11 Oct 2011 Dedication Sunday for Legacy Gardens

Legacy Gardens, Conway’s first public garden, will be dedicated 2 p.m. Sunday.

The public is invited to attend the ceremony and to tour the garden, located on a 1-plus acre site on the campus of the Natural Resource Center on Amity Road in East Conway. The garden was planned and built by Faulkner County Master Gardeners in cooperation with Conway Corporation.

According to Ouida Wright, current project coordinator, the garden is designed to showcase gardening techniques, water conservation irrigation applications and plants most suitable for low maintenance gardening in Central Arkansas.

There is no admission charge and visitors are encouraged to stop by at any time. “We especially want to encourage homeowners, landscapers and developers to use the gardens as a resource for water conservation ideas,” Wright said. “We envision Legacy Gardens as a destination for science students from kindergarten through college.”

The gardens consist of eight separate planting areas connected by wheelchair accessible walkways. Native stepping stone paths lead visitors through the beds themselves which include a formal rose garden, built and cared for by the Central Arkansas Rose Society, and several dedicated butterfly areas. More than 100 species were chosen, including many native to Arkansas, and nearly 1,000 individual plants have been planted during the two years it has taken to construct the project.

Betty Baxter , former science teacher and co-chairman of the butterfly gardens, reports that the gardens have been “alive with butterfly activity” since almost as soon as planting took place in early 2010. “The many fall-blooming plants we’ve used will keep all the Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, and skippers) here and active until the first freeze,” she said.

Wright and Baxter both advise visitors to bring a camera when visiting the gardens.

For more information, please call 501.329.8344.