Park breaks ground on Serenity Garden

It was a fateful Sunday morning in 2017 when longtime Wekiwa Springs State Park volunteer John Leaman hatched an idea while spending time near the park’s nature center.

“I saw a Florida state butterfly, a zebra longwing. We had some awesome wildflowers. I was looking at all these things that were happening,” he recalled. “Personally, in my heart, I felt a tremendous peace about what I was experiencing. From that point on, I said, ‘We need to duplicate this for others.’ ”

Almost five years later, Leaman, who uses an electric wheelchair for mobility, is finally seeing his vision come to fruition — thanks to countless hours spent planning and fundraising to turn his dream into a reality. The concept for the Wekiwa Springs Serenity Garden is that visitors who use mobility aids or people with autism, PTSD and other disabilities can have a safe outdoor space to encounter nature.

“The almost 1.5-acre garden has been designed to provide a unique sensory experience for people with diverse abilities and special needs,” said Don Philpott, president of the Wekiva Wilderness Trust, a nonprofit volunteer organization that supports the state park. “Today we’re literally making history. The Serenity Garden, a park within a park, is the only one of its kind anywhere in the United States. Hopefully, it will become the model for many more, both in the United States and overseas.”

On Wednesday morning, as the

Florida sun shone down through Spanish moss and towering oak trees, Philpott joined local and state dignitaries in breaking ground on the park, initiating the first phase of construction. Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson, state Sen. Jason Brodeur and Chuck Hatcher, acting director of Florida DEP’s Division of Recreation and Parks.

Long before shovels ever touched dirt, Philpott and his team enlisted the help of design teams, experts and focus groups to ensure all interests were being represented in the garden.

“We’ve had 17 focus groups with every conceivable disability group to make sure that everything they wanted to see was included,” Philpott said. “It took us five years with two design teams to get the design absolutely right.”

Some of the garden’s highlights include a water feature, an adult changing facility, accessible parking, a raised boardwalk and a nature center. In order to make the new space as quiet and serene as possible, hedges with sound baffles will be installed along the boardwalk to block out noise from the swimming area.

School groups will also be able to use certain areas of the gardens for group therapy, art and physical activities.

Phase one of construction will begin within weeks as crews work to grade the site, build retaining walls, then install paths and boardwalks. All walkways will be nine feet wide to allow two wheelchairs to pass safely, and no gradients will be more than three degrees.

Later phases will involve crafting raised flower beds, special seating and smaller garden experiences. The space will be finished off with a wide variety of Florida native plants.

Robert Brooks, park manager at Wekiwa Springs, said he’s eager to finally see the project get underway.

“We have tried to make all of our amenities as accessible as possible … But one of the areas you really can’t get to is way out into nature,” Brooks said. “You need to hike out there on your own two legs. Some people can’t do that. With this garden, the concept is to bring that nature to them.”

To date, about $600,000 has been raised to fund the garden with support from the Florida