Perennial Garden on Canton Connector

Below: March 20, 2019

Link to Perennial Garden archive

The CRN perennial garden was started on Earth Day, April 2010. It is 1,000 square ft, with 2,500 daffodils, 450 daylilies, lantana, wild verbena, iris and other perennial plants. The season starts in March with early, mid and late blooming daffodils. The daffodils are then joined by a variety of iris. Later, in May the following plants can be seen: wild purple Verbena and Stella daylilies. Additional daylilies will bloom in early June and in the summer months Lantana will bloom. There are a few patches of Stone Mountain Daisies that bloom from late July through Labor Day. The blooming season winds down in October for the year.

A number of the Perennial Plants attract pollinators like butterflies, and so, it is also a pollinator garden.

Until the Neighborhood Grant of $600.00 was received in June 2015, the garden was funded entirely by private contributions and tended by volunteers. In April 2018 the Georgia Dept. of Transportation made a generous donation of 2,000 daffodils which included early, mid and late season blooms. Many thanks to all of our garden friends for their support.

The photos below show the Perennial Garden through the blooming season

March 4, 2019

March 13, 2019

April 4, 2019

May 11, 2019

June 4, 2019

June 23, 2019

July 2019 While litter is tossed or blown off of trucks from time to time, this was worse than usual. A bag of MDJ ad inserts bounced off of a truck.

Thanks to three special volunteers for helping to Keep Canton Connector clean and green!

IN MAY 2020 Baldwin Paving received a contract to resurface the Canton Connector from near the I 75 exit ramp to the Sandy Plains intersection and beyond to just past the merge. They did a nice job on the roads but left a major mess in public right of way. There were a lot of very large, heavy vehicles parked on the grass including during the rainy days. Most of the garden is intact and the western half looks good. But the area around the garden no longer has grass, is deeply rutted, trash was scattered around and asphalt has been dropped and will need to be removed. It is not known whether Baldwin's contract expects them to clean up the area and seed with grass. If not, CRN will take it on as part of our volunteer commitment to the area.

June 10, 2020

The blogs (September 2015, Summer 2015 and FAQ) with photos can be downloaded as PDF files below.

The Summer 2015 PDF focuses on the gardening activities funded by the Neighborhood Grant, which allowed us to add plants and expand the garden size. The September 2015 PDF "How bad was it?" tells the story of why CRN decided to create the garden. The FAQ answers questions about the garden.

2015 L-R Ken Dixon, Commissioner Birrell, Bevery McMurray, Carol Brown

September 2015 Marietta City Council , Joan Ellars presents sign to CRN