By LOIS KINDLE
Join the Apollo Beach Garden Club from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 14 for its traditional Spring Plant Sale, showcasing for the first time youth marketeers from the Children’s Entrepreneur Market of South Tampa and the club’s own Junior Gardeners Academy.
The annual event will take place at the Apollo Beach Community Forest Garden, 664 Golf and Sea Blvd., Apollo Beach, and feature a “Market Garden To-Go” experience. You’ll find everything you need to kickstart a thriving spring garden, including new varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, spinach, bell peppers, greens and more—all selected specifically for success in our area’s hot, humid Zone 10A climate.
“Plant hunters always line up early for the most sought-after cultivars, so if you don’t want to miss anything or are looking for the best plants, you need to be in it,” said urban agriculture and community garden specialist Teresa Hall, the club’s marketing and events director. “Bring a wagon and more money than you think you’ll need. The inventory this time is that good.”
The gates open promptly at 8 a.m., and the vendors open at 7:30.
“We offer only tried-and-trialed cultivars, proven to consistently produce in our area, and we have sourced some amazing, difficult to find varieties of rare tomatoes and peppers this year.
Two standouts this year include a tomato resistant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus, Yellow Leaf Curl and nematodes and a cucumber that produces primarily female flowers, self-pollinates and thrives in this area’s humid heat.
If you’ve been looking for ways to get your child involved in outdoor activities—or you have a budding young entrepreneur at home—this event is a perfect chance to explore local programs.
Urban agriculture specialist Teresa Hall, the Apollo Beach Garden Club marketing and events director, teaches the club’s Junior Gardeners Academy students how to plant corn seedlings they grew at home in one of the Community Garden’s beds. The plant in the foreground is perpetual spinach.
The five youngsters from Tampa will be offering items they’ve created and are selling themselves. Their offerings include stationery, toys and origami; hand-painted press-on nails, slime and bracelets; sensory kits and handsewn keychains; dirty sodas, cake pops and other treats; and soaps, ChapSticks, plants and hot chocolate.
If your child would like to be a vendor at the event, register by 5 p.m., Feb. 13 at https://kidsmarkets.co/event/apollo-beach-2/. The cost is $25. To learn more about the Children’s Entrepreneur Market, visit https://kidsmarkets.com/.
COURTESY PHOTOS
For the first time, young marketeers from the Children’s Entrepreneur Market will join other vendors at the Apollo Beach Garden Club’s traditional Spring Plant Sale on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. The annual event will take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Community Forest Garden, 664 Golf and Sea Blvd.
In addition to the youth marketeers, the Apollo Beach Garden Club Spring Plant Sale will include the following adult vendors: Sam’s Honey Bees, Tie Dye by Lynda, Tenacious 12 Farms LLC, Third Insight Design & Nursery, Diane’s Bird Houses and Unique Shards of Glass. They’ll be selling local honey from Ruskin and Lithia apiaries; farm-fresh eggs, goat’s milk soap and homemade, organic pet foods; all kinds of tropical and subtropical fruit and Florida native trees; one-of-a-kind glass art; wooden bird houses; and handmade tie dye T-shirts and other apparel. Sam Goldman, the bee man, is bringing bee suits for kids to try on so their parents can snap pictures.
All proceeds will benefit the Apollo Beach Garden Club, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization, and its programs for the community.
For more information, call or text 813-310-3204.