Ryan Gainey, gardening genius, profiled in documentary film

The late Ryan Gainey grew muscadines at his Decatur home, where his garden occupied several acres. Staff photo

Credit: Phil Skinner

Credit: Phil Skinner

The late Ryan Gainey grew muscadines at his Decatur home, where his garden occupied several acres. Staff photo

Gardeners will tell you that a weed is just a plant out of place.

Nothing was out of place in the gardens of Ryan Gainey, a horticultural wizard who designed gardens for Atlantans and others around the world, but whose greatest creation might have been his own idiosyncratic life.

Gainey died tragically in July, 2016, apparently trying to save his beloved Jack Russell terriers from a blaze at his cottage in Lexington, Ga.

 Popcorn & Cecil sits in Ryan Gainey's lap as he talks about his two muscadine arbors at his Decatur home. Staff photo

Credit: Phil Skinner

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Credit: Phil Skinner

“The Well-place Weed: The Bountiful Life of Ryan Gainey,” a documentary film about Gainey’s life, will premiere Thursday night at the Plaza Theatre on Ponce de Leon in the Poncey-Highland neighborhood.

Filmmakers Steve Bransford, a video producer at Emory University, and Cooper Sanchez, an artist and garden designer at Oakland Cemetery, spent six years making the 77-minute documentary.

“The Well-Placed Weed: The Bountiful Life of Ryan Gainey,” premieres 7 p.m. Thursday, May 17, at the Plaza Theatre, $8.