An abandoned lot and dilapidated home, once the site of a garden nursery, is in bloom again at the intersection of Woodward Avenue and Boulevard in Grant Park.
GardenHood, created by three Atlanta plant experts and one gardening-enthused attorney, opens Thursday to the delight of locals whose plant-buying options are mostly limited to the big box stores on Moreland Avenue.
The GardenHood team isn't out to replicate other nurseries in their downtown space. Rather, they seek to offer plants and landscapes as quirky as Grant Park itself.
"We'll have plants you are familiar with, but with a twist," says owner and rare plant collector Scott McMahan, former garden manager at the Atlanta Botanical Garden and current head of McMahan Nurseries in Clermont.
For example, GardenHood is offering a sterile dwarf butterfly bush, variegated fig with stripes down to its fruit, and a selection of frost-hardy succulents. The gravel lot has been transformed with artsy "rooms" painted a stark black, dividing the plants into groupings and mini-landscapes that McMahan calls "an IKEA sort of set-up."
GardenHood may also carry chickens, owners say.
"I really want to present landscape solutions for the homeowner, and for the avid gardener, I want to give them a true palette of plants for creative gardening," says co-owner David McMullin, a landscape architect. McMullin also owns design firm New Moon Gardens and also grows and sells through Very Good Plants.
Other owners include Melodie McDanal, a landscape architect and former manager of Habersham Gardens known for her splashy container gardens; and attorney Valerie Barton, who left behind a legal career to launch GardenHood. While McMahan and McMullin's primary role is growing and supplying GardenHood's exotic offerings, McDanal will run the on-site operations.
The group had long thought about a downtown nursery, but finding the right spot was the trick. McMullin drove past the former site of The Urban Gardener, which relocated to East Atlanta and then closed its garden center, and set out to bring GardenHood to life.
"I think the neighborhood around the Memorial and Boulevard corridor and south of I-20 is where the real gardening is happening now," McMullin declares. "This isn't where people are paying for their landscapes to be done for them. You can drive up the side streets and see really interesting and creative gardening people are doing themselves."
The nursery, situated between I-20 and Memorial Drive, is across the street from Stone Soup Kitchen, adjacent to Grant Park's community garden and around the corner from Oakland Cemetery and a number of other popular restaurants such as Six Feet Under.
Stone Soup co-owner Jason MacDonald said he hopes GardenHood will not only beautify the block, but also help attract an already-growing number of pedestrians to the area. The two businesses are in talks to co-host events, including gardening seminars or breakfast in the garden on weekends, owners said.
"For us this is huge, and not just in the sense of bringing in more customers, but just having that sense of community and neighbors again is wonderful," MacDonald said, recalling The Urban Gardener's departure in 2008. "And with Stella around the corner and Lux [a salon] and Octane coffee going into the Jane, we really think this neighborhood is moving in the right direction."
IF YOU GO
GardenHood is located at 353 Boulevard, between I-20 and Memorial Drive on the corner of Woodward Avenue. The nursery will be open Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
