Up Front

Springtime in Southwest Florida is ushered in by spectacular flowers on many of our landscape trees. Now is the time of the year when we see a profusion of them in bloom the golden yellow trumpets of the gold trees, the magentas, reds and whites of the orchid trees, and the purplish-blue bells of the jacarandas.

Many of our landscape shrubs are blooming, also. And they are suddenly putting on new growth, making a nice contrast between the darker duller greens of the mature leaves with the bright shiny greens of the spring’s new leaves.

All Hands on Deck

We continue to have crews working seven days a week to repair, replace storm damaged material and devastated landscaping. It has been six months, and we are still working as clients rebuild and replace. The storm continues to cause great damage to landscape material. Surged landscapes are showing burning and growth retardation from trauma caused by foul water, lack of air to roots, salt / wind damage on roots and foliage. Many plants were burned tremendously from the salt wind and recovering has been slow and rather painful to watch. Some material defoliated right away, and some took months to do that. Some recovered but many more did not.

In 40 years, we have never seen this much landscape material with this type of damage. We are working closely with the County Extension service and UF to document the damage and work towards creating a more salt/surge tolerant plant list. Of course, we all hope we never see this damage again. But thinking about the what ifs and being informed and educated will give all of us a better understanding of what material will do the best in that type of environment should this happen again.

We have also been fortunate that we have been able to partner with two companies to help us get through the workload that these storms gave us. Blue out of Naples and TCI Rood from the east coast. Both have sent us crews for the last month to help us work this massive workload. We are so appreciative of their help.

It has been very stressful for all who were impacted by the Storms. We would like to express how appreciative we are of our clients who have been so patient and understanding as we all navigate through this unchartered storm recovery.

Recipe: Marilyn’s Picadillo with White Rice and Sweet Plantains

• 2 tbsp Goya Sofrito (in freezer section)
• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Garlic powder to paste
• Green olives to taste, drained
• (pour a little liquid into the beef)
• 1/2 can tomato sauce
• Pour olive oil and goya sofrito into the pan.
• Heat pan and add ground beef. Brown until cooked, stirring with a fork to separate so it does not clump together. When beef is cooked add olives and tomato sauce. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Serve with your favorite white rice and Goya sweet plantains (found in the freezer section).

• Serves 2 – 4