Garden Clippings
Earth: Costa Rica to Pinellas
By RUTH DAVIES
Article published on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008  |
On last month’s trip to Costa Rica, the philosophy of protecting its natural resources of this small country (the size of West Virginia) impressed me.
Unfortunately, a tour of the school, EARTH University, was not scheduled, although we drove by it.
Thanks to its foundation in Atlanta, information is available on the Web.
EARTH University, in Limon, teaches its 400 students from 23 countries entrepreneurship, sustainable agriculture, ethics and human relations.
EARTH’s mission is to affect change in the areas in greatest need of development.
It also is a sustainable school; its acronym stands for Escuela de Agricultura de la Región de Tropical Húmeda.
EARTH University’s educational model is based on four pillars: human values, entrepreneurial spirit, social and environmental awareness and technical and scientific knowledge.
Since its founding in 1990, the university has graduated 994 professionals from 19 countries in Latin America, Europe and Africa.
On the 8,200 acres, the university has developed a high-quality, low-impact and socially responsible banana farm that is a model for the banana industry worldwide. Students also have planted two 5-acre plots of organic pineapples on its campuses in both the dry and humid tropics of Costa Rica.
The sustainable banana and pineapple production at EARTH represents a unique balance between economic and social methods at each stage of the cultivation and packing process, including: eliminating herbicides, maintaining fair treatment and protection of banana and pineapple plantation workers and planting native trees along rivers to reduce erosion and encourage biodiversity.
For those who shop at Whole Foods Markets, bananas and pineapples are sold from Earth University that helps support its scholarships.
Coffee bags are being used by Allegro from banana fiber produced by Earth University. Talk about recycling – I’ve seen plant pots made from coconut palm fiber for sale at the Market in the Park at Extension.
It’s a beginning.
Fortunately for Costa Ricans, they have a lot of land that hasn’t been “trashed” by development, so they are steps ahead of Americans whose mindset has been to see open land as a potential building site.
Yes, there is a need for more zoning guidance in Costa Rica, but they are learning from our mistakes.
Back to Florida and Pinellas County.
The word in February and March is prune, prune, prune. The shrubs, that is.
After the cold weather, it is so rewarding to see the buds on the woody stems of shrubs fattening to burst open.
This is a wonderful time of year to offer the fountain of youth to your landscape shrubs by cutting the old woody stems back.
It’s good to trim one-third, although if a shrub is totally out of control, whack it by half.
There are times to be ruthless, but sometimes I can’t cut off a flower.
Remember how expensive roses were on Valentine’s day?
Be sure to fertilize rose bushes every month to keep them blooming. They sure blush during these cooler days. Summer heat is a drag for roses, although they continue to bloom.
Don’t forget to compost some of your yard trash. It’s one step to preserving our earth.
Ruth Davies is a Pinellas County Master Gardener. She can be reached at sunflower1368@juno.com.
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Article published on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008
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