What are you doing Saturday Morning?

What are you doing Saturday morning? Here’s an idea – let’s go to the Fernandina Farmers Market, held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I like those hours. You don’t have to get up early to get the good stuff. Parking is free and plentiful.

Located at the corner of Centre Street and 7th Street north, right in the heart of Fernandina Beach’s historic district, on June 6th the blueberry growers are expected to start showing up. Yes, it is blueberry season! One June 13, the Sweet Grass Cow & Goat Cheeses will be one of the booths.

Always there are landscape plants for sale, many native plants and beautiful blooming things that I want to take home with me. You’ll find prepared foods for lunch, Growers Alliance organic shade bean coffee (yes, they give sample coffee drinks!), honey vendors, craft persons and often live music.

Ah, what a great way to start a Saturday morning. In my book “50 Great Walks in Florida”, Chapter 11 is A Stroll Through History: The Historic Downtown Fernandina Beach Centre Street Stroll and Chapter 12 is Nature’s Classroom: Willow Pond Nature Trail, Fort Clinch State Park

Saturday mornings in Gainesville let’s visit the Alachua County Farmers’ Market, the only Grower’s Only Market in North-Central Florida (that is a lot of “only”). All the produce is grown within 50 miles of the market and you get the meet the farmer.

This is “buy local” taken seriously. The market is in an open-air metal pavilion. Hours are every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until the produce is gone, whichever comes first. If you are going to GPS it, the address is 5920 N.W. 13th Street, Gainesville.

Then take a walk in Kanapaha Botanical Gardens (Chapter 16: Wander through a Garden of Eden) and take a gander at the historic buildings on the University of Florida campus (Chapter 15: A Walk on the Gothic Side)

Saturday Summer Market is a big attraction in downtown St. Petersburg, starting Saturday, June 6 and continuing every Saturday through September 16. Hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Location is the Mahaffey Theater parking garage, 400 First St. S., St. Petersburg.

What you’ll find: regular and organic produce and fruit, baked goods, plants, flowers orchids, fresh herbs, prepared foods and hand-crafted wares. Fun!

St. Pete is a Bonus Point in Chapter 34: A Walk for Everyone: Fort DeSoto County Park, Tierra Verde.

Downtown Market happens in Tallahassee every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March through November. This takes place on the chain of green parks in Park Avenue Historic District, just a few blocks from the capital.

This is a lively market. You’ll meet local artisans (I have a piece of fused glass all the more special because I met the artist), see lots of artwork alongside local produce and heaering live music is a given. Don’t have breakfast or lunch before you come – because you’ll find everything from muffins to soup and salad.

The chain of parks are covered in Chapter 2: Step into History: Park Avenue Historic District, Tallahassee.

For a list of community farmer’s markets all over Florida, check out this Web site.

When you go to farmer’s markets, you are supporting your local economy, getting an artistic eyeful and having an adventure.

Who said there was nothing to do in the summertime? Sure there is. Spend your morning at a farmer’s market then open up your copy of my book. Great walks are calling. Enjoy

Lucy Beebe Tobias is the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”, University Press of Florida, 2008, and the Authentic Florida Expert for VISIT FLORIDA.

Getting Started With a Rain Barrel

The rain came down in buckets. Lightening crashed nearby. Thunder boomed. My dogs and cats suddenly decided they ALL needed to be on the bed with me. We huddled together.

Outside the house my three rain barrels – two in the back yard, one in the front yard- went to work. The barrels are placed up on blocks just under the roof (they can also be placed under a gutter spout but I don’t have any). Rain runs down the slanted roof and into the barrels.

Mother Nature gets wet and gets recycled. Water is stored for the lean times. This so works for me. Rain barrels can work for you too.

Sure, you can go on line and see beautiful rain barrels that cost two arms and one leg (that is before shipping) or you can look closer to home and do it cheaper. How cheap? Mine are $55 apiece from my local IFAS Extension Office. They come with holes predrilled for a faucet and an overflow valve. You also receive a bag of parts.

