Rebuild Apollo Beach Community Forest Garden After Helene

To all who have donated and plan to still do so I wanted to give a brief update. After Hurricane Helene left our garden flooded we then dealt with Hurricane Milton's wrath, rain and winds which toppled over almost all of our fruit trees. Many have since died and others are slowly dying. With all that being said we really aspire to reach our goal as many of our trees will need to be replaced as well as our soil, tools, and slab for our tool shed. We hope you understand our needs and thank you to all of you who have already donated.

UPDATE UPDATE. Our previous goal of $3,000 was met but after further examination of our gardens damages we extended our goal $2,000 more to help with these costs. We thank you all for the donations thus far and hope you will understand our increase.

Hello all. My name is Raleigh Barnes and I am one of the Directors of the Apollo Beach Garden Club. The Apollo Beach Garden Club has been around since 2017 and we also oversee the Apollo Beach Community Forest Garden. Our nonprofit meets monthly on the third Tuesday of the month at 6:30pm at the Apollo Beach Recreation Center and offers community members the ability to learn from expert speakers, ask garden-related questions and volunteer/lease a raised bed in our Community Forest Garden.

As of most recent and with many coastal areas on the West Coast of Florida, The Apollo Beach Community Forest Garden took a massive hit post Hurricane Helene. Our garden received 4 plus feet of storm surge and our 24 raised garden beds are no longer able to be leased. The compost and soil have all been compromised due to the surge. Sewage, chemicals and salt have left these raised garden beds unable to grow crops. In addition our forest garden also received surge and many of our 4 plus year old fruit trees are now beginning to die and show salt water damage. Our beehive was severely compromised and had to be removed due to the numerous deaths in the colony. The tool shed was flooded and the shed anchors have sunk very low. The shed will need to have a slab poured to prevent it from sinking further. We lost all of our electrical tools such as blowers, weed whackers and all of our shovels, rakes, hoes and pitch forks have been compromised with salt. We also lost all of our soil amendments such as, chicken manure, azomite and worm castings. The mulch pile used for our paths and to build soil all but washed away and what is left is no longer good to be used.

Lastly, we had to cancel our annual Fall Plant Sale that was to be held on Saturday, October 5th because all of our plants that were donated and grown by our members are not salvageable in addition to our garden in disarray. This is really hard for our small club as our plant sale is our primary source of funding for projects, speakers, workshops and our scholarships. Fortunately we were able to reschedule our Fall Plant Sale for Saturday, November 2nd.

Our Apollo Beach Community Forest Garden is only a few years old and has brought so much joy and happiness to all ages and walks of life. We hope you consider donating something to help our nonprofit group reach our goal and continue to be a staple in the South Shore Community. We can rebuild post Hurricane Helene and your help will allow us to do so.

Many thanks,

Raleigh Barnes

Apollo Beach Garden Club Director of Committees