ECHO gets people into gardening
Next to the annual Food and Farm Festival in March, ECHO’s “Get into Gardening” event has become one of the more anticipated events of the year for the organization devoted to feeding the community and world.
Held Saturday at its farm off Bayshore Road in North Fort Myers, event featuring tours, workshops and opportunities to buy plants from the nursery at great savings.
Hundreds came to the farm to learn about things such as bamboo, grafting, edible landscaping, container gardening, even beekeeping. There were also many door prizes and other goodies given away.
Ali Diaz, donor services manager, said it was a chance for the community to come out for classes and share techniques for Southwest Florida gardening, which can be a challenge for people uneducated on the differences in climate.
“People can learn to treat their soil, container gardening so it’s more effective and the three seasons of gardening, because there are some unique tweaks required for our weather changes,” Diaz said.
Dr. Martin Price, one of the founders of ECHO, talked about the three seasons in his lecture and on using containers to solve gardening problems.
“Most people say there’s the summer and winter season. I’ve found through experience there are three,” Price said. “The fall season, starts today and that’s when you can start planting the things you did up north. That runs into mid-January, and the things like tomatoes can freeze.”
From January to May a second season acts like a mirror, since it basically goes in reverse, with the days getting hotter and longer. Tomatoes that are getting ready to eat sometimes get too hot,” Price said.
The third season is when the tropical and perennial vegetables can be grown, Price said.
“I’ve been pleased the last few years. There are a lot of people who come down and lived up north and they think they’re a good gardener, and they come here and it’s so different or there are vegetables they’ve never heard of,” Price said. “It isn’t just mango or pineapple.”
Many took the opportunity to take the traditional farm tour and the bamboo tour. Others came to see ECHO employee Lydia Boone do grafting on a jackroot plant.
Mary and Bob Rude have come to other ECHO events and enjoyed them. Mary said she came to learn more.
“We’re going on the bamboo tour and maybe the farm one as well,” Mary said.
“We want to know a little about the construction techniques, they’re pretty neat,” Bob added.
Wendy Broose, originally from Costa Rica but now in Fort Myers, said she was interested in the gardening workshops and the fact they were free.
“I can for edible landscaping, forest gardening and soil. I’m not here for the tours. I’ve been here before so I know my way around the place,” Broose said.