Green Thumbs for Healthy Bodies

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Miami, FL
Green Thumbs for Healthy Bodies

Serving to heal our earth through regenerative cultivation. Our focuses include:

(1) Securing Access through Fresh and Local foods.

We advocate for sustainable development practices to reduce impact on local ecosystems while promoting healthy lifestyles. We do this by helping create community gardens as well as help support and promote other local food resources available to communities. (2)Public Health Education - We strive to give people the tools to have healthy eating habits and lifestyles through workshops and events. (3) Promote Sustainability for the Environment - At Green Thumbs we believe that the health of the ecosystem also determines the current and future health of our communities. We aim to demonstrate that through engaging programs such as our community gardens or other activities that will help us protect and understand our natural environment.

07/12/2026

We're at Oak Grove Park in North Miami checking on our latest floating garden installation, created in collaboration with the Miami Waterkeeper Ambassadors.

Here's what makes this installation special:

🌸 We planted Oxeye Daisy, Swamp Mallow, Swamp Milkweed, Blue Basil, and Goldenrod to provide habitat and food resources for native pollinators.

🌸 This garden includes a biochar filtration layer that helps capture pollutants and improve water quality.

🌸 This is our first floating garden installed in a Miami-Dade County park! Oak Grove Park has experienced recurring water quality challenges, including persistent algae blooms, making it an important place to demonstrate and evaluate nature-based solutions.

We are committed to this park for the long term and look forward to sharing what we learn as the garden establishes, grows, and contributes to a healthier ecosystem. 🌿💙

05/08/2026

Life of all kind is enjoying the shift in weather. Plants filling in right on time for the start of the South Florida Rainy season. These islands will be hard at work absorbing nutrients as the runoff comes in through the summer ahead.

04/10/2026

Last week’s workshop was a success for both floating wetlands and the community!

In conjunction with and , I hosted our first major training workshop focused on what floating wetlands are, why they matter, and how to actually deploy them. We started with an opening lecture with myself and Sea Grant Extension Agent Ana Zangroniz, covering nutrient pollution, watershed health, and the role these systems can play.

From there, we got into the water and deployed 2 islands into a stormwater pond at FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus. These floating wetlands will help pretreat water entering the lake, which we have observed to be elevated in nitrogen, before it flows out directly toward Biscayne Bay.

These islands are planted with brackish species, including both red and black mangroves. Over the next year, we’ll be watching closely to see how nursing these saplings on floating systems supports their establishment once they are eventually planted along shorelines.

With over 20 attendees including MDC Parks, DERM, Little River Conservancy, local farmers, and others, we are slowly building a network of people ready to carry this work forward. Like mangrove propagules, the goal is for this effort to drift outward and help establish new wetlands across the region.

Thank you to everyone who showed up and brought the energy!!!

Amazing photos snapped by FIU IoE's one and only

03/30/2026

A few months into the fully upgraded three island setup in Pinecrest 🌿

This winter brought a few stressful cold dips, but with warmer spring afternoons arriving, the plants are settling in. We are especially excited to see more of the native muhly grass, iris and mimosa filling in across the islands. One unexpected favorite so far has been ornamental basil. It has established quickly and smells incredible when you brush past it.

As we harvest, we will be tracking biomass weight and analyzing plant nutrient concentrations. This helps us estimate the nitrogen and phosphorus removed from the canal through plant growth and harvest.

Small floating gardens quietly doing their work.

03/10/2026

Only a few spots left 🌿

Our founder will be leading a Floating Wetlands Workshop where participants will learn how these plant based systems help clean South Florida waterways and help install some too.

📅 April 3
⏰ 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM
📍 FIU Biscayne Bay Campus – Living Lab

This is a training workshop for water managers, restoration practitioners, sustainability professionals, farmers, and students interested in bringing floating wetlands into their work and helping expand their use across the region.

See the flyer for details and register at the link in bio.

03/07/2026

Love seeing our floating wetland thrive at , supporting healthier water quality for this open aquaponics system. Our floating gardens are an excellent addition to an operating farm. It acts as both a Best Management Practice (BMP) to reduce nutrient loading in farm ponds and muitgate runoff. Additionally, it provides and opportunity to grow hydroponic crops (peep some really lush celosia we harvested).

Stay tuned to learn more about some exciting new crops we will be cultivating on this system.

02/26/2026

During our monitoring day yesterday we noticed many herons perched on the islands scanning for fish. We also found a few eggs in similar spots and believe they may be theirs as well.

Happy to see habitat being made to support our wildlife. Thinking of getting some cameras out here so we can see who else our visitors may include :)

02/14/2026

Special delivery this Valentines Day! We are thankful for our Pinecrest residents who overlook our floating flower islands. We hope your day is full of flowers and beauty. 💐❤️

01/21/2026

Part 1/2 of a great feature produced by sharing more on the work occuring with Phytoflora. Floating wetlands are an accessible, natural tool to treat nutrient pollution closer to the source. This treatment also prevents the growth of invasive aquatic weeds that may otherwise be sprayed by harmful herbicides. Instead, these floating wetlands offer a natural filtering tool with many additional ecosystem benefits.

Reach out today if you or your community is interested in a floating wetland near you!

01/20/2026

South florida wetlands have naturally helped filter our regions watershed for ages. With increased development over the past century, wetlands have been replaced by stormwater ponds, lakes and canals to collect rain and prevent communities from flooding.

Unfortunately, these manmade water bodies have little to no native vegetation typically, and have minimum cleaning capacity. Floating wetlands are one way to bring the biological power of plants back to our developed waterscape.

This is part 2/2 of a very special feature by on our Phytoflora initiative

Address

3250 South Miami Avenue
Miami, FL
33129

Telephone

305 753 6372

Website

http://www.GT4HB.org/

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