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Garden Circle Keeps On Giving

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By ROB GAMESTER

Special to the News & Tribune

Published: December 31, 2008

The new year brings challenges to the home gardener with the new water restrictions and the normal dry season, which lasts until June.

Complying with the restrictions and still have beautiful garden can be done.

It starts with the right plant in the right place. Tips such as this are some of the issues discussed monthly at the Town 'N Country Garden Circle meetings.

And the club's Jan. 7 meeting will feature Jim Hawk, a master gardener, who will talk about Dooryard Fruit of Central Florida.

The circle will meet at noon at the Town 'N Country Recreation Center, 6039 Hanley Road; new members are welcome.

The Town 'N Country Youth Council and the circle will partner to do some winter pruning and cleaning at Town and Country Elementary School on Jan. 19, when kids are out of school for Dr. Martin Luther King Day.

The circle's main focus for the next six months will be working with the county on landscaping Shimberg Gardens, the 4-acre park next to the new Town 'N Country Commons, which is scheduled to be completed by late spring/early summer.

Since 2004, the circle has raised more than $68,000 to enhance the commons and Shimberg Gardens.

A big help in this effort has been the $25,000 in low-volume irrigation and native tree grants approved by the county's Office of Neighborhood Relations.

Community groups that were approved for these grants are Bay Crest Park Civic Association, Friends of the Town 'N Country Regional Public Library, Timberlane/Woodlake Civic Association, Town 'N Country Park Home Owners Civic Association and the Twelve Oaks Civic Association.

One of the goals is to landscape Shimberg Gardens with native and drought-tolerant trees and plants. It will then be used as a demonstration garden to show people how to plant and what to plant for an attractive home garden.

The circle meets at noon the first Wednesday monthly from September to May at the recreation center.

For information, contact Fran Gamester at (813) 884-3462.

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