TL MEAD COMMUNITY GARDEN MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
2024/2025 Growing Season

To apply for or to renew your TL Mead Community Garden membership for the August 1, 2024 – July 31, 2025 growing season, please complete the following application. This application includes a Liability Waiver and your acknowledgement of the Community Garden Rules, Requirements & Policies. Community Garden plots/membership are awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis with priority given to current gardeners whose applications for renewal are received by July 19, 2024.

To qualify, applicants must be 18 years old, reside in Winter Park or a nearby neighborhood to Mead Botanical Garden. Please email questions to communitygardenboard@meadgarden.org and add us to your address book.

Submission by Mail – Return your signed application (with all pages including Rules acknowledgements and Liability Waiver), $100 annual membership dues, and $60 first-year fee (new members only) to the following address. Make checks payable to Mead Botanical Garden Inc.

Mead Botanical Garden – Attn. Community Garden P.O. Box 1227
Winter Park, FL 32790

On-line Application – please read the Membership Requirements document above and apply online below!

The TL Mead Community Garden

One of the first community gardens in Winter Park, this garden provides organic vegetables and fruit for members to keep and to share.  Residents and their families rent a bed for a full year – 4 growing seasons.  They plant and maintain their 4 ft by 16 ft garden bed to be free of weeds and pests using organic practices.

Gardeners have set aside a couple of the beds to grow produce for Second Harvest Food Bank and often donate excess from their own beds as well.  Pictured here are children from the Monarch Learning Academy as they harvest and clean carrots to donate.

This community garden was originally established as a Demonstration Community Garden, funded by the Winter Park Health Foundation, and managed by the Orange County / UF IFAS Cooperative Extension Service and Orange County Master Gardener Volunteers. In February, 2011, management transitioned to the membership, who formed an organization with bylaws and officers—a President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. The organization reports to the Board of Trustees of Mead Botanical Garden, Inc. 

If you have an interest in being a part of the community garden, please send an email to the Community Garden Board. 

The garden is located in the northwest corner of Mead Botanical Garden at 1310 S. Denning Dr, Winter Park, FL 32789.

Benefits of a Community Garden

Gardening by itself is therapy and provides exercise through the process of maintaining a garden. Maintaining a garden bed will be a learning experience through formal and informal demonstrations and presentations throughout the year. Intergenerational and cross-cultural interaction will be encouraged in all participation, education and development phases of the Community Garden. 

Funding

The Winter Park Health Foundation funded the budget for the Demonstration Community Garden in 2009 at $25,000 over three years.

The TLM Community Garden Learning Center is registered as a member of the American Community Garden Association.