05/31/2026
We had a workday planned, but South Florida weather had other ideas. Lightning, rain threats, humidity, the whole dramatic production.
Everybody who RSVP’d stayed safe, and I understand❤️
But Adrian walked 5.9 miles down Sunrise just to come help me at this farm.
So it ended up being the two of us, having girl talk, scooping palm mulch, and turning this urban yard into growing space one layer at a time.
And honestly, I love the way this palm mulch looks. It is not perfect. It is not uniform. It is not that dyed-up, bagged-up mulch trying to look cute in a subdivision bed.
This has color. Texture. Chunky pieces. Fibrous pieces. Soft spots. Rough spots. It looks like South Florida. Wild, tropical, weathered, useful, and doing exactly what it came to do.
We are in the heart of Fort Lauderdale, in historically Black Fort Lauderdale, surrounded by asphalt, canals, heat, and not nearly enough trees. The soil out here is exposed, sandy, dry, and tired. Bare sugar sand does not hold water the way we need it to, and unprotected ground just bakes.
So this is bigger than a mulch project.
We are changing how this space holds water. We are protecting the soil. We are trying to cool the ground, slow runoff, feed soil life, and create a better microclimate around us.
We solarized this grass first. Most folks will tell you six weeks, but baby, this is South Florida. That grass started checking out around day two, and by about three weeks, it was dead dead.
Now we’re laying cardboard and adding the first layer of palm mulch over it. Over time, we want this layer about six inches deep across the property to help suppress weeds, hold moisture, protect the soil, slow runoff, and start building a healthier growing layer.
Being part of the ecosystem means we do the work right. Sometimes that means the farm has to look a little more like the woods before it looks like a postcard.
Protected soil. Cooler ground. Better water-holding. More life. More food. More growing space.
This is the road from urban yard to urban farm.
Not perfect. Not polished. But alive, intentional, and working.
Grow with what you got, cousin. 🌴🌱
