Our garden club in Florida has been growing strongly since we became its leaders, and we hope yours does as well. Over 1,300 gardening families around Naples and Fort Myers have already become members of this group, called Gardeners of Southwest Florida. Everything in the club is free: instant membership, gardening classes, light foods, soft drinks, etc. All expenses are paid by the group’s leaders, Peter Kacalanos and Suzanne Cherney, to encourage all Floridians to become better gardeners. Two-hour classes are held in the gardens of different group members each time, usually on weekends, two or three times a month. The class hosts show how they care for their favorite plants and demonstrate their gardening techniques.Over shared snacks and drinks, from 10 to 83 members and guests have attended the 123 past gardening classes. Everyone is taught, often by horticultural experts, about the best plants to add to their gardens in this semi-tropical environment. Topics include flowers, vegetables, fruits, cactus, succulents, bromeliads, orchids, bonsai, native plants, tropical plants, flowering shrubs and trees. Other classes teach subjects like organic gardening, water gardening, vertical gardening, butterfly gardening, wildlife gardening, landscaping, composting, fertilizing, pruning, indoor plants, invasive plants, pest management, and permaculture.As shown in these photographs, occasionally classes take place in the group leaders’ own garden in Naples (Zone 10b). It includes a wide range of bromeliads, flowering shrubs, productive fruit trees, a small pineapple plantation, a desert garden, and large fish ponds with water lilies, papyrus and other aquatic plants, plus hundreds of goldfish and other species. Everyone is welcome to join the Gardeners of Southwest Florida group for free, and to attend the classes to meet other local gardeners. A few who attended a recent class in the screened enclosure of the leaders’ garden are shown below. Full details are on the group’s extensive and informative web site at www.meetup.com/FloridaGardeners.

Do you have access to a laminator? If the kids did signs with their names and artwork you could laminate them and hang them on the trellises--only the hot type of laminator would work. For the paths, etc. you could do some nice signs on the computer and laminate them also. Almost any poster making program e.g. Print Master, would have some lovely gardening and nature graphics, plus wonderful fonts. Word processing programs also have some graphics and fonts. The kids could also cut pictures out of plants and flowers to paste in their notebooks--maybe some ideas for the next year's project. I remember getting great enjoyment from looking at seed catalogs as a child even if most of it was more or less a pipe dream. If you do use a laminator and computer graphics, make sure to use the best ink cartridge for your printer. Save your work as I am not sure how the signs will hold up to sunlight. They may have to be replaced the following year. One other thing-- the signs could be stapled to wooden stakes or holes punched in them to hang up. You might want to involve everyone with gathering things for the scarecrow family. We have a scarecrow contest every year at our county fair for the 4-H clubs with some very interesting result. One of your lovely elderly ladies may have the perfect hat! Will your family have grandparents, too? I have even seen some wonderful people made from flowerpots. Advertise on the community bulletin boards and have pizza at your first gathering. Pizza really pulls the kids in. It sounds like a wonderful project and I wish I was there to help! I would even consider helping with your signs, if you wish. I would not be surprised if there are some talented computer graphics people in your senior and low income housing--check around/advertise. Have fun!

I know I haven't posted here in a long time, but I wanted to let this group know about our upcoming garden tour. Funds raised will help with our community service projects and help fund our Helen M. Logan Allen Garden Club scholarship for Allen High School seniors who plan on majoring in a horticulture related field in college. If you live in Collin County, this is going to be a spectacular garden tour! The 7th Allen Garden Club Tour showcases a variety of landscape options The Allen Garden Club will showcase beautiful and unique landscapes at local homes during its 7th garden tour on Saturday, June 4. The tour is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will be held rain or shine. Each garden features something a little different—from shade gardening and vegetable gardening to a certified wildlife habitat with a beautiful selection of native and adapted plants, says club president Denise Webre. Also on the tour are the trial gardens at the Allen Public Library, which were created along with the Collin County Master Gardeners. “There are many environmental challenges in North Texas and trial gardens allow us to grow and evaluate a variety of plants to see how they hold up to the soil, sudden drops in temperatures, extreme heat of summer and varied rainfall.” Denise explains. Guests are invited to go at their own pace to visit the gardens, which are located in Allen and Parker. Each tour spot will feature free seeds and bottled water, as well as baskets filled with garden and gifts items that will be raffled off. Raffle tickets will be sold at each garden for $1 each or six for $5. Tour ticket booklets will be available throughout May and up until the day of the tour at Puckett's Nursery and Landscape, 811 East Main St. in Allen for a $10 donation to the garden club. A limited number of tour book tickets are available at the following Calloway's Nurseries: 2460 Hwy. 121, Plano; 1621 Custer Rd., Plano; and 4050 El Dorado Pkwy., McKinney. Funds raised from the tour will be used for community service projects and the Helen M. Logan Allen Garden Club scholarship for Allen High School seniors planning to get a degree in a horticulture-related field. The mission of the Allen Garden Club is to: educate the community about natural gardening practices and the benefits of gardening, encourage people to conserve natural resources, and participate in community service projects. The club meets at 7 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month (except January and July) at the Allen Heritage Center Train Depot, 100 E. Main Street in downtown Allen. For more information, visit www.allengardenclub.org or contact Denise Webre, AGC President at allengardenclub@yahoo.com. https://allen.bubblelife.com/community/allen_reporter/library/35662521/key/351941682

Is this just gardening for fun, or is the school making a commitment to the garden as an ongoing project? Does it tie into curriculum, and will there be education or experimentation involved? If this is for high school students, hopefully you can get some help from local agricultural educators, the UC Extension service, and your local Master Gardeners. If seed saving would be an ongoing part of the project, there are sources that will provide both free seed, and educational materials. I have provided a link to one of the better resources, the Community Seed Resource Program. I too donate seed to support civic projects... but because fraud is so rampant on the internet, I will only mail to institutional addresses. You can reach me via PM on my member page.