Also check out “Barrels and drums” in the Yellow Pages. Be sure to ONLY get a barrel that carried food products. Make your own with the instructions you get free on line (see resources below). Or take a rain barrel class. Maybe the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods is giving a class soon near you.

The 50 to 60 gallon barrels themselves are recycled. Mine started out life as a container full of olives shipped to the US from Europe. It is a one-way trip. The olives get packaged in jars. The barrels are sold to barrel companies; they are then bought by extension services, garden clubs and individuals and get a new life as rain barrels.

Some tips for installation and maintenance:

• Unless you are only going to attach a hose to your rain barrel, you need to elevate it enough, on blocks, to get a bucket or watering can under the faucet.

• Put a tablespoon of cooking oil, any kind, on the water surface. This breaks the water surface tension and mosquitoes can’t breed.

• I added a piece of PVC pipe to the overflow valve and the pipe goes directly into a watering can, so I catch the overflow.

It is great fun to gather family and friends and paint a rain barrel. Put a base coat on first; use your house color or any outdoor paint. Use acrylics to do the designs. Top with polyurethane.

How about making a rain barrel your Earth Day 2009 project? Sounds like a plan.

Here are some resources to get you started:

• The “why” of rain barrels:

http://www.gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/water/articles/rain_barrels.shtml

• The “how” of making a rain barrel:

How to Make a Rain Barrel–Hillsborough County Extension Service (PDF)

• The “Zen” of rain barrels, cool examples of painted barrels

http://manatee.ifas.ufl.edu/lawn_and_garden/fyn/rain-barrel.shtml

• The “where” of rain barrels, some commercial sources:

www.rainbarrelsource.com
www.homedepot.com

Have you heard of “saving for a rainy day”?. Now you can save rain for a sunny day too.

©2009 Lucy Beebe Tobias, author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”, 2008, University Press of Florida

Five Fun Things to Do in April

Ah, spring. Open the windows. Let in fresh air. Inhale.

Makes you restless, doesn’t it? Have I got a cure for you – five fun events for April all happening in places from my book “50 Great Walks in Florida.”

Chapter 1: The Joys of Meandering: Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park, Tallahassee.
Saturday, April 5 at the Gardener’s Cottage from 3-5 p.m. is a program on spring arrangements for your Easter table. Program is free with park admission.

And did you know that every Monday you could volunteer to work in the gardens and the greenhouse and learn gardening techniques? Call 850-487-4115 to let them know you are coming.

Chapter 13: Traverse Two Terrains: Little Talbot Island State Park, Jacksonville.

Saturday, April 11 at 1 p .m. join a park ranger for a talk on shark’s teeth and the kinds found on the area’s beaches. Also check their Web site for ranger-led nature and beach walks.

Chapter 29: Garden of Delights; Harry P. Leu Gardens, Orlando.
Friday, April 3 is Date Night at the Gardens. Gardens open at 6 p.m. and a movie “Mama Mia” shows at 8:30 p.m. Bring a blanket or chairs and dinner picnic basket. Admission $7 plus tax for adults and $2 plus tax for children.

Come back on Saturday, April 11 for their Hibiscus Show and Sale. The Plant sale starts at 9 a.m. and a hibiscus show runs from 1-5 p.m. Free admission to the show. Expert advice on taking care of your hibiscus from the Central Florida Hibiscus Society.

Chapter 33: “Gardens, Landscapes, and Native Habitats: Florida Botanical Gardens, Largo.
Celebrate Earth Day on April 18. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. admission and parking is free. The usual produce and products with their Saturday Market in the Park will be there plus exhibits and experts to share easy ways to protect Mother Earth.

Come early. The first 60 participants receive a free native oak tree.

Chapter 36: Mangroves, Orchids, and a Bo Tree: Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota.

