Conservation a fact, not fad, for duo
Recycled water and drought-resistant plants are part of a master plan.
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF, Times Correspondence
Published January 22, 2008
HOLIDAY - Science teacher and Florida gardener Patricia Harvey-Maines conserves water with the passion of an inventor.
Inside her Holiday Lake Estates house, she recycles sink water for the plants, installed a shower shutoff for shorter scrub times and when she remodeled her kitchen, went with the "less is more" motto, opting instead to do dishes by hand.
Her children grew up with it.
Her students learn by it.
"My mother says I'm the only person she's ever known who took out the dishwasher," says Patricia, 52, who won Pasco County's 2007 Water Wise award.
Her 1,200-square-foot home is a testament to conservation starting with their small lot that she and her husband, Gregory Maines, planted with plumbago, milkweed, Mexican petunias, blue sage, key lime, passion vine, lantana and Florida firecracker.
With its winding paths, nestled statues and soothing natural ponds, the painterly garden beckons the couple outdoors after long days at work.
"People say: 'Do you like to go out?' I say, 'Yes, we like to go out - right here in our yard,'" Gregory says, laughing. "Why wait in line 45 minutes at a restaurant when I can be here?"
The couple use no pesticides "if you're in harmony with the ecosystem, you don't need them," Patricia says and believe in the importance of "not exploiting the earth," as Gregory explains it.
The couple - he's from Pennsylvania, she's from Long Island - say they both embraced conservation from an early age and walk the walk every day.
Well-chosen native and drought-resistant plants mean their garden sustains itself with little effort. Gutters are directed into rain barrels and planting beds; fallen leaves are collected and transformed into mulch.
They never water plants with a hose, but instead collect water from the roof in an ingenious system of rain barrels they invented using plastic garbage cans, PVC piping and spigots.
The rain barrel system sits under vine-thatched trellises on both sides of the house, which provide shade to the air-conditioning unit.
"We even save the air-conditioning condensation water and use it in our aquariums and ponds," says Gregory, 60, who works as a mail carrier in Pasco County.
Patricia even made a slide show, "Our Yard Project; A Miracle in the Making," and set it to the Crosby Stills, Nash and Young song, Our House.
True, she and Gregory live with three cats (four to be exact) which, true to the lyrics, sometimes hang out in the yard, but they've also observed a cadre of friendly snakes, tree frogs, butterflies, migratory birds, possums and raccoons.
Their back yard was honored as a Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat, and as Patricia points out in her slide show: "many pond fish gave their lives to birds and raccoons. When you invite wildlife, they all come, good and destructive."
But their yard didn't always look like this.
Fifteen years ago, when they bought the house in this onetime Florida retirement community, the yard was a barren swatch of dirt, devoid of grass or anything green.
Now, from inside to out, it's like walking through a home-spun Discovery Channel store: Their friend, Northdale muralist Karen Lewis painted lively outdoor scenes in the living room and kitchen and even included sites from the back yard like the tree frog they nicknamed "Big Mama."
They raise fish and orchids and birds (society finches and zebra finches); installed working birdhouses (including a tall purple martin house) and most recently nestled a bat house into one of their white maple trees.
Now, her sixth- and seventh-grade students at Paul R. Smith Middle School can't get enough pictures of their little wildlife kingdom.
"They love it (the slide show) - they want to come to our yard," says Patricia who has been teaching for 26 years and recently earned her master's degree in science education at the University of Tampa, where she graduated with a 4.0 GPA.
Since they can't come to her yard, she brings her yard to them: A crayfish baby hatched in her pond is now living in the classroom; as are caterpillars, tadpoles and other creatures chosen for their teaching value.
On Thursday, Patricia and Jeannie Hayes of the Pasco Cooperative Extension Florida Yards and Neighborhoods program, taught students about the importance of using rain barrels.
It's part of a grant Patricia recently received from the Pasco County Education Foundation that allows for the creation of outdoor classrooms at the school, including a rain barrel center and gardens.
Why does she do it?
"I want to spark their interest because I know a lot of these kids don't get outside much," she says.
"But I also know that this world is going to be theirs and they are going to have to take care of it someday."
Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com.