By Grace Rabano, Clermont Garden Club

Clermont Garden Club members worked with children at Head Start on E. Desoto St. in Clermont to plant vegetables (such as beans and squash) in their fall-raised garden beds. The gardens are a project of the Clermont Garden Club, which provides the necessary equipment, seedlings and gardening items using a matching grant from the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, FFGC. Tina Worrell, Horticulture Chairperson of the Clermont Garden Club, initiated the building of 4 wooden raised garden beds earlier this year with help from the local Boy Scout Troop #551. Children at Head Start assume responsibility for caring for the gardens along with the Head Start staff. The raised garden bed program continues through the spring and fall planting seasons.

Throughout the year, Clermont Garden Club also purchases and reads flower/gardening books to the children, and then the books are donated to Head Start.