OKEECHOBEE — Okeechobee's new garden club held their first meeting on Tuesday morning, May 14 at the Okeechobee County Library.  The meeting was hosted by the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc. (FFGG), and Maria Wolfe, District 10 Director is looking forward to helping the group get up and running.

The mission for all clubs and FFGC is to promote the love of gardening, floral and landscape design and civic and environmental responsibility by providing education, resources and networking opportunities for our members, youth and the community.

"It's up to each individual club what they want to focus on," explained Wolfe. "It is based on the interests of the members." She went on to say most people join garden clubs because they want to learn, and the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs can help with this. They have schools to help with basic gardening, environment, landscape design and floral design. 

"Each club has speaker-based meetings with experts presenting programs such as reforestation, safe organic pesticides, and the benefits of native plants. Club members learn about topics ranging from eco-art to helping our pollinators. Members also participate in workshops on horticulture, landscape design and floral design, etc.," said Wolfe.

The next meeting will be held on June 11 at 10:30 a.m. Future meetings will be held on the second Tuesday of each month at 11 a.m. in the hope that those who work during the day can come during their lunch hour.

If you would like more information, contact Maria Wolfe at tcacad registrar@yahoo.com to reserve your spot. You can also follow the club on Facebook (Ffgc Districtx) or go to ffgc.org to learn all about the benefits of membership in the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs.