Botanical Fest at Florida Tech

The thing they don’t tell you: Campus is a botanical jungle.

Especially during the annual Botanical Fest at FIT.

One of the many community events that takes place on the Florida Tech campus is Botanical Fest. During Botanical Fest, plant vendors and master gardeners from the around area set up booths and share their expertise. They also have guided tours through the botanical gardens throughout the day. This year, the event took over all of Crawford Green and ran from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

I love gardening, and one of the best parts about a New Hampshire summer used to be eating lunch almost entirely from my garden. However, Florida brings with it a completely different tropical flora. There are weird colors and shapes (and I won’t even mention the weird bugs here). Now that I am living off campus, I started my own little garden in my backyard. Currently, I’m just growing lettuce, zucchini and spinach. My biggest problem is all the ants and how to get rid of them – and the master gardeners had answers for this and more.

Not only were vendors selling their plants, but they were also displaying some decorative artistic pieces as well. These included furniture, mosaic tiles and creative license plate planting pots. They gave me some pretty good ideas for crafts down the road!

I spent most of the day manning the Student Organization for Sustainable Action table while looking at all the pretty plants. We had information about the sustainability major and minor as well as some information on the City of Melbourne recycling tips. Surprisingly, a lot of people were curious about Florida Tech’s sustainability program. I didn’t expect so many prospective students and families at the event. The Melbourne community seems very supportive and willing to help with sustainability efforts!

If you happen to be on campus during the event next year, I highly recommend you check it out. It is nice once in a while to get outside and take in some Florida sights.