Heather Park Child Development Center, located in Garner, NC and a participating POD Wake demonstration center, has naturalized their OLE and created a productive garden by installing 408 square feet of vegetable beds, 100 square feet of fruiting shrubs, one fruit tree, perennial beds, and a vine teepee.

Parent workdays have been well attended and children have participated in installation projects. The children and teachers enjoy starting seeds in the spring and tending to and observing as the plants grow throughout the summer. Watering the gardens and flowers has become a favorite activity and the arrival of the black swallowtail caterpillars every summer is a highly anticipated event.

During the course of the POD Wake Co project $5,500 was invested in the OLE at Heather Park CDC, making the installation of a new sand play area in the shade of an existing oak tree, a concrete looped pathway loop, and a reading circle possible.