Through April 18 is an exhibit and sale called Rainforest Masks featuring master carvers from an indigenous reserve next to a rainforest in Costa Rica.
Visit on a Sunday afternoon and hear live music in the gardens from 1-3 p.m. On Sunday, April 5 music is by the Swing Merchants.

So, fill up the gas tank – go forth and enjoy. Oh, yes, and take 50 Great Walks with you!

Copyright 2009 Lucy Beebe Tobias. Lucy is the Authentic Florida expert for VISIT FLORIDA and the author of 50 Great Walks in Florida, University Press of Florida

Capture the rain with a rain barrel

Rain, rain, please come this way. Drop on down from the sky and stay. Here is a barrel put together just for you. Thank you for all the wonderful wet things you do.

What can I say? It rhymes. I watched rain sleeting off my roof, thank you Lord for every drop, the earth was dry for a long time. I got to wondering about when it stops. What then? It is not a new thought. Generations of people have been collecting water, saving it against that dry day.

A few years back I took a rain barrel course. That barrel sits out back, catching rain rolling off the roof. It is so full the overflow valve has water coming out of it.

Hummm. There’s a message here. Grab rain while it is raining. I went on line and looked at rain barrels. For such an ancient, earthy, simple thing the rain barrels I saw were hideously expensive. Hundreds of dollars. Not happening.

There is a better way closer to home. The Master Gardeners at the Agricultural Center on Old Jacksonville Road have rain barrels for $50. You don’t even have to take a class. You get a used food-grade 60 gallon barrel, already bored with a hole for a spigot and an overflow hole, and a small brown bag with parts.

In Florida, Check IFAS, (the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at UF), their Florida Yards & Neighborhoods program, for a free fact sheet on building a rain barrel and call your local Agricultural Extension Office to see if they have barrels. Might want to look at the Yellow Pages to see if there is a barrel supplier nearby.

See the picture of the parts? I haven’t a clue what they are all for. No instructions came with the paper bag. The brochure from the Southwest Florida Water Management District shows how to put in the spigot (screw in halfway, apply PVC cement, finish screwing). Easy. Then even have a page showing how to paint your barrel (could be a fun project for kids). I opted for plain and functional.

I placed mine in the front yard under the roof at the edge near the carport. There is no gutter. The barrel itself is interesting. Once it was filled with olives from Europe. Shipped to the United States for canning, the barrels don’t make the return trip. They are sold to a barrel company. These are hauled to Marion County, Florida from Texas. Increased shipping charges are eating up the slim profit.

You need to elevate the barrel up on concrete or bricks. That spigot is down low. Hard to get a watering can down that low. The top of the rain barrel is solid plastic with a screw lid. I used a jig saw to cut a hole out of the top, then placed a piece of screening across the entire top and tightened down the lid. The screen lets rain in, keeps debris out.

Will mosquitoes breed in a rain barrel? Yes. Joannie has a friend with a horse farm and said they put fish in their water troughs to keep mosquitoes at bay (fish eat the mosquito larvae). Great idea. My rain barrel in the back now has ten small fish (10 for 99 cents) .

It rained this afternoon. My new barrel has water! Ah, conservation. It is contagious. Now in the back yard there is a gutter across the porch. The booklet shows cutting off the gutter pipe, putting in a flexible piece and having water run right down the gutter into a barrel.

Humm. Sounds like I need another rain barrel to catch that gutter runoff. But what do I do with the leftover parts?*

*UPDATE: Turns out the extra parts are for the overflow hole of the top of the barrel. Lori Ball, Staff Assistant II at Marion County Extension Service, read the blog and sent me an e mail. Knowledge is power! Thank you Lori. She also notes that Kathy Patterson, coordinator for the “Florida Yards and Neighbors” suggests buying a cheap hose and attaching it to the overflow. The spigot also has threads to attach a hose to help watering the plants (I hadn’t noticed this). Lots of ways to use your rain barrel.

Lucy Beebe Tobias is the Authentic Florida Expert for VISIT FLORIDA and the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”, University Press of Florida, February, 2008.