Freedom Island Landscape Garden - McPlants | The Garden Question Podcast

You pull to a stop at the traffic light and look to your right.

BAM!

Desire slaps you right between the ears.

You fall in love.

I’ve got to have that garden at my home.

Well that might not be your first reaction when you see the garden at Freedom Island Douglasville, GA. But I bet you have a strong like or you would not be here.

The landmark garden at Freedom Island is intended to welcome visitors and offer renewal everyday you pass by.

Flag Monument Freedom Island Douglasville GA - McPlants — Flag Monument Freedom Island Douglasville GA – McPlants

Built by the City of Douglasville to honor and remember the tragic event occurring September 11, 2001.

The location was chosen at the intersections of Campbellton Street, Hospital Drive and Elizabeth Dr. just north of I-20 and Chapel Hill Road exit 36. Soil was brought in to fill a storm water retention area at he intersection. The first phase included the flag pole monument, concrete walks, irrigation, lighting, centipede sod and minimum planting.

In 2010 the city’s Keep Douglasville Beautiful teamed with the West Georgia Green Association for a public private partnership to develop a landscape planting plan followed by installation. Updating the lighting and tweaking the irrigation system were also in the mix.

The installation began in February 2011. The city bought the materials, supplied equipment, and labor. The West Georgia Green Association supplied professional expertise, equipment and labor from the member companies that make up the nonprofit association.

In the fall 2013 over 10,000 King Alfred Daffodil bulbs were planted by the West Georgia Green Association members. Keep Douglasville Beautiful purchased the late winter yellow blooming daffodils.

In 2012 Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation recognized the Freedom Island Douglasville GA project for a state Community Improvement Award.

Freedom Island Douglasville GA Original 2010 Planting Plan

The landscape garden is designed as a low maintenance landscape with year round interest. This is accomplished by selecting plants that will not over grow their location and need little to no pruning. They adapt well to the garden’s soil and sun demands yielding healthy plants that are able to ward off insects and diseases.

There are mixtures of texture organized in repetitions of massed plant groupings . The plants were also selected to produce a continual bloom cycle through the year. Even the winter winds provides interesting motion in the garden as the miscanthus grass blades wave with their blooms beside the dry spent Lime Light hydrangea blossoms. All designed to be enjoyed by pedestrians or passengers in a 35mph drive by. The stop at the traffic light intersection is the best quick visual burst between the ears in Georgia.

Design by Craig McManus with McPlants. Here is the original 2010 landscape garden design. Click on the design plan to enlarge for a more detail study. The actual implemented installation has some slight variation from the original design.