DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — With the recent extreme heat, a local organization is working to make our area a little greener, and a little cooler.
On Saturday, Community Greening was in Delray Beach giving away some free fruit and native trees.
They’ll be in West Palm Beach at 10 a.m. Thursday at Mounts Botanical Garden. Anyone can come and take home a native tree for their home. They’ll also waive the admission fee into the garden for that event.
The city of Delray Beach is still committed to plant 10,000 trees by 2025, and this is one way to get there.
This weekend’s distribution happened at Old School Square as part of the farmer’s market there.
The trees Delray Beach residents could take home included mango, avocado, miracle fruit, soursop and short-leaf fig.
The organization said native trees are the way to go when you’re thinking of planting something in your backyard.
“The first year is really critical in getting them established,” Josh Weiner, the community and engagement director for the organization, said. "The native is able to do that far better than an outside tree. They also provide amazing benefits, because they’re so used to that weather. They’re growing tall, they’re providing shade, with what we’ve seen in the past few weeks with the heat."
They can reduce temperatures by 10 degrees, Winer said.
He also said it can even help reduce your electric bill if the tree casts a shadow on your home.
Another benefit of planting native trees rather than exotic is native wildlife’s ability to make a habitat out of the native tree, which is less likely with an exotic plant.