Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Mandarin Garden Club Presents Westminister Woods on Julington Creek the Annual Business Beautification Award 2016-2017.

On May 25, 2017, Donna Crosby, Education and Community Director of the Mandarin Garden Club presented Amanda Birch, Director of the Westminster Woods Senior d
Development, the Annual Business Beautification Award for 2016-2017.  

Westminister Woods is an assisted living and active lifestyle facility built in 1961. Westminister has a beautiful wooded campus with stunning water views or gardens that can be enjoyed from every building. Residents remain active and enjoy their beautiful surroundings.

There are ponds with water features that are habitats for turtles, water birds. and other Florida wildlife. The occasional gator has even been sited. Park benches and tables surrounded by Azaleas, Gardenias, Magnolias and old Oak trees laced with Spanish moss invite a rest. Wide sidewalks encourage walkers, bikers and golf cart drivers to enjoy the beautiful grounds up close and personal. Residents can listen to the soothing sounds of fountains sprinkled throughout the gardens. Gazebos are also nestled creekside for sitting and enjoying the gorgeous views of Julington Creek. 

Westminister Woods has successfully married a mid-century modern style, that consciously compliments it's "Old Mandarin" natural surroundings with many options for residents to maintain an active lifestyle..  We greatly enjoyed our visit to their campus and encourage others to visit.

Submitted by ~

Donna Crosby
Education & Community




Monday, July 10, 2017

Soil Info For Duval County

You may not know that the soil in and around Duval County is generally very poor, especially around housing developments where the ground had been scraped to sand in order to even out the dips and bumps.  At that point, some developers will truck in a thin layer of topsoil, before laying sod on top.  

The best thing that you can do is provide some decaying organic matter to the soil (grass clippings), and continue to annually sprinkle topsoil evenly over the entire surface.  Of course, fertilizer is a must for grass – once a year adding minor constituents (magnesium, manganese, iron, etc.) to the commonly applied nitrogen, phosphorus (tiny amounts) and potassium mixtures.  If you have mulched areas, the very best mulch you can apply is live-oak leaves . . . they decay slowly, and keep the weeds down the best of any mulch because they form flat, overlapping layers which keeps sunlight from penetrating and producing weed germination.  If you don’t want live oak leaves, the next best is pine straw or pine bark mini-nuggets.  Contrary to common belief, this will not acidify the soil.  Please don’t use cypress mulch, since it is causing a scarcity of cypress trees in this area.  

Of course, to best take advantage of the above suggestions, you should have a pH test of your yard to determine if you have acid soil or not.  Directions for this obtaining soil to give to the Extension Office can be found online at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ss494 or call the Extension Office at 904-255-7450.

Submitted by -

Martha Dysart