The city of Greenwood and a local garden club are teaming to enhance the landscape around Rail Spike Park.
Town and Country Garden Club has contributed $750 toward the $11,000 cost for 134 trees that will be planted along the linear park’s trail in coming weeks, according to Bettie Ray, executive assistant to Mayor Carolyn McAdams.
“This project will beautify and make Greenwood an even more beautiful place to live,” Ray said.
The trees should cover roughly the first four to six blocks of the trail, according to Brantley Snipes, who designed the park’s landscaping.
The project will be an ongoing process and continually enhanced throughout the year, she said.
The Town and Country Garden Club makes donations around the community. This year the club decided to donate trees to Rail Spike Park, according to Cheryl Thornhill, club president.
“We are real excited about it. We have, as a club, been very supportive of Rail Spike Park as it was designed ... ,” Thornhill said. “We are looking forward to those trees growing, and we are happy to do it.”
McAdams is pleased with the collaboration.
“Everyone is pitching in, and I think it really truly helps not only financially but gives everyone a little ownership in Rail Spike Park,” McAdams said.
“It is the season of Thanksgiving, and I am thankful for people wanting to contribute.”
Thornhill said an area of the landscape or a tree will be dedicated in memory of Karan Lott, who died of a sudden heart attack last Thursday.
Lott was a former president of the club and was serving as its vice president at the time of her death.
The trees to be planted include beech, sweetbay magnolia, redbud, and a mix of red and white oak. Over time the trees will create a canopy and shade the trail, Ray said.
“This is the time to be planting trees,” Snipes said. “If you plant in the fall and in the winter, you have a better chance of survival.”
Other landscaping projects in the works include adding flowers to the Viking Range planter garden on Front Street. This space will be maintained by Town and Country Garden Club.
Also 1,000 flower bulbs, including daffodils, tulips and hyacinths, will be planted along Martin Luther King Drive, Rail Spike Park and other areas of the city. The bulbs were donated as part of the Bloomtown project of the Mississippi Urban Forest Council, which advocates for a greener Mississippi. Ray is on the board, and the city is a member of the council.
•Contact Lauren Randall at 581-7239 or lrandall@gwcommonwealth.com.
The original version of this article misreported the number of trees to be purchased and the total cost of them.
