The San Carlos Community Garden welcomes volunteers from the community to participate in a Fall Beautification Work Party on Saturday, Oct. 19, starting at 9 a.m. at the San Carlos Community Garden at 6460 Boulder Lake Ave.

The event will memorialize Cathy Sparks, master gardener and school mentor, who was involved in the San Carlos Community Garden as well. In conjunction with the work party, the new Patrick Henry Garden Club (PHGC) will host a pumpkin sale at 10 a.m. at the same event.

Community work party volunteers may bring children who can participate in supervised fall activities at the garden with PHGC members during the event.

The idea for the PHGC was initiated by Leslie Nelson, a local business owner who volunteers at the garden and also sits on its board. Nelson and the rest of the community garden board established the club over the past year.

The team of students from Henry involved in the PHGC have worked hard to design their raised bed, which was overseen by Nelson who leases numerous raised beds at the community garden. Students installed the plants, and maintain and water the bed, which they have named The Sun Garden. They have constructed a PVC surround to keep out pests with the assistance of one of the student’s parents. They have also created informational signage and plan to continue to create new informational signage that will educate the community about plants including historical and scientific information.

The team from Patrick Henry High School has started to expand the membership and interest in the club activities.

“The kids at Patrick Henry are so excited to be helping in this sale to benefit our raised bed,” said Emily Donahue, president of the PHGC. “We have been working hard to get it going and are looking forward to getting kids outside and sharing our garden. We are excited to help educate kids and adults in the community about nature and gardening with various events and fun activities.”

Not only will the work party and pumpkin sale be a fun and lively event, it will also give the students some entrepreneurial experience in addition to working with children and community members.

“This sale offers a great learning experience for the students since they will need to learn how to merchandise the pumpkins and price the pumpkins they sell. In addition, they’ll have the opportunity to interact with community members of all ages,” Nelson said.

For more information, visit the San Carlos Community Garden website at sancarloscommunitygarden.com.