FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Youth gardens like these are gaining in popularity, and Fairhope will join that trend when two raised garden beds are planted by children at the Rotary Youth Club today.

A unique program to grow the city’s first youth garden will begin when two raised garden beds are constructed and planted with winter vegetables at the Fairhope-Point Clear Rotary Youth Club.

The project is also an example of how various volunteer groups have worked together for a common cause, without forgetting who their main audience is.

“We’ll be building teepees for the sugar snap beans to grown on and also making a large scarecrow,” said Elaine Snyder-Conn of the Local Food Production Initiative, which has led the effort. “Building that scarecrow should be fun.”

The project is funded with part of a grant received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the rest of the funds to be used to establish a larger community garden elsewhere in the city.

“The event starts at 10 a.m. today and the public is invited,” said Debbie Calhoun of LFPI and Baldwin County Master Gardeners, another group that’s helped get the youth project started. “We expect to be finished in about two hours, and then we’ll grill some hamburgers and hot dogs for the children who have helped.”

Calhoun is developing a curriculum to be used at the Rotary Youth Club’s after-school program, based on the Junior Master Gardeners program, to help the new garden flourish.

“The Master Gardeners will offer instruction on how to work in the garden on a weekly basis for the children here,” Conn said Thursday at the Rotary Youth Club, where more than 30 children were getting ready for their Christmas party that night, expected to be attended by some 100 people from the community.

Conn said the raised beds had been framed and were ready for today’s planting, and that all the construction materials had been donated by NFL Building Center in Daphne.

The Rotary Youth Club provides after-school programs from 3 to 6 p.m. but will have extended hours during the holidays, said Sue Bonner, the organization’s membership coordinator.

“That’s our purpose, to help take care of the kids for working parents,” she said.

Conn said the youth club’s director, Charles Durgin, had “gone the extra mile” in supporting the program, and will be flipping burgers on the barbecue grill after the planting is over today.

Calhoun also was at the Rotary Youth Club Thursday, and spoke with students who expressed an interest in helping plant the garden.

She attended a workshop last week on youth garden projects, where she met Cindy Knowlton, regional extension agent of the Baldwin County Extension Office in Bay Minette, who assists 4-H clubs and youth development programs.

“I think the more programs of this type where different groups work together, the greater the opportunities there are for youth. And I feel youth really need that, ” Knowlton said. “Programs like these can help develop mentoring and leadership skills, as well as gardening abilities. What’s unique about the Fairhope effort is how well the various community groups have worked together with the Rotary Youth Club where the garden will be located.”

The planting and construction of the youth garden starts at 10 a.m. today, Saturday, Dec. 19, at the Fairhope-Point Clear Rotary Youth Club, which is located at 15128 Young St. A cookout for youth, 6- to 9-years-old, and volunteers who participate in building and planting the garden will follow the event.