A golf club once stood at 100 Avalon Road. The West Orange Country Club closed after flooding in 1924. From the 1940s, the Tucker family ran cattle on the same ground. The City of Winter Garden bought the 209-acre ranch in 2011 for $2.1 million and received a $900,000 state grant to keep it as a legacy park. The first phase opened in October 2018. It added a playground, nature trails, a pavilion and a paddle launch on Johns Lake.
Tomorrow, Friday, October 23, the city opens Phase II. That's 25.6 acres the city has named its Health & Wellness Park and Botanical Garden. Phase I gave Tucker Ranch trails and open space. Phase II gives it rooms, a kitchen, a stage for programs and a garden built around food. For the first time the preserve has places to meet indoors, and the city plans to run them itself. On Friday you'll be able to walk the grounds. The indoor half depends on a class calendar that is still being built.
Getting in on Friday
The park has been closed since Wednesday so crews can finish construction. It reopens Friday at 9:30 a.m. The basics:
- Gate opens: 9:30 a.m.
- Ribbon cutting: 10 a.m.
- Opening-day hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Admission: free
- Address: 100 Avalon Road, Winter Garden, FL 34787
In its October e-newsletter, the city invites residents to "be one of the first to see and take a tour" of the new section. The ceremony announcement is the city's official notice for the day.
The city hasn't said whether the existing seasonal hours will cover the new section after Friday. In 2024, the Orange Observer reported that the park was open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from March through October and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from November through February. November starts the week after the opening. If you're planning an afternoon walk, check the city's page for the current hours first.
What the new 25.6 acres hold
The city's list of new features reads like a garden and a small conference campus put together. In the October city e-news, the outdoor side includes:
- a botanical garden with ornamental, food and pollinator plants
- a trail system with exercise nodes
- nature paths and a boardwalk
- a roofed pavilion that reaches out over the water
- a pond with a fountain
The built side is what really separates Phase II from Phase I. The Retreat Center has a 5,000-square-foot indoor venue and a screened patio. The Ranch House has a demonstration kitchen, an outdoor patio and a fireplace. In March, the Orange Observer described the Retreat Center as seating 200 to 250 people for programs and health conferences. The outdoor kitchen is meant for cooking demonstrations and food-to-table events, not catering.
Smaller features turned up in that reporting too: a gazebo, a story circle, a pond pavilion and bridge, outdoor fitness equipment, a greenhouse, an old-Florida garden, and edible and teaching gardens. Garden designer 3.Fromme Design worked on the project. Its project description lists a potager, an orchard, sensory-themed gardens, a labyrinth, a Florida-native garden, the pond and the boardwalk. That's the design plan, not a final inventory. Treat Friday's walk as the chance to see which of those features made it into the finished site.
How the old half and the new half connect
New walking paths join Phase II to the existing playground, nature trails, picnic areas and canoe and kayak launch. So a single visit can now string together the playground, the gardens, the pond pavilion and a paddle on Johns Lake, which is the water the launch actually serves. Families who have used the playground since 2018 now have a garden loop within walking distance. Paddlers have somewhere new to go after they haul their boats out.
The city's facility listing says leashed pets are allowed at Tucker Ranch. That makes the new boardwalk and nature paths an option for dog walks.
The older grounds have their own planting history. Over the park's life, a partnership planted 1,000 bald cypress trees across the preserve. A 2023 design account describes the Phase I setting as open lawn, live-oak shade, hedgerows and woodland. The new gardens sit beside that older, shadier ground, not in place of it.
Who runs the indoor half, and when classes start
The Orange Observer reported in March that Winter Garden Parks and Recreation will manage the schedule and coordinate with outside partners. The Parks and Recreation director told the paper the city would not hand the park over to another operator.
The partners named in that report are Healthy West Orange, AdventHealth, Orlando Health, Shepherd's Hope, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, UCP of Central Florida, Community Health Centers and the Mental Health Association of Central Florida. The planned uses include:
- Cooking demonstrations and food-to-table events at the outdoor kitchen
- Yoga and meditation classes
- Health programs and conferences in the Retreat Center
- Nature lessons for school groups at the story circle
- Informal walking and reading on the grounds
Programs will be listed through the city's RecTrac registration system. The March report gave no class dates, fees or rental rates for the Retreat Center or Ranch House. The Healthy West Orange venue page for Tucker Ranch shows no scheduled events yet. Expect the gardens and trails on Friday. Watch RecTrac and the city's announcements for the first cooking demo or yoga session.
How the project came together
The groundbreaking was August 23, 2024. The city now says construction finished "on time and in budget," just over two years later. The money came from several sources. The Foundation for a Healthier West Orange managed a $6 million lead grant from the dissolved West Orange Healthcare District. A design-industry account says the city paid for most of the project, with significant extra funding from the foundation and AdventHealth.
The design team included 3.Fromme Design and HDLA on the gardens and Hastings Architecture on the buildings. In June 2024, the City Commission approved bid-package contracts totaling $19,906,266.24, including a 10% contingency. In December 2024 it approved Prestige Contracting Company for the general-trades package at $3,866,449.40, also with a 10% contingency. Cost estimates during planning ranged from $27 million in a 2023 design account to $32 million in a June 2024 Orange Observer report. The city's opening announcement calls the project on budget without giving a final dollar amount.
One piece of the site's past is coming back. Youngblood Building Movers was hired to move the historic West Orange Country Club arch into Tucker Ranch to serve as an entrance centerpiece. In March, the Orange Observer reported that the move was underway. The club that flooded out in 1924 now marks the way into the park that replaced it.
The rest of Winter Garden's fall calendar
The opening falls in the middle of a busy stretch on the city's event calendar:
- October 22: Haunted Illusions Starring David Caserta, Garden Theatre on Plant, 160 W. Plant St., 7 to 9:30 p.m.
- October 30 and 31: Halloween Light Shows at City Hall, 7 to 9 p.m.
- October 31: Halloween Celebration at the Winter Garden Farmers Market, 104 S. Lakeview Ave., 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- November 7: Health & Harvest Festival at the Winter Garden Farmers Market, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- November 28: Downtown Small Business Saturday Celebration & Sidewalk Sale, Historic Downtown Winter Garden, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The Health & Harvest Festival comes two weeks after the opening. That puts a market day built around health and the harvest on the calendar while the new garden is still in its first weeks. Listings can change, so check the city calendar before you head out.
If Tucker Ranch has you thinking about which parts of Winter Garden put you close to the trails, the gardens and Johns Lake, I'm glad to walk through it with you. Adaniel Zoga follows projects like this one from groundbreaking to ribbon cutting, and I can show you what's taking shape around it. Contact Adaniel.
