T
he subtle changes are adding up, and with spring just around the corner, visitors to Dadeville’s Keebler Park will find it lovelier than it has been in several years. The effort to create a hands-on outdoor classroom on the acreage below the Creation Plantation playground includes city government, local schools, Lake Martin Resource Association volunteers, Master Gardeners and local businesses. The property was designated as a park 20 years ago but in recent years has been neglected. The redesign project was inspired by Dadeville resident Dianna Porter. A Master Gardener with a passion for the environment, Porter garnered support from local school officials and the Dadeville City Council before launching a revamp project that will take five to 10 years to complete. When it is finished, the upgrades will include a thriving rain garden, a fern glen, interpretive signage along the existing paved 1/2-mile walking loop, a designated classroom area, upgrades to the parking area and maybe even a fairy garden, just for fun, Porter said. While work began on the upgrades last fall, the park is drawing interest as warm temperatures, blue skies and early spring blooms attract visitors. New plantings at the rain garden are among the most noticeable changes. “We wanted to stop the drainage on the hillside at the park entrance,” Porter said. “A rain garden there was a great solution.” Some 30 local students attended a rain garden workshop in Auburn and returned with ideas about how to structure the garden and what to plant. A berm was built about halfway down the hillside to slow the flow of run-off, and plants were added. “We put in some rose companion, which looks a lot like lamb’s ear, but this is an heirloom variety. It came from a plant that an 82-yearold woman was given by her grandmother, so this plant has been growing in this area for almost a hundred years. We also put in two lantanas from this same woman’s garden. Those are about 50 years old,” she said. “We will be adding more plants to the rain garden, so if anyone has any ideas of native plants that they would like to see there, they can call me.” The garden area also includes black-eyed Susans, which were left to seed after blooming last summer and fall. “It’s always nice to leave the seed heads over the winter. The birds eat them, and the wind scatters the seeds around the garden, so you never know where they are going to come up again the next year. They float around the garden that way,” Porter explained. In addition, a bed of daffodils was put in near the bottom of the hillside to hold back the soil and filter rainwater run-off before it reaches the forest floor where plans are to install a fern glen. “We’ll add more daffodils next year in the same area, and the fern glen will be going in soon,” Porter said. “We’re also planning to overseed the rain garden area with wildflowers.” Students at Edward Bell Technology Center built posts for the new signage, and Porter said identification signs for the interpretive trail would be installed by the end of April. And along the 1/2-mile walking trail, trees have been limbed to open the canopy and allow better visibility. To call attention to the park’s on-going facelift and new purpose as an outdoor classroom, the city will host a celebration this spring. To speak with Porter about the garden, call her at 256-750-0075.
2018 LOOK WHAT YOU DID!
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