FC Life October 2018

Flowers, walls and yellow butterflies by Norma Lippman

It started small. Early in the summer the grassy areas in front of the Golf Shop were being pulled out due to root damage. Landscapers were building walls of pretty pavers and filling the spaces with lovely pastel flowers. It looked really nice. And then they started to multiply and it seemed there were paver walls and flowers everywhere! I spoke recently with Steve Thomson whose team, including James, Emmanuel, Noi and oth- ers, did the work and Steve explained that man-made features like the walls, when used in landscape architecture. are called 'hardscape'. The specific flowers and powder puff trees were chosen to attract birds and butterflies. These changes will require less maintenance and will save money. Steve Thomson is Director of Landscaping for the POA and is in his eighth year at Frenchman's Creek. He said there will be no new walls for a while, but keep an eye out for a new aerator fountain coming soon to a lake on the North Course. Over the summer, there have been some big changes here at Frenchman's, and for many of us, one of the most exciting is.... Frenchman's Creek is going green! We are already phasing out styrofoam cups and plastic straws, cutting back on water bottles indoors (they will still be available outside) and recycling our cardboard boxes. We began with an energy audit from FPL and are implementing many of their suggestions, such as LEDs and motion sensors. Our staff has created a Green Team and they are recycling flash drives, cutting back on use of paper, using reusable linen liners in trash bins as well as other innovative ideas. We are considering addressing the issue of food waste by acquiring a composting machine and turning our "edible garbage" into compost which can be used as fertilizer. Owls and bats are nocturnal creatures that live here and consume huge numbers of insects so we are building 'houses' to encourage them to join us in this space we call home. Several communities in our area have honey bee hives and are harvesting the honey and putting it in jars to be given as gifts. We are thinking about this. Henry David Thoreau said, "What's the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on." We are going Green by Norma Lippman

Looking forward to a greener Frenchman's Creek.

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