The Perennial Garden on Canton Connector will only be maintained for a limited time and CRN will request that GDOT mow over it. Like Canton Road Neighbors, Inc, there are no volunteers, no grant funding and very little in the way of donations to help with supplies. I am proud of the difference that Canton Road Neighbors made on the five mile corridor for the past 20 years, and proud of the Perennial Garden. Several of our co-founders and donors have passed away and I am no longer willing to do the work of or for the local community.

GDOT District 7 is doing a great job of keeping the connector mowed and free of trash. They also have trimmed around the garden. This was not the case in 2010 when Canton Road Neighbors started planting the little garden. Thanks GDOT!

Hopefully, even if GDOT mows over the garden this winter, the established Thrift and daffodils will bloom in the spring of 2026. 

Carol Brown MA, MRP, Co-founder of Canton Road Neighbors, Inc.

Canton Road Neighbors, Inc. Perennial Garden on Canton Connector Easter 2021

Link to Perennial Garden archive

Link to garden photos 2015-2020

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.

CRN was acknowledged by the City of Marietta and Keep Marietta Beautiful in September 2015 for their efforts to beautify Marietta.

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 was intact but the area around the garden was deeply rutted, trash was scattered around and asphalt was dropped. 

The garden has recovered after a lot of work on our part.  2020 was the 10th anniversary of the perennial garden.