VISTA Gardens Fall Festival - 2017

On Saturday, November 12, VISTA Gardens hosted over 400 Carrollwood residents, volunteers and garden members at its second annual Fall Festival. The four hour event featured local garden/nature vendors, visitor tours, children's activities, food and a fundraising raffle. 100% of event proceeds go to the garden's general maintenance fund.

Meet the "Little Villagers"

On March 13, 2017 the Carrollwood "Little Villagers" had their first visit to VISTA Gardens. Little Villagers is a program for kids under 5 to educate them about gardening, composting, planting, harvesting and to promote a love of nature. With 13 adults and 20+ children in attendance, this event was a big success.

The kids were kept very busy during the two hour session. They enjoyed the new play area, engaged with sweet peas on every level (looked at them, opened them, planted some in the play area and were dared to taste them too!). They also were read a short story about gardening, deposited the compost they brought from home, took a garden tour, picked some tomatoes, got a look at the bees, and harvested carrots. The session ended with an epic leaf fight and the children went home very, very dirty and hopefully had nice, long naps.

All in all, it was a great event and Lori Vella is planning to coordinate future activities. It's this type of community programming that is central to VISTA's mission. If you are interested in coordinating an activity for hosting a local group, please do not hesitate to submit a request (simply reply to any newsletter or submit a 'Contact' form through the web site).