AGRICULTURE
the sales leads business. After buying his home and planting
several tropical fruit plants, he shifted his work toward creating
gardens and growing more plants.
Bellezza started intensively researching information on gardening
and food forests. A food forest can be best described
as a garden with edible plants that mimics the natural ecosystem
of a forest. Everything in a forest has created its own
system in order to remain self-sustaining. In turn, Bellezza
aims to create mostly self-sustaining food forests and landscapes
Bellezza has transformed his yard into a certified nursery that contains
hundreds of varieties of tropical fruit and vegetables including papaya.
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Port St. Lucie Magazine 17
for his clients.
“For many people, the less work they have to put in, the
better,” Bellezza says. “But I also provide education on good
growing practice for all of my clients.”
NOT A NEW CONCEPT
While food forests seem to be a new concept, the practice
has been used for many years across the globe. To better understand
just how valuable food forests can be, forest biomes
are home to upward of 80 percent of the Earth’s animals and
plants. Trees take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen
while also serving as homes for millions of helpful insects
and microorganisms.
“I started with planting some tropical fruit trees, specifically
papaya,” Bellezza says. “I got fruit from those pretty
quickly and that was really exciting.”
Bellezza says he started exploring this new realm by planting
many different types of tropical fruit trees in his free time.
Among the many trees he planted were papaya, mango,
Jamaican cherry, mulberry, cacao, avocado and starfruit.
“It was really fun and very exciting to see how quickly the
papaya plant bore fruit for us,” Bellezza says. “At that point I >>
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