Mobile Irrigation Lab [under SFWMD] is a service that evaluates your irrigation system, it’s available to anyone and it’s free, by the way, and they provided that information to us.”

Richie explained that the new space would be fertilizer and irrigation-free, saving money and reducing fertilizer- related pollution.

Richie looks forward to working with SFWMD and the Water Symposium to continue to update the city’s landscaping practices, with areas in Mackle Park, for example, that can be adapted to Florida Friendly Landscaping practices. Lisa Koehler of SFWMD added that the city has the potential to save substantial dollars and have important environmental impacts by continuing to work with the program: “I believe the city has eight miles of median area to maintain, which is a significant space.”

One impact everyone involved with project hopes to see is greater public awareness of what FFL can do for residents’ yards and condominiums’ common areas. Richie coordinated with SFWMD to present two workshops on FFL last season. Representatives from South Seas West condominium came to a workshop and used its resources to adopt FFL practices for their common areas.

Says Koehler, “We work with condo agencies all the time. They have huge common areas to maintain. They are looking at dues and fees increasing all the time and realize that they need to find ways to reduce costs.”

South Florida Water Management District is the regional governmental agency that oversees water resources for the southern half of Florida. It is responsible for managing and protecting our water supply. SFWMD has many free resources for the public and more information on Florida Friendly Landscaping can be found on its website, sfwmd.gov.