Landscaping project earns thumbs-up from water district

By Jody Bowes

The priest at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Spring Hill has been working on a “greener” campus since arriving there five years ago. In March of this year her goal took a giant step forward.

St. Andrew’s was awarded the first-ever grant given to a faith-based community by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. The project name is “Florida-Friendly Landscaping for Faith-Based Communities in Spring Hill.”

This award not only gives St. Andrew’s an opportunity to make needed and environmentally friendly modifications to their own campus. They have now become a venue for other faith-based communities to learn how to improve their own acreage.

Florida-friendly landscaping involves following a set of nine guiding principles that help protect natural resources and preserve Florida’s unique beauty. Guidelines include knowing what plants to put in different areas, using less water, and using appropriate fertilizer and mulch.

Guidelines also cover attracting wildlife, responsible management of yard pests, recycling, reducing stormwater runoff, and protecting waterfronts. More information is available at www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/yards.

“Our campus is seven acres of Old Florida foliage,” said Pastor Shanda Mahurin. “We have beautiful oak trees and Spanish moss. Something so magnificent gives glory to God. With the grant we’ve been able to do so much more to preserve that beauty.”

St. Andrew’s recently hosted the first of two Florida-friendly landscaping workshops. The grant money allowed the parish to retrofit its irrigation system, buy river rock and mulch, and remove some non-Florida-friendly trees.

In addition the church spent $2,000 of its own money purchasing and planting Florida-friendly foliage in its entryway and along the walkway between the church and parish hall. They removed non-Florida-friendly plants and transformed these areas into more environmentally sensitive grounds.
Signs now label the plants, making it a “demonstration campus” not just for the workshops but for anyone who visits. “They see the labels and know it’s a Florida-friendly plant,” added Mahurin.

The grant states St. Andrew’s will educate staff, church members, visitors and members of other Spring Hill faith communities on the importance of Florida-friendly landscaping to conserving our water supply. It says volunteers will coordinate workshops and continue to transform the current grounds into a Florida-friendly campus.

Through attendance at one of the workshops, or by visiting the campus by appointment, the grant further states that Spring Hill residents will come to realize the importance of a Florida-friendly landscape to our water resources.

Success of the grant will be evaluated based on the number of workshop attendees who plan to install Florida-friendly landscaping, survey responses and number of materials distributed. The project is expected to reach 700 people.

The grant was written and submitted by Mahurin with assistance from parishioner Frank Trama and the support of vestry member Marti Yost, diocesan Green Team representative Randy Mahurin, Junior Warden Betty Jo McCann, other vestry members and the church’s Friends of Creation United in Stewardship (FOCUS) team.

The FOCUS team continues to work to improve “green awareness” throughout St. Andrew’s campus and congregation. The church has recycle containers in all buildings for glass, paper and plastic. They stopped using paper products for dinners and receptions. They have frequent work days where parishioners of all ages work on the buildings and grounds.

Mahurin hopes people will pass the word and that more local residents will be able to transform their homes into Florida-friendly yards, at the same time saving on their water bills. St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church is located at 2301 Deltona Blvd. in Spring Hill.

— Jody Bowes is the minister for music and youth at St. Andrew’s and writes regularly for the Hernando Today newspaper.