DeKalb County Plantbusters!

October 2007  

This past September, the DeKalb Master Gardener Association, a group of about 30 DeKalb County Master Gardeners, discovered a new way of finding plants for our spring plant sale:  plant rescues.  We were fortunate to hear about two residential properties in DeKalb County that were to be excavated and had many perennials.

In one case, Dovetail Homes was preparing to develop a 3-acre property on Happy Hollow Road.  They recognized that the lot had been previously landscaped with valuable plant material, but it wasn't feasible for their crews to identify, remove, and then store the plants for replanting.

Around the same time, a property on Fairoaks Road was being sold.  The house would eventually be demolished, but the lot had beds of plants that the homeowner had lovingly installed.  As a gardener, he hated to think about the plants being destroyed after he left.

Luckily, these people had the foresight to mention their dilemma to a Master Gardener.  Invited to do a preliminary walk-through of these sites, we immediately saw the potential.  DMGA was given permission to dig as many plants as we wanted.  As a result, we already have an inventory of several hundred pots of healthy perennials and shrubs overwintering in the yards of DMGA members or their relatives, just waiting for the DMGA Spring Plant Sale on Saturday morning, April 28th in the parking lot of Northlake Mall.

Plant rescues are a win-win situation:  The builders/developers can feel good about giving back to the community (they have our gratitude for their cooperation), and DMGA has wonderful plants to sell for fund raising.  DeKalb homeowners will find tried-and-true plants at bargain prices at our plant sale this April.  And many, many plants have been saved from the bulldozer and will find new homes.

So, the next time you see an opportunity to rescue plants from a property about to be demolished, who're you gonna call?  Your DeKalb Master Gardeners, of course!

Rescued plants -- ready for a new home