ANNE KOLB NATURE CENTER

Being that last Sunday was Mothers Day, we all went out together to the Annie Kolb Nature Center. It is part of the Broward County Parks system.

First thing that struck me is that there was no admission fee to get into the north side of the park and there were not that many people there.

At first when I found out that this park was named after a former Broward County Commissioner my jaded nature of politicians kicked in. But further research about Annie Kolb, the centers namesake ,revealed her to be a strong environmentalist. She had convinced the Commission here to pass the Urban Wilderness Park System to preserve endangered lands. Her efforts placed a building moratorium in Southwest Boward County for 61,000 acres. The Florida Wildlife Association named her conservationist of the year in 1977.

Because of her foresight this park was created and the 1,500 acres preserved. Ok maybe I was wrong.

The Nature center is enclosed within WestLake Park. It has been converted to protected coastal Mangrove wetlands and native plants and wildlife.

The idea is to return this area to a native habitat and remove the exotic plant species.

They have built several nature trails that you can walk extending out into the mangroves. The area is mud flats and wet ground so the elevated paths are great.

They are all made out of that gray plastic composite from recycled plastic. This picture is from a top a five story observation tower in the park of one of the nature trails.

I got the feeling that this place was serious about teaching conservation . The more that I read and saw the more I liked it.

The grounds also has lots of wild flowers growing along with native plants to this area.

Here is some Lantana Plant which does great in the heat here and is drought tolerant. Did I say it is a fantastic Butterfly attractor.

They even give you an excuse to have some weeds in your lawn as well as a reason to stop wasting your money on Weed and Feed.

The issue of pesticide use to me now is pretty much common sense. Whatever you spray on your lawn or plants sooner or later you will be drinking in your water or eating in your food.

Some more wildflowers growing along the walkways.

These are Blanketflower which grow really well here .

But the real star of the place is the Mangroves themselves. This park is covered in Mangrove wetlands. The Mangrove trees themselves are really not that impressive to look at compared to a lot of other trees at first glance.

But when you begin to learn just how important the mangrove tree is to the marine ecosystem they take on a new light. The Mangroves provide the nursery for countless juvenile marine fishes as well as wildlife. Their tangled root systems provide protection for the fish and wildlife giving them a place to hide and prosper.

This picture is of the Mangrove roots. It was low tide so they are visible . You can see the white tide lines on the roots to tell where the high tide water will come up to on the plants. Don't they make a great hiding place for juvenile fish.

I thought this park to be an outstanding example of what we could do to conserve some of our native habitats. Personally I would much rather have my tax money spent on an effort like this than on another baseball stadium. Maybe I'm just weird. It just seems that we have to be stewards of nature.

After a while we went to the other side of the park and rented some Kayaks for a few hours adventure. There are three Kayak trails carved out of the Mangroves that you can paddle down or you can just paddle around in the large shallow saltwater lake.

It is a great way to observe nature close up as you want and have a lot of fun doing it.

The canals extend all the way out to the inter coastal waterway just inside the beach shoreline.

The bottom line here is that Westlake Park and the Anne Kolb Nature Center is a really neat place. Not a lot of people , Minimal costs and a lot to see both plants and wildlife.

Then add in a bright blue South Florida sky, Fresh air , and a sultry pre- summer day. Topped by being surrounded by your best girls. Who could want more?

--SANDDUNE--

WELCOME BACK

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One of the noticeable effects of the Florida big freeze in January was that it took out all my Butterflies. I had them visiting everyday in the garden then after the freeze nothing.

I was real happy to see this female Monarch show up on my Mexican Sunflower blooms.

How do I know it is a female? Cause the males have two large black spots on their back wings.

I have really learned a lot about my resident butterfly's and can identify several on sight now.

As a reward for my learnin' this butterfly even posed a while for me to get her picture taken. Another sure clue that she is a female.

It seems like the long extended January freeze here in Florida has really done a lot of damage within the state.

The Governor here Charlie Crist sought a federal disaster declaration for 67 county's. The Florida crop damage is still being assessed and won't be known until March or April. It is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions.

That wont help the average gardener who lost their plants unless you had them insured. In Florida there is over three billion in insurance coverage on crops and 831 million coverage on nursery's. The losses are still being added up.

