You may have noticed Project Plant volunteers at the Athens Public Library on Home Street this year, weeding the rock gardens and parking lot plots on Tuesday mornings. The crew in the photo above took on straying staghorn sumac by the library front windows and the luxuriant weeds that sprang up everywhere in this year's rains.

That dressy layer of weed-deterring mulch on all the beds started with one area done by Project Planters applying weed barrier and mulch contributed by Naomi and Tom Stork. Five Springs Farm and Nursery, which designed and installed the plantings, finished mulching all the gardens, plus library trees, with mulch bought by Project Plant and labor donated by Five Springs crew.

Another beautiful addition to the library is a green metal bench, soon to be shaded by maples, all in memory of Muriel Frederick, a founding member of Project Plant. Paid for by donations from Muriel's family and friends, the bench sits on a concrete pad behind the library, facing out toward the Hocking River and the City skyline of steeples and cupolas.

25 Years and Still Weeding

Project Plant had a great 25th year of making Athens more beautiful.


In April, helped by Athens High School and Ohio University Beautification Day student volunteers we fought the thistle invasion in the Community Center's landscaped beds along East State Street.


Thanks to the crew of 40 young people, cardboard weed barriers and mulch went down on all the beds from the shelter house to Community Center Drive. AHS students also transplanted daylilies, making a new bed at the Library.

Below: Students from Ohio University's Beautification Day pose with Project Planters and Mayor Paul Wiehl after mulching the City's Community Center Plantings. And then they danced!

More pictures of the volunteers in action can be found here: State Street Mulching Volunteers

In June Project Plant and community volunteers met early one Saturday morning, and in one hour dug out daffodil bulbs from the Richland Avenue traffic island gardens. We will remove the rest of the perennials in a fall Big Dig Day; the removal precedes work on the Richland Avenue intersection and bridge. Perennials will go to other sites around Athens including Project Plant and City gardens.

Our Gardens Flourish Because of YOU

Like to help us?

You can join in the gardening that helps make Athens such a remarkable
place by sending a tax deductible contribution to:

Project Plant, P. O. Box 5676, Athens OH 45701.