The Fayette Citizen-Weekend Page
Wednesday, April 28, 1999
Heritage and history helps gardens grow

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
Weekend Editor

There is history right beneath your feet and the Peachtree City Heritage Historcal Preservation Committee wants you to know it. This past weekend, the group began planting their accent gardens in front of historical gravesites. There are 26 gravesites catalogued in Peachtree City and it has taken the preservation committee over a year and a half to get to the point where they are at now, the planting stage.

The first gravesite is on Ga.Hwy.54, about a mile past the library/city hall complex. It is the where the Stinchcomb family: Nathan, wife Susannah, daughter Molisia and son Andrew were buried. The graves date back to the late 1800's. If you travel on 54, you pass tthe site everyday and until someone put an accent garden in front of it, you had probably never seen it before.

The accent gardens were dug by the city, Raven Homes contributed to the project and the flowers and plants were donated by Natures Nursery. The people who were digging in the dirt and digging in the past for the past year and a half are the ones who deserve the most credit, they were the ones who were up at the crack of dawn on Saturday. The group's chairperson David Piet, Geri Holt, Gail Gould and councilwoman Annie McMinneman had their hands in the dirt and their hearts set on community awareness of the history that surrounds them.

“These sites often date back to the War between the States,” said Geri Holt. “This is part of the city's history and it's something that many people are interested in.” They planted Honeycomb, Butterfly plants, Verbena, Adam's Needle and Lantana. The same types of flower and plants are in front of the other site, off of Ga. Hwy. 74, right after the Bluebery Hill subdivision. It is the gravesite of William A Leach, a private in the Confederate States Army, and his wife Sarah Denha Leach.

The gardens have already involved the community. on the way to the Leach site, John Page, a resident of the Blueberry Hills subdivision brought out his hose for the group to use. The city will continue to do maintenance on the area, but the plants and flowers are fairly low maintenance. The group extended their gratitude to all of the people that have helped their project along, especially Fayette County historian, Carolyn Cary. The group will be planting more gardens at more sites in the future and then they will study the non-indigenous plants growth at these sites.

“We hope that people will appreciate the beauty of the gardens, as well as the history that surrounds them,” said Geri Holt. “We hope that by bringing history to this well-planned city, they'll be able to understand their future.”

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