But besides the damage to the plants here the wildlife has taken a big hit also.

In the Everglades the South Florida authorities have documented 70 North American Crocodiles killed by the cold.

Also 60 Manatee's were found dead from the cold . When the water gets under 68 degrees they experience cold shock that can be fatal.

Across the state over 4,500 green sea turtles washed up on the beaches . When the temp gets below 50 degrees the Turtles go into shock and start floating. The good news is most of the turtles were rescued by the Fish wildlife Conservation Commission and volunteers. They were thawed back out and released .

The fish population was hammered also with fish floating up to the surface days after the freeze. It has killed so many Snook here that the FWC has closed the fishing season on Snook until September when they will reevaluate if it will reopen. Many other Fish were also effected in the state.

The Freeze in January has also killed quite a bit of living coral on our reefs ex specially in the Keys. Our Florida barrier reef is the only living barrier reef in the United States and a priceless treasure.

The weather has caused losses to a lot of folk's throughout the state as well as to our wildlife and reefs.

But there are signs that things are coming back slowly.

Many of the folk's in the gardening blogs that I read indicate they are replacing the lost plants and starting afresh. A good indicator of renewal.

Here in my own garden I found this Lantana plant blooming . After the freeze its leaves turned purple and I thought it was done for but it is back to being green again and is now blooming.

And the butterflies that disappeared are starting to return. Hopefully a positive sign. Welcome back.

---Sanddune----

TIME TO RELOAD

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It looks like my container Tomato experiment has succumb to old age and the elements. This was the first time that I was able to harvest main season Tomatoes here after many attempts. I gave up trying to grow them in the ground {nematodes} and stuck them in some old 5 gallon buckets. They have for me preformed well and provided many a BLT sandwiches during December.

The container Tomatoes were an experiment and here are some observations.
1- Growing in the containers gave several advantages. The plants can be moved around to the best spot for sunlight. The containers get the plant up off the ground and away from some of the hungry bugs.

I still need to fine tune the watering as growing in the containers cause the soil to dry out rapidly.

This Tomato bush is being cut up and going in the compost bin so nothing is wasted.

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This means it is time to reload the 5 gallon bucket for another round.

I mixed in a couple of shovels of Compost from the bin and worked it into the soil. Then stuck in some Park's Sweet Success Cucumber seeds for the next crop. I have read it is best not to plant the same vegetable but to rotate something different in between. We will see how this one turns out.

Anyway here is some more of the recent cold effects on the garden.

I noticed that some of this Lantana bush's Leaves have turned a dark purple color. Maybe this is normal but it is suspect after the recent freeze.

I did get a variegated passion vine out of the freeze. Not to many of these around. Kind of cool looking.

I read that when water freezes it expands. Since plants cells are made up of a lot of water in prolonged freezing temperatures they expand and rupture . Some plants are more susceptible than others.

And the last casualty of the freeze is my wife's planter. We were taking some of the plants inside when it was knocked over and broke.

Not to worry', she was the one who knocked it over and broke it. I thereby avoided gettin' the evil eye .

---sanddune----

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FINALLY SOME RAIN

The long time coming rain storm has finally showed up and the plants here are rejoicing .

When I went out this morning I found that the Morning Glory vines we started as seeds have their first blooms of the summer.

The seedpack called them Scarlette O'Hara but they appear to be purple not red so go figure.

Maybe Wal-Mart will have to rename these Purple O'Hara.
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----------------------------------------------The Mandevilla vine also liked the rain and is opening more blooms to be enjoyed .

I was also able to collect three Five gallon plastic containers full of rainwater from the rainstorm today. This will water the plants for a week or so when the heat and dry wind returns

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Carinal Climber vine has grown up enough to start attatching itself to the sisal twine that I strung up my birdfeeder posts. I had removed the cages after this plant grew enough to survive the birds walking on it to get the dropped seeds from the feeder.

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And the Lantana Bush Brought back from

Jacksonville over the weekend is looking healthy.

I decided to go ahead and plant it into the rock garden it's permenent home while the overcast and

rain had things cooled down.

It doesn't appear to be in as much shock as the other plants that I scavenged on the trip.

Thats the garden update for today. Now with the cooler weather from the rain I can sit on my back porch with my coffee and enjoy the plants and birds.

...sanddune...

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