The Clermont Garden Club’s Yard of the Month for September 2025, is the backyard of Austin and Cat Cochran at 15909 Bay Lakes Trail in the Greater Hills neighborhood of Clermont.

Prior to the pandemic in 2020, their quarter acre backyard was “all grass”. With lots of time on their hands during the pandemic, Austin and Cat began transforming their backyard into a xeriscaped food forest. Austin and Cat are vegetarian, and try to grow much of their own food organically. The backyard is strewed with a variety of edible greens, such as longevity spinach (Gynura procubens), katuk (phyllanthus androgynus), sissoo spinach (alternanthera sissoo), Okinawa spinach (gynura) and cranberry hibiscus (whose leaves are edible). In the winter months, lettuce and kale are grown in 2 raised beds.

Austin and

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