{"id":99682,"date":"2025-12-30T05:07:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T05:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/99682\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T05:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T05:07:17","slug":"florida-friendly-landscaping-go-native","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/99682\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida-Friendly Landscaping \/ Go Native"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GoNative_Banner-small.jpg\" alt=\"Go Native\" width=\"254\" height=\"55\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ffl_logo.jpg\" style=\"float: left;\" alt=\"ffl_logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The City of Cape Coral is surrounded by water on three sides. Additionally, the City includes over 150 linear miles of saltwater canals and over 250 linear miles of freshwater canals. The environmental health and appearance of these waterways are very much dependent upon the quality of the water that drains from our yards and landscaping. The quality of this water can be improved through the implementation of environmentally friendly landscaping and landscape maintenance techniques. Communicating these techniques to residents, and encouraging their implementation are the goals of the Florida Friendly Landscaping Program.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bush_House_2005_02_04_sign.jpg\" style=\"float: right;\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bush_House_2005_02_04_sign.jpg\" style=\"float: right;\" alt=\"Bush_House_2005_02_04_sign\" width=\"252\" height=\"165\"\/><\/a>The\u00a0Florida Friendly Landscaping (FFL)\u00a0Program is a partnership between the landscape industry, the University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Florida&#8217;s National Estuary Programs, Florida&#8217;s Sea Grant College Program, and various State and local environmental agencies.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Go Native\u00a0program focuses specifically on Cape Coral landscapes, as they are the connecting link to area estuaries, rivers, lakes, aquifers, and the City&#8217;s canal system.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Florida Friendly Landscaping\u00a0and\u00a0Go Native\u00a0Programs adhere to basic principles that, if implemented properly, are designed to reduce the adverse impacts of a yard on water quality. Each principle contains a series of actions that landowners can take to improve the environmental health of their yards and the health of the waterways these yards drain to. \u00a0The principles encourage landscape changes to<br \/>require less water and other chemicals, while promoting more wildlife.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"departments\/public_works\/public_works_operations\/environmental_resources\/florida_friendly_landscaping_go_native.php#classes\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to view the Upcoming Florida Friendly Landscaping Classes<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/zebra_longwing_butterfly.jpg\" style=\"float: right;\" alt=\"zebra_longwing_butterfly\"\/>Plant choice and care<br \/>\nIrrigation, Fertilization and Pest Control<br \/>\nManaging Stormwater runoff to decrease impacts on the waterfront<br \/>\nMulching and recycling<br \/>\nMaking a place for Wildlife<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/FYNU_yard_tours_bush_2006_03_18.jpg\" style=\"float: right;\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/FYNU_yard_tours_bush_2006_03_18.jpg\" style=\"float: right;\" alt=\"FYNU_yard_tours_bush_2006_03_18\" width=\"262\" height=\"197\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Area residents are invited to attend classes and receive training materials on the principles. Introductory classes are offered regularly at Rotary Park and other locations throughout the year.\u00a0 Yard Tours are offered in March and September. Home Garden Design Classes are offered in April, and Rain Barrel classes are offered in April and July. Native plant sales are held in conjunction with the Rain Barrel classes. Depending on the type of class, there may be an associated cost.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n<a id=\"classes\"\/>FFL 9 Principles<\/p>\n<p>Friday, November 7, 2025 &#8212; 1 p.m. &#8211; 3 p.m.\u00a0<br \/>\nFriday, April 24, 2026 &#8212; 1 p.m. &#8211; 3 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yard Tours \u00a0&#8212; $15 per person<\/p>\n<p>(Ideas and inspiration from others. Requires advance registration.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Saturday, November 8, 2025 \u00a0&#8212; 9 a.m. &#8211; 12 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Home Garden Design&#8211;$20 per household\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>(Series of classes: do-it-yourself landscape design. Requires advance registration)<\/p>\n<p>Coming in April, 2026 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a09 a.m. &#8211; 12 p.m. \u00a0(2-week class)<\/p>\n<p>Rain Barrel Workshop \u00a0&#8212; $50 each<\/p>\n<p>Check back for upcoming workshops<\/p>\n<p>Native Plant Sale<\/p>\n<p>Check back for upcoming plant sales<\/p>\n<p>Most classes are held at Rotary Park in Southwest Cape Coral, 5505 Rose Garden Road. \u00a0For directions, or to register for classes, call (239) 549-4606.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Cape Coral is surrounded by water on three sides. Additionally, the City includes over 150&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-99682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}