Boy, we had so much fun!
Day 1 Stop 1 Sunset Nursery Topiaries garden center
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Day 1 Stop 2 Nixia Exotic Plants and Ranncho La familia
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Day 1 Stop 3 The Kampong Botanical Gardens
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Friday, July 15
We visited two family-owned businesses. We learned from Sunset Nursery owned by 2 sisters who had a vision in a garden center & topiaries company and Nixia’s Exotic Plants, with her Rancho La Familia, who creates personalized ornamental arrangements from high-end hotels and businesses and gave us a Paso Fino horse show.
Next, we visited the house & laboratory of Dr. Fairchild at The Kampong National Botanical Garden.
We finished the day learning and tasting some tropical flavored beers with Dogfish brewery in Wynwood.
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Day 1 Stop 4 Dogfish Brewery
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Day 2 Deering State Park
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Saturday, July 16
We enjoyed a tropical rain while walking and learning about natural resources in Deering State Park, Florida, which was the home of Charles Deering.
After drying out, we visited and ate freshly made lunch from Grow to Heal’s urban community garden, growing seasonal crops for hospital patients.
The final stop was at Greenlife Farms a hydroponic farm, which delivers local greens to stores in Florida.
We ran out of time having so much fun at each stop, but the best part was getting to know every new participant from different states: Missouri, Alabama, West Virginia, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Wyoming, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and one agent from Florida.
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Day 2 Stop 2 Grow to Heal Urban Community garden
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Thank you all for coming down early for the AMPIC to learn about tropical horticulture!
