As most slip on spring shorts and skirts, a group of local green thumbs don leather gloves and soil as they toil to bring Athens’ flora to fruition.
“I wear dirt as an accessory,” proclaimed Alvi McWilliams, as she took to her knees, deftly picking weeds among the flowers and carefully distributing mulch throughout the fragile stalks.
McWilliams is one of a dozen locals who comprise Project Plant, an initiative that began in 1984 as an effort to beautify Court Street. It has spread to a variety of gardens throughout Athens.
“(Court Street) looked not abandoned but not alive,” McWilliams said. “It was depressing, and that was the inspiration.”
McWilliams enlisted the help of Athens High School’s industrial class to make giant metal flower baskets for the light poles along the street, and for years, the group tended only to the hanging flowers, McWilliams said.
The first bulb Project Plant seeded into the ground was on the East State Street traffic island, and after that, businesses in the area increased and more traffic islands were adopted, she said.
“Project Plant makes a great contribution to Athens city streets all year long,” said Jim Sands, Athens City Council president and owner of the Athens Flower Shop.
In the beginning, McWilliams had little to no gardening experience, and she credits her peers with helping her learn about plants and garden management.
“If I had known better, I wouldn’t have gotten involved,” McWilliams joked. “Ignorance is bliss.”
Although the traffic islands are still tended today, not all of Project Plant’s original legacy has lasted.
The city eventually replaced the solid cement poles that lined the street with hollow aluminum ones that could not support the weight of the heavy flower baskets. The city sold the baskets for scrap metal, according to McWilliams, but she managed to save one for herself.
Project Plant has a volunteer base of about 10 people, though McWilliams said the number fluctuates often. Every Tuesday, the group can be seen visiting its various ventures throughout the city, operating on a $7,000 to $9,000 annual budget.
The most prominent gardens are the East State Street traffic island and the Mansfield House, also on East State Street.
“The East State Street traffic island is always massive and very impressive,” Sands said.
Project Plant has specific locations they tend to, but some members such as Sharon Huge have taken to adopting small spaces close to their homes.
“I live only a block away from the corner (of Second and Columbus streets),” Huge said. “So I took it in. I’m hoping to get more people who live close to come out too.”
Gardening is something all members of Project Plant are passionate about, and it is the joy of the work that keeps them coming back.
“Flowers are Athens’ welcome mat,” McWilliams said. “We like doing what we do.”
sm366909@ohiou.edu
